What to buy next
jsmo...@news.ucs.ubc.ca
pieces for my rack....right now I have a set of nuts, set of hexes and
two tricams (the pink and red sizes). I figure it's about time to break
down and buy some camming units. I'm figuring on three or four....probably
going to get camalots for the large sizes and tcu's for the small sizes....
does anybody have any suggestions for the sizes I should get....I mostly
climb at Squamish (B.C.), however am going to J-tree for the X-mas break
Also, are there any other brands of camming devices you would suggest?
Thank's in advance....
Jas
--
Jason Smolensky
Department of Geological Sciences
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
-------------
e-mail:
ja...@geology.ubc.ca
jsmo...@earth.geology.ubc.ca
Noah Freeman
: O.k. ... so I decided to buy myself a x-mas present consisting of more
: Thank's in advance....
: Jas
I would strongly suggest you look at wild country friends...
I know a hitherto anonymous editor for the gear portion of one of
the two mags who espouses camalots in his articles, but climbs with
friends....
Every professional climber I have climbed with out here in the
east uses friends...they last forever, are very reliable, and unlike
camalots, if something trivial breaks, the will be repaired by the
manufacturer
I climb with a 1.5 flex friend, and 2, 3, 4 solid friend (I would
probably trade the 4 soiid friend for the 1 flex friend)
Remeber if you get friends, to string the gunks chord (If yhou get
em, email me, Ill tell you how)
Camalots are nice units aswell, though...probably cant go wrong
Anthony R Bubb
>
>: Also, are there any other brands of camming devices you would suggest?
>
>I would strongly suggest you look at wild country friends...
YUCK! The larger flex stems are rough to place, and "squirm" on you.
If I'm going to use 2 hands to place a piece, it's NOT goin to be an SLCD.
> Every professional climber I have climbed with out here in the
>east uses friends...they last forever, are very reliable, and unlike
>camalots, if something trivial breaks, the will be repaired by the
>manufacturer
Maybe the pros have just had them longer than other brands have been around.
> I climb with a 1.5 flex friend, and 2, 3, 4 solid friend (I would
>probably trade the 4 soiid friend for the 1 flex friend)
But keep the larger solids if you want large cams (see above warning)
Large cams are better if tehy have 2 cables, IMHO, more stability.
This, of course, coming from a guy who protected above a 30' run-out
a few weeks ago by placing 2 home-made tube-chocks in a off-width
horizontal... But that doesn't meen I'm crazy ALL of the time.
> Remeber if you get friends, to string the gunks chord (If yhou get
>em, email me, Ill tell you how)
Amen.
-T.
Clyde Soles
<nfre...@scws39.harvard.edu> wrote:
> I know a hitherto anonymous editor for the gear portion of one of
> the two mags who espouses camalots in his articles, but climbs with
friends....
Must be the other guy. I walk my talk. ;-)
John Davis
> YUCK! The larger flex stems are rough to place, and "squirm" on you.
> If I'm going to use 2 hands to place a piece, it's NOT goin to be an SLCD.
what!? I have no problems placing the 2.5 Flexi single handed, and I've got
small wimpy hands.
Now lets see you try placing the biggest _camalot_ single handed - that's
what I call real squirm.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|o John Davis email:j.d...@chem.canterbury.ac.nz phone:+64-3-3642-421 o|
|o (Depart)mental Programmer,Chemistry Department o|
|o University of Canterbury,Christchurch, New Zealand o|
Anthony R Bubb
>Anthony R Bubb (bu...@tools.ecn.purdue.edu) wrote:
>
>> YUCK! The larger flex stems are rough to place, and "squirm" on you.
>> If I'm going to use 2 hands to place a piece, it's NOT goin to be an SLCD.
>
>what!? I have no problems placing the 2.5 Flexi single handed, and I've got
>small wimpy hands.
>
>Now lets see you try placing the biggest _camalot_ single handed - that's
>what I call real squirm.
Yeah, it squirms.
You're talking about hand size. I have small hands, which is irrrelivant,
so I don't know why either of us is taking about that at all.
You are comparing a 2.5 inch piece to a 5 inch piece, and saying that the
brand of the smaller piece is better because it's not hard to place.
EXCUSE ME! I said (see above) that the larger flex-friends are hard to place.
(As in #4) and squirm. Go place a #2 camalot, "Gee, it doesn't squirm,
Camalots must be stable!!!!"
I fail to follow your logic.
-T.
Al Black
>Noah Freeman) writes:
>>
>>: Also, are there any other brands of camming devices you would suggest?
>>: ja...@geology.ubc.ca
Give'm all a try.
>>I would strongly suggest you look at wild country friends...
>
>YUCK! The larger flex stems are rough to place, and "squirm" on you.
>If I'm going to use 2 hands to place a piece, it's NOT goin to be an SLCD.
Guess, milage varies here. For me, flexfriends are no better or worse
than other flexSLCDs for placement and I prefer the feel of their
caming trigger action. (Note, Bob I would've bought solid stems if I
lived out west.)
>But keep the larger solids if you want large cams (see above warning)
>Large cams are better if tehy have 2 cables, IMHO, more stability.
