Saturday, January 14, 2012

Black is the New Black

My girls have finally arrived in the States and we are hanging out at my grandmothers place in Malibu and climbing local stuff around here.  It's wonderful to have my girls back.
For the time being I'll try to do some catching up from the week before Lina and Nalani arrived.  Here is a little reto-post about Black Mountain from about a week back................

The weather in the States has been freakishly good as areas that are usually snowy and unclimbable this time of year are snow free and warm.  This gave me the opportunity to check out almost any area in California and I opted for one I've long been wanting to visit, Black Mountain.

Black Mountain is an extensive granite area located east of Los Angeles in the San Jacinto Mountains.  It has long been a bouldering destination as many of the the classic moderates where put up by the old Stone Masters but it was the release of Big Up's Rampage in 1999 that really put Black Mountain on the radar.  Since Chris Sharma's tear through area projects in the late 90s Black Mountain has continued to produce high quality problems as a dedicated crew of folks continue to explore and develop.  The potential is endless for those willing to hike and I dare say that Black Mouutain should be one of the States' premier bouldering areas.

For my three days in Black Mountain I was fortunate to have a local tour guide as Creg graciously showed us around.  Creg took us to a newer area called the Republic the first day and we spent the last two days at the main areas around OK Coral and Boulder Basin.  I am now totally enamored by Black Mountain and can't wait to get back.

Here are some pictures with more to come

Potential

Creg hanging out in his backyard

Due to the seasonal locking of the gate we had a 40ish minute hike to the boulders.  Will be nice to come back in the spring and be able to park next to the boulders.

Creg slogs up the road to the boulders

Prairie on a cool mantel problem at the OK Corral 

The super classic Wave

Creg attempts one of his projects, Dark Horse

Prairie on the Hueco Wall

Black Mountain sunset

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wooooo! Nice photos! Looks like a nice, remote area!

/Pontus