Anyone trad climb without cams?
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I often go trad with one set of Tricams. |
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No |
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why would i? aliens are pretty useful and light to leave behind. i take take 3 (blue, geeen, yellow...maybe black) of them to be flexible. |
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Once did the Nose on stoppers and hexes - no pins, no cams (didn't exist). |
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Hey Bernard, rumor has it that you've got an updated book in the works...any truth to that or will you wait to break even on the St. Vrain book? |
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I like the jingle-jangle sound of a full rack of hexes on the belt. |
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I like to go only nuts and tri cams on occasion, but have to admit I've never placed a hex. Maybe I've read too many annoying comments about them but I just take the cams. I never bought any, and haven't really found a spot where I couldn't get a piece when I needed it with my current rack. |
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Tradster wrote:Another thought on passive pro. If I'm leading a long pitch, I usually will deliberately use my passive gear first, because that way when I reach the belay, I will have more cams left to rig the belay with, plus you are 'saving' the cams for up higher when you may be a bit tired or perhaps passive placements have vanished. Just a thought.wait, wait, wait....you save the cams for the belay? That doesn't make too much sense to me. i.e. I try to minimize the use of cams in an anchor so that the cams are available to lead the next pitch. Nothing worse than seconding a pitch and getting to the anchor that you partner has set up using hand sized pieces only to look up at the handcrack that I have to lead next. I use passive pro whenever possible on lead because I am a big baby and solid nut placements calm my brain down, as in, "there, that will have to shear the F off before it comes out...whew!!" |
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IMHO nothing feels better than a bomber hex placement. Very intrinsically satisfying. |
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As my "name" indicates , I've been around the hill a few times. I started climbing in '69 and banged a few pins in, back in the day. During the brief hiatus I took when my kids were born, cam's came out; and when I got back into it I racked up with cams and stoppers. I still carry a small handful of hexs as bail gear on Alpine routes. |
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Been there, done that, whatever it is. |
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Scott McMahon wrote:Hey Bernard, rumor has it that you've got an updated book in the works...any truth to that or will you wait to break even on the St. Vrain book? And as far as the bolting goes, ANY dealings I've had with BG he has gone 1000% farther than necessary to do the right thing and step up to the line. Maybe there's disagreements on the bolting in SSV, but he won't hide behind anything. If you choose not to buy his book you're missing out. Thanks for all the intense work you've done w/ your guides. SSV and the High Peaks/Crag books have been a huge resource. Gracias!Hi Scott - I'm not working on any guidebook at the moment. If the rumor mill says I'm writing, my only guess as to its origin is that I've been working on a calculus text book (and attendant supplements) for the last several years. We (my co-authors and I) are almost finished with that monster project, so there's a chance I'll turn to writing or updating another guide in my down time. I certainly have no immediate plans to do so (though I've always thought a sport climbing guide to the Estes Park area would be welcomed in the community). I doubt the success/failure of my St Vrain book will have much to do with whether I write another guide; as mentioned earlier, it's the creative process that is most attractive to me. Of course I enjoy making a little money, but it's not a big disappointment if I don't. Thanks for your positive comments; it's nice to hear you've made good use of my books. |
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Hexes WERE the first cams, along with Forrest Titons and probably Lowe tri-cams. Still seems like a true trad' route to use only stoppers and hexcentrics. Anyone ever use the old original 'drilled' size 7, 8,9, hexcentrics?? Before they made them from a lighter, thinner stronger aluminum alloy, they had holes drilled through out the surfaces to lighten the gear load. Scary stuff! |
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Years worth of bail gear. |
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WoodchuckATC wrote: |
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J. Albers wrote: wait, wait, wait....you save the cams for the belay? That doesn't make too much sense to me. i.e. I try to minimize the use of cams in an anchor so that the cams are available to lead the next pitch. Nothing worse than seconding a pitch and getting to the anchor that you partner has set up using hand sized pieces only to look up at the handcrack that I have to lead next. I use passive pro whenever possible on lead because I am a big baby and solid nut placements calm my brain down, as in, "there, that will have to shear the F off before it comes out...whew!!"I like the flexibility of having cams for the belay, especially if the cracks are weirdly shaped and so I have a greater choice to build a bomber belay; or if I have never done the climb before and have no clue about what the belay anchor might need. However, if I can use a passive piece at the belay, well that's even better. Also, in my earlier post I said a bomber stopper placement is my favorite piece, so I do prefer to use passive gear when i can. |
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I really do believe in the thought of less moving parts results in less problems, any mechanic, engineer, or weekend garage rat should agree on this. I pretty much live my life with a strong belief in simplicity. Such beliefs in my opinion cut down on the headaches. This goes hand in hand with my trad climbing. I look for passive first, unless of course I see that parallel sided crack; I'll throw in a cam then. Then again if I hear of someone using only passive just to prove something, kind of like the guy with the huge diesel truck that pulls up next to you at the red light, I may think you're an idiot. Just my thoughts. |
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I started with all passive pro and added friends when they came along |
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Sometimes I'll climb a route with only cams.... |