^^^^
-T, you misspelt tricam. Hope this helps! <(:-)
cheers
al
Jeff Maudlin
constitutes a "trivial break"?
Jeff Maudlin (je...@blkdiamd.com)
Black Diamond Equipment Ltd.
2084 East 3900 South, SLC, UT 84124 phone: 801-278-5552
DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise indicated, this correspondence is personal
opinion and NOT an official statement of Black Diamond Equipment Ltd.
Greg Opland
>
>> YUCK! The larger flex stems are rough to place, and "squirm" on you.
>> If I'm going to use 2 hands to place a piece, it's NOT goin to be an SLCD.
In article 2...@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz, da...@chem.canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis) writes:
>what!? I have no problems placing the 2.5 Flexi single handed, and I've got
>small wimpy hands.
>
>Now lets see you try placing the biggest _camalot_ single handed - that's
>what I call real squirm.
What? Why would you have a problem placing the biggest camelot
single handed? Unless it's the new design, of course, in which case
the head of the unit flops around because the cable won't support it.
Lets see you drink a 25 oz. Bass Ale and then ride a skateboard
around the inside of a bathtub!! Now that's a trick!!! :-)
---
\ Greg Opland
o/\_ Commercial Flight Systems Group
<\__,\ Honeywell, Phoenix, AZ
">. |
` .-| E-Mail : "opl...@saifr00.ateng.az.honeywell.com"
. \
. \
.-| "There's two kinds of climbers...smart ones, and
. | dead ones." - Don Whillans
Anthony R Bubb
>-T, you misspelt tricam. Hope this helps! <(:-)
Misspelled?
charles arthur
1) another rack of nuts. First.
2) SLCDs.. I have a load of solid Friends, but after doing a mix of
leading and seconding with them and with flexiFriends, concluded:
--they're great if you're leading
--they're hell if you're seconding. Reason: with a W.C. Friend,
you push with your thumb and pull with your fingers to place/remove
them. When you're tired on lead they're great because you whack
them in, clip, and then wiggle them perfect. When tired seconding,
it can be a fight to get them out; more so if you're seconding.
So I would recommend getting Quadcams, because you can
place/remove them with a finger and thumb. Also they're flexible,
meaning you don't have to worry about leverage on falls when you've
placed them horizontally; yet if they're vertical then they're
solid (because of the bracing bar between the swaged wire).
I have two racks of nuts, a couple of chocks and a half-set of
solid Friends. Next year I'm going to fill in the gaps in the
Friends with Quadcams and then sell the Friends until the whole set
is QCs.
But, unless there's something very subtle about JTree which I'm
not informed about, I would echo what a (more able) friend said,
and advise another set of nuts. Or even some RPs as well.
Besides, SLCDs are expensive compared to nuts.
John Davis
> You are comparing a 2.5 inch piece to a 5 inch piece, and saying that the
> brand of the smaller piece is better because it's not hard to place.
> EXCUSE ME!
as far as I'm aware the 2.5 is the biggest flexible friend made - above that
they're all fixed. Certainly that's what's available here, and another
poster in the UK mentioned that there, where they're _made_, the 3 and up
are all fixed (presumably due to ease of handling and construction).
So the million dollar question must be does the 3+ flexi friend exist, and if
so where on earth do you buy them?
> I said (see above) that the larger flex-friends are hard to place.
as far as _I'm_ aware 2.5 is what defines 'larger flex' - i.e. it's the
biggest available. Certainly this is true out here (english gear is very
popular out here, US stuff such as camalots is much dearer).
> (As in #4) and squirm. Go place a #2 camalot, "Gee, it doesn't squirm,
> Camalots must be stable!!!!"
ignoring your pitiable attempts at sarcasm, and presuming the
non-availability on flex-friends above 2.5 is some weird local anomally,
even then I fail to see how a single stemmed cam (flex friend) could be any
more awkward than a dual stem (camalot) in the 4 size - both would be
floppy, and hence hard to place.
Why do you think WC still make fixed friends?
> I fail to follow your logic.
this doesn't surprise me.
Matthew G. Skogmo
: What to buy next?
No doubt that they are more expensive! You can buy an entire set of
RP's or almost an entire set of BD stoppers for the price of one
medium SLCD. If you need bigger stuff -- hexcentrics? Cams are
great, but a large rack can (not always) be just as great.
Matt
LAWRENCE KAMPF
> O.k. ... so I decided to buy myself a x-mas present consisting of more
> pieces for my rack....right now I have a set of nuts, set of hexes and
> two tricams (the pink and red sizes). I figure it's about time to break
> down and buy some camming units. I'm figuring on three or four....probably
> going to get camalots for the large sizes and tcu's for the small sizes....
> does anybody have any suggestions for the sizes I should get....I mostly
> climb at Squamish (B.C.), however am going to J-tree for the X-mas break
> Also, are there any other brands of camming devices you would suggest?
Jason, life went on before springy thingies; try some small brass nuts
and a whole set plus an extra half set of tri-cams. I've found these to
be of more use on more kinds of rock all over the U.S.
Larry the nose