Sandbagging appreciation thread

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mcreel

climber

Barcelona

Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 19, 2018 - 12:37am PT

Sandbagging is a time honored practice in climbing, and I suspect that we've all enjoyed it, either as practitioners or unwitting fall-persons. One of the great things about sandbagging is that you can do it even without going to the crag, you can do it while sitting down and having a beer! You can sandbag raw newbies, without much effort, or, for extra points, you can try to sandbag the resident hard-persons or guidebook authors. There are a lot of possibilities: recommending routes with dynos to short people, recommending routes with thin cruxes to ham handed off-width climbers, delicate slab routes to Chris Sharma, etc., etc.

I recall getting convinced to swing leads on the DNB when I was just getting reasonably solid on 5.9, and I got sandbagged on every climb I ever did at Seneca Rocks! I got tricked, by an older climber and my ego, into doing high boulders at Whipp's Ledges near Cleveland. Some French guy made fun of me at Snell's field after sending me up a greasy problem, having described it as an easy classic. These are all part of the happy memories from a long climbing career.

I have probably been guilty of giving a false sense of solidity when describing some climbs I managed to sketch my way up, and people (weak members of the younger generations) have sometimes complained about ratings given to FAs. I'm not really much of a sandbagger, myself, but I can definitely appreciate the art.

mrgooseskin

Trad climber

Stockholm, Sweden

Apr 19, 2018 - 01:42am PT

Sandbagging is great, always keeps you on your toes. Old school 5.8 and the dreaded "5.9+" ratings are good ways to really beat down your ego.

One hilarious sandbag from a second ascent in the desert a few years ago, our brief, second-hand topo described an "easy 5th class chimney" summit pitch, we found it to be a gnarly 5.10 squeeze:

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Apr 19, 2018 - 04:12am PT

I learned early on to be wary of Kor 5.9s...

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Apr 19, 2018 - 08:02am PT

I've done my fair share of sandbagging and I have been the unwitting recipient of a sanbag or two. Time moves on and a few years ago as my climbing career approached a half century I experienced the ultimate sandbag...I sandbagged myself.
In the 70’s I did the first free ascent of the Book of Job and blithely rated it 10 b. Forty years later I arrived at the top to hear this comment from my fully knackered partner...”phew, all that work and we only get 5.10 credit!

RURP_Belay

Big Wall climber

Bitter end of a bad anchor

Apr 19, 2018 - 08:57am PT

I tried to find the Dirtineye thread on "The Fine Art of Sandbagging the Second", but to no avail.

So classic! Anyone know where it is?

NutAgain!

Trad climber

South Pasadena, CA

Apr 19, 2018 - 10:39am PT

Screwing the Second?
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/201089/The-fine-art-of-screwing-the-second

Most times I've been sandbagged, I think it's been a form of misplaced respect, where some good climber thinks I can climb at their level. Then there's the short-term sandbag when you get up something on lead and you play it off like no big deal, and you smile to yourself while your partner reaches the spot and looks perplexed or starts making all manner of grunting and plosive sounds.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Apr 19, 2018 - 11:13am PT

When the weather was too crappy to climb elsewhere in Leavenworth we would climb at
Peshastin in mountain boots and double boots. Coulda filled some sand bags sometimes
from all the scraping!

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Apr 19, 2018 - 11:20am PT

.I sandbagged myself...

Nothing worse.

mynameismud

climber

backseat

Apr 19, 2018 - 02:16pm PT

Finally a decent thread.

tradmanclimbs

Ice climber

Pomfert VT

Apr 19, 2018 - 02:23pm PT

I bouldered a 40ft finger crack BINTD and called it 5.9. I remember a move down low that I could not reverse and a fairly commiting finish to a desperate tree hug. About 6 or 7 years ago Isa and I tried to lead the thing and neither one of us could get it clean... Must have been old school 9+..

Off White

climber

Tenino, WA

Apr 19, 2018 - 02:36pm PT

A number of years back on cascadeclimbers.com a boulderer declared in some thread that you'd never get him to walk 2 miles for a boulder. I took that as a challenge, and knowing that he primarily lurked on a different bouldering website I enlisted Bob Van Belle's help to work a conversation on that site about boulders we had "found" back in the day on the northwest side of Tiger Mountain near Seattle which was this particular boulderer's home territory. We conducted a bit of a shadow play as if we hadn't seen each other in years and tried to remember exactly where these boulders were, picking a location that was as remote from the trailhead as possible. That poor guy walked a lot more than 2 miles on trail and cross-country through dank mossy woods over the course of three weekends looking for the hidden stash of glory. Once the long con was finally revealed I think he was a lot less amused than BVB and I were.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Apr 19, 2018 - 02:39pm PT

Noice! Saw some quality moss on Cougar Mt last week. Since it’s a park it would be hard to con someone into transporting an industrial power washer up there. Plenty of water for it though.

G_Gnome

Trad climber

Cali

Apr 19, 2018 - 03:22pm PT

I've had it go the other way only once. I was out in Joshua Tree just sitting around. It was the first time I had been there in a couple years and I think my fingers were already getting thin. I'm enjoying the time when my friend Too Strong walks up and start harassing my to do a climb with him. He says its only 10d and I should walk it. I whine a bit about not having climbed any slab in a while but eventually get on the route. I do most of the route but take one fall on the crux before finishing it. When I get back to the ground all my friends are giving me a hard time about falling on only a 5.10 and that I should probably hire a group like 'Reputation Defenders' to regain my glory. Soon enough though a couple hard looking young men walk up and get on the route we just did. None of them could touch it and both ended up aiding thru the crux. So I guess I got that wish and the reputation defenders showed up in the nick of time. Oh and that route... not 5.10. But then I never did trust Too Strong to not be a sand bagger.

Mark Force

Trad climber

Ashland, Oregon

Apr 19, 2018 - 07:28pm PT

Mr. Donini, Thanks for The Book of Job! Great route, old schoool with an intimidating ambiance - kinda like British sea cliffs, except the rock is better.

MrGooseSkin, That chimney looks effin' burly!

climber

Apr 19, 2018 - 09:06pm PT

Sandbag of the Century

Pennsylenvy

Gym climber

A dingy corner in your refrigerator

Apr 19, 2018 - 09:18pm PT

Whenever I asked my friend Doug how hard his new first ascent was he got this weird look in his eye, and this sort of smirky look on his face. The answer was always a series of grumblings at first followed by the always it's not tooo bad ................

Oh that look in his eye !

mcreel

climber

Barcelona

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 19, 2018 - 11:16pm PT

I did a little searching on what the internet has to say about sandbagging, which is a fair amount. From Cedar Wright:

One of the core benefits of sandbagging is that it helps us realize our true potential. Some of my best onsights have happened thanks to a sandbag. A quality sandbag can trick you into realizing that your capabilities are far beyond your expectations. We all need to get sandbagged now and again to grow and become better climbers. That’s why I urge you to sandbag your friends, like Rob Pizem did to us. It’s the right thing to do.

I suppose another game could be the reverse sandbag: sending someone off to do an overprotected, overgraded route that bakes in the sun and has a long line at the base. Guidebook authors who are liberal with stars are often guilty of this one, I think.