Yosemite Sandbags!

What do you think are some of the classic Yosemite sandbags? I've actually found the valley to have mostly spot on to sometimes easy grades ... except when they aren't! Obviously we each have our own talents, some days are harder than others, and run out slab and O/W may be hard for some, easy for others. 

Here are some that stick out as humbling for the grade, all of which I really enjoyed except for Ahab and Generator crack as I lack the skills to do anything but remove skin and grunt a lot. 

• North Dome South Face 5.8+++++ (I may have been high from Manzanita pollen and somehow the chimney parts were actually fair, but the rest was absolutely brutal for the grade)
• Ahab 10b +++++ (if you can climb this then you have mastered the 10b)
• Higher Cathedral Rock NE Buttress 5.9+++++ (really good but pretty much the upper half is so hard it's actually kind of funny. I'd do it again)
• Generator Crack 10c +++++ (couldn't even on TR)
• Conductor Crack 10d +++++ (awkward version of sheri's crack .... 10d if you average the start and the finish together. Needs a few more goes)
• Church Bowel Tree 10a/b ++++ (isometric grease job start to a really hard and really stupidly contrived anchor move...still awesome and got the onsite somehow)
• Energizer 11b++++ (awesome, glad to have all my draws at the end of the day, but if this were a typical sport climb, the crags would be empty)

I'm sure some will totally disagree, probably being really good at wide cracks helps a ton. Haven't done a whole lot so I'm sure there's more. Let's hear 'em! And let's keep it positive if you disagree (unless you've got a sick burn then, please).

+1 on North Dome South Face - We planned on simul'ing it,... that plan quickly changed. Even that final slab bit is in your face. 

Braille Book (5.8+[+++])

First pitch of Bircheff-Williams felt wicked hard for 11b.

The last move on Nutcracker .

I've said this before and I'll say it again - Book of Job. Thought we'd have a casual afternoon on *only* a 5 pitch 10b, started up around 11am... Ended up descending in the dark with our phones taped to our heads for light!

Jim Donini, one of the FFA party, even said he managed to sandbag HIMSELF on this one: "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!"

Haven't done Ahab since I knew I that flailing was an absolute certainty.  Robbins used to solo this in tennis shoes.  I agree that NEB of HCR is stout for its rating, though still true to a pretty broad notion of what Valley 5.9 is.  Just goes to show that generation of climbers--Pratt, Robbins, Sacherer, etc.--were stout climbers given the tools available to them.  

I agree about Energizer.  Being here in So Cal, I kind of grew up slab climbing, and I thought it was pretty sketchy getting to the first bolt.  

And finally, the DNB: went to climb this, and my friend (a strong face climber) got spanked on the first pitch. He was so pissed off he refused climb the rest of the day. 

The Yawn - After leading the "Yawn" offwidth pitch I remember being pretty tired on that "glorious 5.7 hands crack" and just thinking, whew this is hard for the grade. Or maybe I was just tired.

BFKwrote:

+1 on North Dome South Face - We planned on simul'ing it,... that plan quickly changed. Even that final slab bit is in your face. 

I think the guidebooks are wrong on that route, there's no way hell the final slab is 4th class unless you head waaaay left, going where the book shows felt like solid 5.9/10aX to my partner who got the TR after I bailed out left and then cut back. I've never pulled so hard on such low angled terrain (5.6) on the lower cracks!

Good to know on Book of Job, that's hilarious Donnini sandbaged himself. I've been calling those climbs "Greypoints" where apparently you've done them but have no recollection. I think DNB is one of those "classics"  i'll never get on. I'll have to read the instructions on Generator crack, but I have the backside totally down which, IMO, is still technically the same crack.

Conductor crack....what even is that thing...it's like weird pump to hell fingers, slightly overhanging with no feet...if that's 10d, short circuit is 10b, and Serenity Crack is 5.9.

As for cragging I set my standards at Five and Dime and Serenity that being said Manana is no way 10d more like 11a unless you have green sized camalot hands the same goes for The Thief (that start is burl-ly).

Nutcracker is a funny one too...lots of people say that crux move is just a V0 boulder move....last time I checked V0 equates to 5.10 a/b climbing???

Done DNB twice.  The first pitch is sick sick sick -- for 5.7.  Knackered me hard.  What a great adventure route, tho.

-Definitely agree that Conductor Crack is some fuckery.
- Another vote for Higher Spire being a beating.
-Also agree that Energizer is brutal. The arete slapping up high is so stressful. I skipped a bolt and gunned it for the chains. Took a monster lob, almost onto the dead tree branch.
- I always felt that Sachar Cracker was atleast AS HARD as Five and Dime. 

The direct variation on Higher Spire felt pretty tough for 5.9 to me, I was unexpectedly gripped at the funky mantel finish!  

I think Generator Crack is a crazy sandbag and not just a wide crack.  It felt harder than God of Thunder (11c OW roof climb) at Lover's Leap to me.

Sphinxter felt way harder than 5.9 to me, but I'm not great at #6 cracks and it was like 95 degrees and in the sun, which didn't help.

The Narrows pitch on the Steck-Salathe felt a lot harder than 5.9 to me, but that one might just be because I suck at bombay squeeze chimneys.

