All Passive Rack
I jerk test most pieces I place... sad, I know...I can swim up Andromida Strain on cams. How about that one? I can do it in about a minute.512OW wrote:Sweet. How about this. You said faster and easier. Name ANY trad route in the Red and I'll see if I can't climb it faster and easier, on all passive pro, than you can with all cams.TradMike wrote:Name a couple that can't. We will see.512OW wrote:
Not a chance. You obviously haven't led too terribly many trad routes in the Red...
Please, please.... name something.
As long as you stay within your limits and you're not doing some silly splitter crack you can get up just about anything with a nice double set of nuts and a ton of red and pink tricams.
Red and pink tri-cams are the best passive gear ever.
the most important thing I can think of to mention when going all passive is to make sure you have lots of long slings. Short slings + cams = walking, short slings + nuts = all your gear falling out.
Red and pink tri-cams are the best passive gear ever.
the most important thing I can think of to mention when going all passive is to make sure you have lots of long slings. Short slings + cams = walking, short slings + nuts = all your gear falling out.
tricams were a new fangled thingy when I was doing gear routes back when most of you were in elementary school. I remember they were like hex's in that you needed two hands to place them well. Is that still the case or is there some new beta on how to place them? Seems to me that if you intend to climb gear routes at a grade that requires you to keep at least one hand on the rock then you are going to have to use pro that can be easily placed with one hand....cams
"Climbing is the spice, not the meal." ~ Lurkist
rhunt - You don't need two hands to place a stopper, do you? Tricams are pretty easy to place with one hand and Hexes aren't really difficult either. They have the same seven degree taper that the old straight sided stoppers had. The biggest difference is that a hex fits three sizes of crack, not just two like stoppers. Here's the secret that nobody, apparently, ever let the younger climbers in on. Hexes are really just big stoppers. If I had no choice but to set up a hanging belay from one piece, I'd take a sinker hex over the world's best cam placement any day.
Not that I'm anti cam. Cams revolutionized climbing. They are easy to place and work well in places where passive gear sucks. The most important reason why you should carry a mixed rack in typical trad climbing environments is that the best cam placements are lousy hex or stopper placements, and the best hex and stopper placements are, at least, less than ideal, and often lousy, cam placements. A mixed rack is lighter, cheaper, offers the widest range of protection options, and is definitely more stylish. Kind of like hunting gamebirds with a side-by-side rather than a semi-auto.
For years I wondered why climbers of my generation simply added cams to their arsenal, whereas climbers that started after the advent of cams, pretty much, went with cams 100%, straight away.
Now I think I understand. It's the learning curve. At one time all climbers knew how to use passive gear. The best climbers were frickin expert with hexes and stoppers. Pretty much everything up through 5.11 went free on all passive gear at one time. Being expert with passive gear, it was easy for climbers to simply add cams, and up their game in terms of difficulty.
The new guys came along, often straight out of a gymn, climbing super hard, but didn't know how to use passive gear, and couldn't see any reason to learn, since there were now cams available in every conceivable size. In all fairness, it would be just about impossible to figure out how to use passive gear if you're trying jump on hard stuff right away. Most of us took years to learn the art of protection, as we worked our way up through the grades. Today I frequently see photos of climbers lugging huge, heavy racks of cams, in reduntant sizes ,up easily protected routes. Surely something has been lost.
I really enjoyed the protection game when I was climbing, and took some pride in the fact I generally carried a small, light, and varied collection of pieces, and could often turn X rated routes into Rs, and most Rs into PGs.
Not that I'm anti cam. Cams revolutionized climbing. They are easy to place and work well in places where passive gear sucks. The most important reason why you should carry a mixed rack in typical trad climbing environments is that the best cam placements are lousy hex or stopper placements, and the best hex and stopper placements are, at least, less than ideal, and often lousy, cam placements. A mixed rack is lighter, cheaper, offers the widest range of protection options, and is definitely more stylish. Kind of like hunting gamebirds with a side-by-side rather than a semi-auto.
For years I wondered why climbers of my generation simply added cams to their arsenal, whereas climbers that started after the advent of cams, pretty much, went with cams 100%, straight away.
Now I think I understand. It's the learning curve. At one time all climbers knew how to use passive gear. The best climbers were frickin expert with hexes and stoppers. Pretty much everything up through 5.11 went free on all passive gear at one time. Being expert with passive gear, it was easy for climbers to simply add cams, and up their game in terms of difficulty.
The new guys came along, often straight out of a gymn, climbing super hard, but didn't know how to use passive gear, and couldn't see any reason to learn, since there were now cams available in every conceivable size. In all fairness, it would be just about impossible to figure out how to use passive gear if you're trying jump on hard stuff right away. Most of us took years to learn the art of protection, as we worked our way up through the grades. Today I frequently see photos of climbers lugging huge, heavy racks of cams, in reduntant sizes ,up easily protected routes. Surely something has been lost.
I really enjoyed the protection game when I was climbing, and took some pride in the fact I generally carried a small, light, and varied collection of pieces, and could often turn X rated routes into Rs, and most Rs into PGs.
Just redid it the other weekend after not climbin it for years. Felt 5.4. I'm game if you are.TradMike wrote:I can swim up Andromida Strain on cams. How about that one? I can do it in about a minute.512OW wrote:Sweet. How about this. You said faster and easier. Name ANY trad route in the Red and I'll see if I can't climb it faster and easier, on all passive pro, than you can with all cams.TradMike wrote:
Name a couple that can't. We will see.
Please, please.... name something.
How about the Inhibitor after that?
"Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken."
-Tyler Durden
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-Tyler Durden
www.odubmusic.com
I'll be in Idaho most of August but will be back to the red sometime after that. Same number of placements would have to be the rule. We don't have to waist our time doing some silly race though. Something is telling me, this can't be good. I'm more of the slow and steady type to begin with. I think my brother and his wife used to climb with you a little back in the early 90s. Scott and Renee, do you remember them?