In reply to GrahamD:
> I don't remember having tried Looking for the Day (which may well be a sandbag) so my comments were more directed to the general statement:
> " I haven't climbed that many trad routes but even I know this one is ridiculously unprotected and blank at the top for an HVS."
Fair point - what the OP meant (I think, based on my experience) is that the upper section of the route is unprotected and that the climbing there is hard; that it's not a runout up easy ground following a tough but well-protected crux in the style of Three Pebble Slab, but that the gear recedes to the point that it no longer protects you
and you're still pulling 5b moves, and so the route warrants an upgrade - I'd suggest to E2 5b, but will happily admit that I'm not much of an authority. Couple this with the fact that, from the ground, the route
looks pretty innocuous - my assumption was that leaving the break would be the crux and I could then saunter to the top, whereas the moves above are of equal difficulty but less well (i.e. not) protected - and I think that's a good candidate for your definition of a sandbag: Something that, based on both its appearance in the flesh and guidebook description, should be a fair challenge (you get on it expecting an experience that falls somewhere between an easy time and an ordinary fight), but transpires to be physically harder and/or bolder/more dangerous in reality, to the extent that,
had you known this, you would have thought twice about getting on it in the first place.
Edit, in the interest of clarity: All of which is to say that I very much agree with you and your point that the concept of the sandbag is necessarily grounded in subjective experience! I just want to argue that Looking for Today very much is one, and not just an easy runout at the top, as it's reasonably obscure (and very, very innocuous until you're on it, as it's not until you've committed to the upper wall that you realise).
Post edited at 11:48