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Climbing, Adventure, Gear & Choss
Sand Booting
I recently partook in a humorous event that led me to coin a new term: “sand booting.” So what are we dealing with here? Well, take your standard sandbag, but mix in the possibility of finding booty and you’ve got sand booting. Here’s how it plays out:
A confident looking party asks for your input on a route they are about to climb. If they go to the top (5 pitches), they will only need one rope, and it would appear the route is within their abilities, so you tell them to leave the second cord on the ground. A pitch and a half off the deck, however, all is not well, and the second can not go on. The leader must then leave a slew of gear to retreat with one cord, and they tuck tail to go climb some stuff closer to the ground.
Sounds like your standard sandbag, yeah? Well, what if a couple hours later, you head up on the same climb and hit the jackpot? The first pitch yields a new sling and locking biner. The second, another locker. Even when your partners mock you and apologize for scoring all the booty, as you pull around the corner on the 3rd pitch, you hit the mother load: 3 nuts, a sling and nice locker. How you beeotches like that?
And there you have sand booting: Knowingly sending a lesser experienced party up a route you know they can’t do, and will have to leave copious amounts of gear to bail off of (and bail they will!). You then climb the route once they’ve cleared the area, and score! And for those booty pirates out there, this is much more effective than climbing trade routes after a holiday weekend, since you are assured of finding gear AND you know exactly where it will be.
Disclaimer: The inspiration for this new term was innocent enough, and we didn’t know they would bail, but we did score the booty! đŸ˜‰
6 Responses to Sand Booting
Bulldog Creek Dog Walk (IV WI 4+)
Hayden Carpenter and Tom Bohanon recently repeated an obscure ice climb on the south side of Mt Sopris. Given a brief mention in Jack Robert’s ice guide, Bulldog Creek Walk is described as being 100 meters of WI 4. What they found was seven pitches of ice in a remote setting that makes for one […]
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Wow, this is unbelievable, who would pull off such a stunt. Sounds like the works of some Boulderite. Probably the same type of person who ropes you into doing a route with words like “there are a couple of tough moves but not too bad” or “this climb fits your style” or “hey it is mostly jugs with a few smaller holds”.
I am not sure of this person’s identity, but I would be wary of route advice from anyone in a red toyota truck with a camper shell:)
Damn! So much for protecting the guilty!
Dude, that’s a pretty chossy move to be doin’ to some noob. You could’ve been splitter and gotten their stuff for em’.
Evil! Remind me never to ask you for beta…
Just to be clear, this wasn’t done intentionally! We just happened to climb the route after a party had bailed and we found a bunch of gear. They were gone when we got down. If they read this and want it back, drop me a line, I sure don’t need any more stuff.
Haven’t laughed so hard for a while – especially after the guilty apology at the end!
Haven’t been able to find a mailto option BJ, but just to say, really appreciating your blog after coming across it last night – so much good content to nose through!