CAMP USA Nylon Tricam

Christmas present for my 17 yo son. Used them for first time on his first lead climb. A pretty easy pitch with alot of horizontal cracks. He loved them and wished he would have had more because they were so easy to place and gave some good confidence. I followed and they are a little difficult to clean but well worth it.

You can probably find a place on every lead where the .5 fits and nothing else is secure. Bring it. If you want to cut down on the mid-sized pieces, the 1-2 sizes can pretty much fit wherever a similar sized cam could for a fraction of the weight and triple the fiddling. Might be worth it if you know that your climbing will have some decent stances for placements. Oh, and you never will need a flexible stem cam for pockets/horizontals again, these do that better.

Ode to a Pink Tricam

Oh Pink's the one I love to place
when I'm alone way up in space
on some exposed and airy face.

They sink where other gear won't go.
When all you've got is manky pro,
This tricam saves your butt from woe.

But it's often hard to get them out;
They make your second moan and shout
And wave his nut tool 'round about

But that's why you're the one on lead
Your problems are a different breed
As long as someone does the deed...

"Oh quit your whimpering," you rumble,
"And get it out or there'll be trouble"
"Get to work now, on the double!"

Although it sometimes takes a while,
They do come out with vim and guile,
(or chiselling and curses vile.)

Pink will do what all the rest.
Won't do when they're put to the test.
Oh pink tricams are just the best!

-- Charles "Pinky" Danforth

These are the best. Learn to place them - they fit where nothing else will, they're light (yeah, the big sizes are great too!), and as fusionboy points out - pink is the best. Especially when you're 50 ft. above your last piece on easy slab and the only hole in the rock is a little pocket thing (Whitehorse anyone?).

Way, way, way better than hexes for large pieces in the mountains, unique placements that are irreplaceable in the small sizes. Get some.

Just took a hard fall on a black tricam and that baby surely saved my life! Guess you could say I'm hooked!

Funny how Tricams seem to divide the world, east coast/west coast, traditional (or noob) from sprad, etc. Some folks swear they "never leave the ground" without their pinkie. Then again, some folks carry three belay devices with them at all times. Heck, there's at least one person out there with a pink Tricam tattoo. I've heard people talk about carrying doubles, even triples of the pink.

I do like Tricams. Sometimes they fit in places that cams and won't. Sometimes they allow me to carry fewer cams. On multi-pitch routes I might build the belay mostly with Tricams and let my partner have the similarly sized cams for the next pitch. And Tricams take the place of big nuts or cowbells. Oh, I mean hexes.

Yes, Tricams can fix. I lost one on the Original Route on Whitesides. I was way run out (on admittedly moderate ground) and getting tired. I found a solution pocket that would take a pink. I jammed it in, set it, and wrote it off. I knew my partner (mostly a boulderer) would never get it out, but having the protection was worth it.

I carry from 0.25 to 3.0, and in my regular circuit at my home crag, I will place them all multiple times in the course of a day.

Love these. Work great in a multitude of placements. Tri-cam placements give me a special pleasure. Great for adding a little something to your warm-up, keeping the multi-pitch rack light, or for building belays. Have taken a few falls on these and tough they can be hard to clean, they hold great.

I live near a sandstone bluff and these are the thing for the tapering cracks and strange pockets that occur in sandstone. There are many places where nothing else will work. They are tricky to set, especially when you are on the edge. Cleaning them isn't any harder than a nut, you just have to learn a slightly different approach.

I'm a big fan if tri-cams. They're simple, always ready to do their job, and can be placed in many different positions and features. They're also basically maintenance free. The downside is you really need to know how to use them and place them properly. You can't just take them up the wall and throw one in a crack like you can a spring loaded cam. I carry the smallest four as part of my basic trad rack (.5 pink, 1, 1.5, 2). Larger than that, buy them and use them if you have specific needs for large cams.

I bought my Tricams to help me get up and down some tall dry falls in the canyons here in southern Nevada.(we all don't hang in casino's) Bigger ones work better for me, but I too love the pink one!

I never leave home without these guys. The pink tri fits everywhere I need it to. I have yet to take a whipper on one of these guys, but just having it jam into place in active or passive mode puts my mind at ease. Perfect for those weird pockets that a cam or nut won't do.

... is how I feel about tri cams... esp the little ones. I rarely manage to place the larger ones but the new little white one and the old favourite pink have made me feel very comfy. Recommend practicing to get a feel for them but once you get it they are a very versatile, dependable part of any alpine rack.

Great for NC trad, i love them.

Never leave home with out it. Double up on your small sizes.

These are a staple of any great top-roping rack. And necessary for anyone climbing in horizontal crack country. I love them, and they fit a wide-variety of placements. And they're well-priced.

They are extremely versatile. I use them a lot when setting up top ropes, especially in cracks that run parallel to the edge of cliff.

Tri-cams should be a standard on anyones' rack. They work well in shallow horizontal cracks. Don't place too deep for your partner to retrieve, and make sure they know how to take them out. I've lost two red, in two separate incidences where my partners whaled on the pieces trying to get them out, when in actuality they were set. I don't use anything bigger than a 2.0.

TriCams are great for places that cams or nuts just wont fit, fairly light, the smallest sizes are most useful.

Most folks only have the first four or five, the new super small ones look freaky but beat the hell outa trying to stack RP's in a horizontal feature - which is probably where these little fellas excel! If $ and weight are an issue these are the best! Also, go down to the electric supply store and buy some heat shrink tube, cut it to fit about 2/3rds of the sling and heat it with great care. It makes 1 handed placement a snap and protects the sling very well!

Pink and red will do just fine. I'm not at the Gunks so these two make an excellent supplement to my rack for places like the Uintas where you find lots of horizontals. With the exception of some strange pockets, I think there are other solutions for most places that you can stick a tricam, but those other solutions are three times the price and 1/4 of the old school trad daddy factor. Learn to place tricams.

These Camp USA Tri Cams definitely have their place. They work great in horizontal placements and in many cases will fit in placements where passive pro or cams won't. The four smallest sizes are the most useful (pink, brown, red, and blue). Any placements bigger than those and you should be able to get something else in. The larger tri cams are heavy and you might as well buy Camalots.