The World’s 13 Most-Sandbagged Climbing Areas, Ranked
As long as there’s been climbing, there’s been sandbagging. No, we don’t literally hit one another over the head with bags of sand to then rob each other like bandits. But we climbers do delight in giving routes implausibly stiff ratings or downplaying their seriousness. Sandbagging may result from an area being “old school,” with many routes graded when 5.9 or 5.10 topped the scale. Or it may simply be because the first ascensionist wanted to see their enemies fail.
Whatever the reason, knowing that a certain area is sandbagged ahead of time can help you prepare. You might choose routes below your limit, set out with a bigger rack, or bring some extra crashpads for a safer landing zone. Some might choose to avoid these areas altogether. And for the sandbagged sport climbing areas below, you won’t want to forget your stick clip. For the traveling rock climber, here are the 14 most-sandbagged areas around the world, ranked from least to most “hard for the grade.”
Eldorado Canyon, Colorado (trad)
Eldorado near Boulder is a storied traditional area, with many routes first freed or established back when 5.10 was the top end of the grading spectrum—thus its slew of stiff 5.9+ routes (e.g., the slimy, sure-feels-like-5.10 dihedral of The Green Spur). Extra spice comes in the form of long runouts, slick sandstone, manky pins, thin pro, weird moves on diagonalling holds, and horizontal bands of shattered purple choss criss-crossing the walls.
Céüse, France (sport)
Céüse may arguably offer the world’s best sport climbing, but it’s also unforgiving. The hike is a steep hour uphill, the upper half of the butte is treeless and sunbaked, and weather moves in quickly. (In 2022, a 23-year-old woman was struck unconscious by lightning while sitting below the route Bibendum.) What’s more, the routes don’t have “holiday grades”—in fact, they’re quite stiff—and the climbing is engagé: The spaced-out bolts usually, and cruelly, arrive right after the thin-pocket cruxes.
Dolomites, Italy (trad)
After Colorado climber Chris Weidner put down the classic West Face of Cima Grande—a V+ (5.7/5.8) established in 1913—he said it felt more like mid-5.10. From the ground, the crux Dulfer Corner looked so intimidating to Weidner and his climbing partner that both were certain they were below the wrong route. Many factors are at play in Dolomites’ sandbagging, notably the area’s venerable history, the pumpy, overhanging rock, the museum-relic fixed pitons, the fast-moving weather, and the friable limestone. In fact, the rock is so ill-reputed that when Alex Huber free-soloed the 500-meter Hasse-Brandler Direttissima (5.12a) on Cima Grande in 2002, he wore a helmet.
The Needles, South Dakota (trad/sport)
The fact that the Needles favors a ground-up ethic with bolting at stances or hanging on hooks comes through loud and clear in the climbing. Epitomizing this style: the 5.10 and 5.11 R/X climbs on the slender spires of the Ten Pins, and the thin, sporty face of Vertigo (5.11+ PG-13) in the Outlets. But the grades here are also feisty, exacerbated by the fact that the myriad quartz, feldspar, mica, and other crystals studding the granite are prone to snapping. This is quite alarming when you’re runout 20 leg-quaking feet. (Note: The Needles in California are also sandbagged, but at least the stone is perfect and there’s better protection—usually.)
Yosemite National Park, California (trad, bouldering, sport, multipitch, big walls)
It feels odd to list the area—along with Tahquitz/Suicide—where the Yosemite Decimal System was literally created as “sandbagged.” But most would agree that the Valley is stiff, perhaps because so many benchmarks are found here, from early 5.10s like the offwidth Ahab, to relatively newer-school testpieces like Beth Rodden’s 5.14c crack Meltdown. The splitters stretch forever, and the slabs come glacier-polished and runout. Moreover, an unwritten bouldering code meant that, for years, no FA could be harder than V12—a spell only recently broken with FAs like Carlo Traversi’s V16 The Dark Side.
Castle Hill/Flock Hill, New Zealand (bouldering)
The wind- and water-weathered limestone blocks on New Zealand’s South Island are an adventure-boulderer’s paradise, with a raw feel and limited documentation (try castelhillbasin.co.nz). For ages, the problems went ungraded. Now, even with V-grades, the ratings are stout. Quick-to-polish rock, spaced-out pockets, body-position-dependent sloping dishes, and dire, rounded-mantel topouts make the sandbagging even more dire.
