Climbing Vernacular
“Sandbag”
Matthew Rube
Hanover, New Hampshire
May 19, 2019
Informant Data:
- Matthew Rube is a 21-year-old student in his final year at Dartmouth College. He was born in New York City, New York, United States on August 19, 1997. Matt has two younger siblings: a brother and a sister. His mother and father are both lawyers. His family origins are Western European Jewish and Eastern European Jewish (Ukrainian). Matt is white, upper-middle class, and Jewish. Matt has been climbing since he was 11 years old. When Matt started training to be a climber, his parents would drive him long distances and then wait as he practiced. This lead to them picking up climbing too to mediate long hours waiting for him in the gym. His siblings both climb: his sister is a high-level competitive climber and his brother climbs recreationally. Matt has been an elite-level competitive climber since elementary school and to this day. He founded the climbing team at Dartmouth College and was the captain for all four years. He competes indoors and climbs outdoors.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: There are two main types of climbing: bouldering and sport climbing. Sport climbing involves wearing a harness and a rope. The climber is belayed by someone else. The ropes are necessary because sport climbing encompasses going up heights that would be dangerous to do without safety gear. Bouldering, on the other hand, involves climbing shorter heights without ropes. In either case, climbs are graded by difficulty so that climbers can attempt climbs within their skill level. There is no rubric for how climbs are graded; grading climbs is a non-formalized process. Typically, the level of a climb can be determined by experience. The more climbs a person has done, the more likely they are to know what level a climb would be categorized as, and therefore usually the more experienced climbers dictate what grade every climb gets. This is true of both indoor and outdoor climbing.Unfortunately, what can end up happening is that as a climber becomes too experienced, they lose sight of what an easy climb actually is. An easy climb to a highly experienced climber could be an incredibly difficult climb for a beginner. With time, therefore, an experienced climber may begin to grade climbs improperly because their perspective becomes skewed.
- Social Context: The item of folklore collected is a vernacular term used in conversation between two climbers. This term is not a very common term used in climbing and is more often used by climbers who climb outdoors rather than climbers who climb in a gym. The use of this particular piece of vernacular usually signals to the listener that the climber is more experienced; usually beginners are not yet exposed to this term. This is generally a term used in casual conversation when describing a location; that location can be a gym or an outdoor area where lots of people climb.The purpose of the vernacular is to create a sense of community amongst climbers. There is so much vernacular within the climbing community that it can be difficult to understand conversations about climbing as a non-climber. This likely stems from the significant pride that climbers have as members of a counter-culture. The vernacular serves to create a sense of inclusion and exclusivity. Furthermore, the vernacular works to capture an idea that usually needs to be conveyed with more words; therefore, in addition to being a tool of group-cohesion, it is also a tool of efficiency.
Text:
- [I have recorded “sandbag” not exactly as Matt told it but as close as possible with the notes that I took. This is meant to be an accurate representation of his words, but is ultimately in my own phrasing]
- The term “sandbag” or “sandbagged” is used by climbers to describe the grading of a climb. A sandbagged climb is a climb that is graded easier than the climb itself warrants. As described above, this usually occurs when a climber becomes too experienced for a certain grade of climb and assigns the climb a grade that is easier than someone at the correct level would actually experience.This term is thought to originate from the idea of climbing while wearing extra weight. If a climber wears a sandbag while climbing, the climb becomes harder than one would reasonably expect when taking on that climb. Therefore, for a climb to be “sandbagged” it’s more difficult than the grading would make you expect, and so climbing it makes you feel like you’re wearing sandbags.
Olivia Hunter, Aged 21
22 N Park St., Apartment 201, Hanover NH
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Spring 2019