Using the Edelrid Ohm for trad?

rgoldwrote:

Yes, I meant a cam placed and oriented for an upward load.  In smooth parallel-sided splitters, cams may rotate and still hold, but in more featured rock or if the placements are shallow I have my doubts. And I was speaking of the belay anchor not the Ohm.

I've never used an Ohm so have no idea how well or badly they'd work for trad.

Yes I thought you were talking about the belay anchor. From that perspective we should almost always have at least a 3 piece anchor then? Two pieces downward and one upward? Like you said even if you aren't doing a fixed point belay you can get pulled upward enough to pull the anchor that way too.

It feels a little paranoid but then when I climb multipitch trad my partners rarely fall so it leaves me pretty uncertain as to what might happen

I think the real question is why you’d feel like you needed one. In my experience, the ohm needs about a 50# weight difference to really make a difference. They are great for working vertical and overhung sport routes. Great for big whips or missing clips. I have partners that wouldn’t belay me on a route if I’m planning to whip but we shift gears for multipitch and never use one. Multipitch is about avoiding phaffery. The ohm is the definition of phaff. It’s a sportwank piece.

I think for projecting a try hard single pitch trad line it might make sense but I’ve never tried. I feel like you’re better off without even then. 

Jasonwrote:

Yes I thought you were talking about the belay anchor. From that perspective we should almost always have at least a 3 piece anchor then? Two pieces downward and one upward? Like you said even if you aren't doing a fixed point belay you can get pulled upward enough to pull the anchor that way too.

It feels a little paranoid but then when I climb multipitch trad my partners rarely fall so it leaves me pretty uncertain as to what might happen

I think definitely still worth considering. Also consider that if you don't think intentionally about upward pull, typically the lowest piece in the anchor/shortest anchor leg is the upward pull component by default.

Jasonwrote:

Two pieces downward and one upward? 

Every anchor scenario is different but I usually prefer 3 pieces to protect me from decking or extreme falls. In addition, if you need protection from upward pull, that’s another situational decision of 1, 2, or maybe even 3 additional pieces for that direction. 

Andrew Ricewrote:

Sure, if you want to test that every single pitch on every single climb. Seems sub-optimal to me. 

I meant as a way of seeing if it in general works on a long draw, as comnented. If if fails, you are no worse off than not having one 

David Coleywrote:

I meant as a way of seeing if it in general works on a long draw, as comnented. If if fails, you are no worse off than not having one 

understood. Thing is, it WILL work on a long draw. Sometimes. It's a bit finicky about the angles involved, though, and every utilization would be subject to the same uncertainty. I'd find a better solution. I'm not making fun of your question. I've run though this, too, when my daughter was interested in being by trad partner but I outweighed her by about 70 lbs. We tried it in a sport setting with long draws. Just as a test. At best, 50%-50% odds of it properly engaging. And that was on an overhanging route, which it's designed for. I think on a lower angle trad route the odds would be a lot less of it being any help.