"NC trad rack"

What is a "North Carolina rack"???

Here we go.  Queue the boob links.

jer tipton wrote: What is a "North Carolina rack"???

Alloy nuts, brassies, cams from small to #3, tricams. Not really any different than anywhere else, however there will be personal preferences based on what crags people climb at and how they learned to climb. 

jer tipton wrote: What is a "North Carolina rack"???

10 pink tricams

Ball nuts

Full NC rack: set of nuts (brand of your preference), TCU in whichever brand's 3 or 4 smallest sizes, full set of cams with doubles in the mid range to suit your need/preference/ability to plug gear (probably could exclude altogether largest size or 2 from the rack), add in at least pink and red tricams (doubles of these if you feel really adept with them or just love hosing your second)

I think most people have lots of cams.

Things I actually used trad climbing in NC and typically ended up in the pack when heading out cragging:

Doubles BD 0.4 - #3
Single BD #4 on occasion
Doubles red and yellow C3
Single purple and green C3
Stoppers
8 to 12 draws depending on route and pitch length(s), alpine draws and/or quickdraw based on bolts or lack thereof

Occasionally micro-nuts of some kind
Very occasionally a wide piece (#5 or #6)
Perhaps an extra purple or green c3

That covered everything from Laurel Knob to Linville Gorge, slabs to splitters, runouts to roofs, test pieces to trade routes, 5.fun to 5.hard, committing to casual.

PS while I have owned, placed, cleaned, and un-fixed many tricams, I never *needed* them where something else wouldn't work.

Andy Thorsell wrote:

10 pink tricams

   Fucking perfect!

To the OP: Josh and Derek both made some pretty good NC racks. Also, regarding the larger cam sizes: while I always had 2 #3’s on my rack, one was dead weight most of the time. IMO, you can get by with doubles up to #2 for the VAST majority of routes and you’ll know about the few others by making good use of route notes from MP, guidebooks (not Kelley, as great as it is for routes), and friends. When I was building my rack back in NC, I found doing that can save you some $ and weight, and it’ll be obvious for the one route when everyone is like, “oh, and you’ll need the a #4 right before the...” That’s when I’d finally spring for it.  I loooooove me some tricams, but I’d probably have to admit that [especially with TCU’s in the rack] Derek might be right about it being possible for something else to fit in that amazingly perfect little pocket for “pinky.” It pains me to say it though. 

Reliance on the upper end aid sizes through 1" with acknowledgement for narrow placements and pods. Books like to reference tcu sizes. 

Derek DeBruin wrote:

PS while I have owned, placed, cleaned, and un-fixed many tricams, I never *needed* them where something else wouldn't work.

I will neither confirm nor deny similar experience.  However, can one really claim "NC rack" without, at the very least, a pink tricam? 

The reason tricams are so popular in N.C. is not because they are the only thing that fits. Its because they weigh and cost half as much as the alternative.

Joshua McDaniel wrote:

I will neither confirm nor deny similar experience.  However, can one really claim "NC rack" without, at the very least, a pink tricam? 

Does it count if my first lead fall was on a pink tricam?

Ryan Williams wrote: The reason tricams are so popular in N.C. is not because they are the only thing that fits. Its because they weigh and cost half as much as the alternative.

That may be true at least in part, but cams are also useful in more venues besides NC, places to which NC trad climbers may aspire. And while it is possible to master the art of tricams to enable one-handed placement, at the higher end of the grades, cams are easier to use. 

The only thing that could complement 10 pink tricams is 10 black totems. In all seriousness, a set of totem cams from black to red as "in between" sizes to black diamond cams is helpful to sew it up in friction slabs like Looking Glass where they excel in outward flaring cracks

The other reason tricams are sought after in NC is that they fit in between the BD cam sizes. So for a standard rack, I use (which will take you up most climbs in the US)

DMM 1-8 alloy nuts (BD4-9)
Green-yellow c3 (or yellow-blue x4’s)
Black-yellow totems
BD 0.4-2 doubles
BD 3, double as needed
BD 4, as needed
Tricams black through brown, sometimes blue

This essentially gives you triples in the sizes from fingers to thin hands with overlap between sizes so if your BD cam is a little tipped out, a tricam or totem will probably cover it. The reason I don’t carry bigger nuts is that the tricams in the sizes listed will cover the bigger nuts. No need to duplicate unless you know you’ll need it.

If you’re looking at making a rack and haven’t purchased anything yet, start with BD cam sizes 0.3-2 (or equivalent), rack of nuts, tricams, then adding 0.1-4. Don’t forget you’ll want a mix of 10 alpine draws and 1-2 double length runners. 

Derek DeBruin wrote:

That may be true at least in part, but cams are also useful in more venues besides NC, places to which NC trad climbers may aspire. And while it is possible to master the art of tricams to enable one-handed placement, at the higher end of the grades, cams are easier to use. 

Totally agree. I didn’t mean to suggest that tricams are a good replacement for your first set of cams. But they keep you from having to carry doubles or triples. 

I second what everyone said about not needing two #3s. Where tricams really excel is on easier climbs and for anchor building. Sure I’ve probably only seen a couple placements where tricams worked, and cams didn’t, but they’re so cheap and light I’d much rather carry them than a second set of cams and still be able to do most trad routes in NC for far less weight and $. They are a great way to have “doubles” in the fingers to small hand sizes. Also definitely get the black one - I have placed that piece probably 3x as much as I have placed the pink.

I can think of several climbs in N.C. with placements where only a tricam will work and you will be unhappy if you don’t have it. For that matter, I can think of several elsewhere, too. I once put up a climb on GA sandstone with the most bizarre looking  placement ever, think upside down and backwards behind an odd looking protrusion that fit neatly in the groove and was totally bomber. First gear 20’ off the deck. 99% of climbers wouldn’t even have looked at it for gear. In fact, Shannon later climbed the route thinking it was an FA and gave it an R/X until I showed it to him. And not just the small ones. I don’t carry anything larger than a 2 now, but a number of years ago (like ‘92, that sucks) I put up a route on the west face of fodderstack where a key piece was a green (4,5? I forget) tricam in a flared horizontal that would not have taken anything else.
You just have to understand them and have imagination. The thing to remember is they have that point, nothing else does. Use it. These days I also find myself using them a lot in the passive mode. A lot of my forays now are fast and light into the ‘Daks backcountry, stripping the rack to the bone. I don’t strip out the tricams, I strip out the large nuts that will go in places where a tricam will work just the same.
I also climbed a lot of routes in NC rarely if ever carrying doubles of anything. Mostly because I’m cheap, but also, it’s NC. You’re not going to get that much gear anyway.

Jim Corbett wrote: I also climbed a lot of routes in NC rarely if ever carrying doubles of anything. Mostly because I’m cheap, but also, it’s NC. You’re not going to get that much gear anyway.

I have done most of my trad leading at Moore's and Linville. Are you telling me that I'm going to need doubles of some pieces when I venture outside of NC!?

A lot of people seem to think “doubles in .3 to 3” is standard. I’m not sure when that happened. I’m only 35 and it makes me feel old.

I’ll also add, .3-.5 are not all that useful in N.C. They’re just too wide. There are so many better options available in those sizes. Totems, Aliens, Mastercams, the new Dragonflys from DMM. Add a set of tri-cams to any of those and you’re set in finger sized gear.