Rifle Mountain Park, Colorado (sport)
Notoriously, Rifle has river-polished limestone glossed by three decades of traffic (“Grab the white spots; step on the black spots”). This is the land of unrelenting steeps and blocky, roofy, hard-to-read rock with few downpulling holds. But Rifle also succumbs to trickery, especially kneebars and kneescums—beta the locals will “crag-splain” from the road. According to these suspect locals, that impossible-feeling 5.12b is actually just a casual stroll, with 14 secret no-hands rests you somehow missed on your first go.
Shawagunks, New York (trad)
Climbers have been putting up routes in the ‘Gunks for a looong time, since the 1930s/1940s, starting with the climbing icons Fritz Weissner and Hans Kraus picking the plums, like High Exposure. The Gunks’ near-century of history has thus led to grade compression and especially heinous “plus” grades (5.8+, 5.9+, 5.10+). And it’s heckin’ pumpy, even on the moderates. The gently overhanging to massively roofy quartzite’s horizontal bedding forces you to hang off your arms to pro up the horizontal cracks.
Horse Pens 40, Alabama (bouldering)
HP 40 is known both for its slopers and stout ratings, epitomized by the slope-rassle Bumboy (V3). Also beware stiff problems like the aesthetic Skywalker (V8) and the high, committing arête of Mortal Kombat (V4). Michael Rosato, a onetime local who made the brilliant HP 40 homage EGODEATH, says the sandbagging is threefold in origin:
- The grooved, weathered sandstone dictates precise, hyper-positional movement.
- Inspired by the Fontainebleau ethic, Adam Henry, a driving force behind HP 40 purportedly only suggested a grade for his first ascents once he and/or other fellow early developers had repeated the climbs numerous times to optimize the beta.
- The ratings heavily factor in elusive “optimal conditions” in the warm, rainy South.
And there you have it.
Joshua Tree National Park, California (sport, trad, and bouldering)
At least J-Tree’s sandbagging is equal opportunity. The sport routes are stout (half the crimps fell off Desert Shield, originally given 5.13a, yet one guidebook still called it “5.12d”). The trad climbing is stressful, committing, and baggy (see the holdless, RP-protected stemming on the 5.11b Coarse and Buggy). And the bouldering will crush your soul (try the tips-eating patina crimps on the “V5” JBMFP, or the slappy crimps/seams of the John Bachar “V7” Pumping Monzonite).
Rochers de Freyr, Belgium (sport)
This diverse and storied limestone crag—its first documented FA was in 1930—with 700-plus routes on the River Meuse is Belgium’s crown jewel. It’s also the early proving grounds for the country’s superstars like Nico Favresse and Séan Villanueva-O’Driscoll. But Freyr is also well known for runouts, mirror-slick moderates, cryptic beta, and cranky grades. Famously, the “6c” (5.11b) Beau Gorges offered a bounty of a bottle of Champagne for anyone who could onsight—a prize not even Favresse was able to claim.
Index Town Walls, Washington (trad and sport)
The running joke about “Index 11b” holds more than a few grains of truth. Back in the 1980s, when 5.12 was still the upper end of the grading scale, the locals at this granite backwater were convinced they couldn’t climb that grade, leading to insane compression at 5.11. For the full Index “5.11” flavor, try the Lower Town Wall’s technical tips/pin-scar crack Iron Horse (5.11d, or 5.12c+ everywhere else on Earth). And find out why exactly this traditionally “gatekept” area has become more popular in recent years.
Elbsandstein in Dresden / Adršpach in the Czech Republic (trad/rings/jammed knots)
The strict ethics on these sandstone towers split by the international border of the Elbe River is legend:
- No nuts or cams (climbers use jammed knots and sling chockstones)
- No chalk or rosin
- The only sanctioned fixed pro is massive, half-inch-plus-diameter rings that must be drilled ground-up
The result: sweaty hands, terrifying runouts, and huge fall potential on sternly graded routes. If all that isn’t enough, you can also fill your days (and trousers) on the Czech side with tower jumping, linking spires with terrifying salti mortali.
*Runner Up: The MoonBoard
While a bit tongue-in-cheek, the MoonBoard is an “international venue” in the sense that these boards have existed worldwide since the mid-Aughties. Of the many versions of the board’s modern, light-up, app-interface hold sets, 2019 is considered the stoutest, followed by 2016, 2017, and 2024. On the MoonBoard, the ratings routinely feel two to four grades harder than commercial or outdoor boulders. The board’s creator, Ben Moon, actually calls the pre-app/-lights 2010 set the fiercest, with its 40 tendon-punishing School Room Originals. The tweaky yellow holds are so small, they’re barely substantial enough to serve as paperweights.
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