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On the flip side, here are some commonly cited "sandbags" that I felt were fairly graded:

-Reed's Direct (10a, yes I'm including the wide finish to p2 and wide p3 straight off the belay)

-Braille Book (8+)

-Manana (10d)

And as a Lover's Leap bonus, Traveler Buttress (9)

Ahab is maybe only slightly sandbagged, and only because of the polish. Standard awkward width climbing.
Plumb Line is a bit sandbagged. The book says 5.8, 5.10d, 5.10a, 5.8. I graded it 5.8, 5.10d sustained, 5.10b/c, 5.10b squeeze with a .10+exit.

Pieces of Eight (.10cR); Hard 5.11 the whole way with 20 to 30ft runs between gear. 

Bircheff Williams first pitch and third pitch. P1-.11d, P3-.12b.

Space Babble (.11a) Easily 5.12 and run out.

Crack of Doom (.10a) First pitch is .10b/c. Then it’s miles of unprotected .10b chimney with a brutal squeeze near the top.

Basket Case(.11b) book says 5.8, 5.9, 5.8, 5.9, 5.11b, 5.10a, 5.8. I’m no newb to fist cracks, offwidths, awkward widths and chimneys but my recollection puts the pitch grades as; 5.8, 5.10 fist/sustained, 5.9, 5.10c off hands, .11b sustained, .11c overhanging hands, .10a squeeze. A bit sandbagged.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (.11a) Easily .11c

Yosemite Point Buttress!

Lost Arrow Chimney (5.10a) Like Steck-Salathe, only hard.

Aid Route (.11b) on Swan Slab. I jump on it about every 5 years and regret it every time.

Burden of Dreams (Burden of Nightmares and tendinitis) 

Ribbon Candy (.11c) Like trying to keep up with Scott Cosgrove... on a good day..!!!

Gold rush (5.11b) That bitchin lookin crack on the left side of the road after passing Reeds heading out of the valley. Tape, lots of tape! 

Rocky Horror Show (.12a) Rocky “HORROR” Show.

Book ‘em Dano (.10d) Dan-O routes, grain of salt... check! 

Orangutan Arch (.11b) The longest short route of your life!

Everything on Arch Rock. 

Mark Straubwrote:

On the flip side, here are some commonly cited "sandbags" that I felt were fairly graded:

-Reed's Direct (10a, yes I'm including the wide finish to p2 and wide p3 straight off the belay)

-Braille Book (8+)

-Manana (10d)

And as a Lover's Leap bonus, Traveler Buttress (9)

Agreed, but again some routes just jive with some more than others. I actually enjoyed the funk 5.9 Robbin pitch but was climbing a lot at the time.

I felt solid on Yosemite 5.10 and then got on Mark of Art (to the right of Sacherer Cracker). Jesus christ... 

I only flailed on tr but Crimson Cringe seemed stout.

And Bachar Cracker is V6.

Nick Cwrote:

And Bachar Cracker is V6.

I can't climb V6 in the Valley but I got Bachar Cracker.  It felt pretty comparable to the crux of Separate Reality to me.  

Mark Straubwrote:

I can't climb V6 in the Valley but I got Bachar Cracker.  It felt pretty comparable to the crux of Separate Reality to me.  

Yeah maybe V5. It seems like most of the valley boulders are a grade harder than average

Surprised to see no one has brought up East Buttress of Lower Cathedral Rock. 

My buddy/mentor actually took me on that thing for my second climb in Yosemite back in 2010,... I got slaughtered on pitch 5 (mind you I had zero OW/dihedral skills at the time). We bailed after I nearly threw up when finally getting to the top of that pitch. Maybe not too sandbagged if you have the style wired, I'd like to do it again but seems prone to rock fall these days. John Bachar also had some pretty interesting things to say about it: "One of the toughest on sight free solos I've ever done. Fissure Beck and the 10c dihedral were drawer filling. Great route overall with lots of clean climbing." link

...that man was certainly one-of-a-kind!

BFKwrote:

Surprised to see no one has brought up East Buttress of Lower Cathedral Rock. 

My buddy/mentor actually took me on that thing for my second climb in Yosemite back in 2010,... I got slaughtered on pitch 5 (mind you I had zero OW/dihedral skills at the time). We bailed after I nearly threw up when finally getting to the top of that pitch. Maybe not too sandbagged if you have the style wired, I'd like to do it again but seems prone to rock fall these days. John Bachar also had some pretty interesting things to say about it: "One of the toughest on sight free solos I've ever done. Fissure Beck and the 10c dihedral were drawer filling. Great route overall with lots of clean climbing." link

...that man was certainly one-of-a-kind!

I also thought that pitch on the EB of Lower was brutal. 

The second pitch of The Great Escape (11c) is a huge sandbag. Drive by Shooting at the same crag is solid consensus 12a and is easier. 

Not sure about Bachar Cracker being V6...does that make Blue Suede Shoes at least V8? Bachar Cracker was my first V4 ever, and I find it easier than any V4 or V5 I've tried in the Buttermilks. Maybe it's a hand size thing, but I have pretty average dude hands. I have once seen a V14 boulderer try to go feet first on it :D

Reeds felt hard for 5.9,and I’m talking about the first two pitches. I guess the moves are not harder than 5.9 but linked together. Strenuous.