What is a sit start?

Starting from the ground up

A sit start does exactly what it says. Instead of beginning a boulder problem standing, with both hands on the first holds and your feet already on the rock, you start sitting on the ground. You put your hands on the designated starting holds, plant your backside on the floor, lift your feet onto whatever footholds are there, and only then are you allowed to pull on and climb.

In a guidebook you will see this written as "SDS" — sit-down start — or sometimes just "sit start". Often a problem has two versions: the stand start, which begins from a comfortable standing position, and the sit start, which adds a move or two of harder climbing at the bottom and usually carries a higher grade. The Font classic Mécanique Élémentaire, for example, has both, and the sit is the line everyone actually queues for.

Why bother sitting in the dirt?

It comes down to fairness and length. On many blocs the obvious standing holds are at chest or head height, which means a tall climber can practically walk onto the problem while a shorter one is fully extended just to start. Dropping the start to the ground removes a lot of that height advantage and gives everyone the same low first move.

It also adds climbing. A sit start typically means a powerful pull off the ground from a compressed, scrunched position — knees up by your chest, hips low, often a hard first move to get your weight moving upward. That bottom section is frequently the crux. Plenty of boulderers can do every move of the stand version and still spend weeks failing to link the sit.

A few things change once you commit to the floor:

• Core matters more. Pulling off the ground with your feet high and your body folded loads your midsection hard before you have any momentum.
• The start holds are stricter. You have to establish on the official starting holds with feet off the ground, so there is less room to cheat your way into a better position.
• Linking is the real challenge. Doing the sit moves and the stand moves is one thing. Doing them in one continuous go, arriving at the stand holds already tired, is another.

Reading and logging it correctly

When you tick a problem, be honest about which version you did. Climbing the stand start of a V5 sit-start problem is not the same achievement, and most people grade the two separately for good reason. If a topo lists a sit start, the implication is that the established way of doing the line is from the ground.

There is no shame in starting standing while you work the moves. Many of us learn the upper section first, then go back and battle the sit until it links. Just record what you actually sent. When you keep a log of your problems, noting "stand" or "SDS" against each one keeps your tick list meaningful and saves the awkward moment months later when you cannot remember whether you ever really did the full thing.

The next time you walk up to a bloc and someone is brushing chalk off a low pair of crimps and lowering themselves into the dirt, you will know exactly what they are about to attempt.