Black Mountain, situated high in the San Jacinto Mountains above Idyllwild in Southern California, is literally covered in high-quality alpine granite boulders. In summer you leave the scorching 100-degree heat of the valleys and climb to 7000 feet, where bouldering temperatures are much more reasonable. The granite that awaits varies from smooth Yosemite-style, to rougher, larger-crystal, Joshua Tree type. Overhanging climbing abounds. It is no wonder that the Stonemasters used this area to escape the slabs of Tahquitz.
After Long and crew’s first climbs in the mid 1970s, a second generation came and went in the early to mid ‘80s, including the likes of Mike Paul, who claimed the OK Corral’s roadside prize OK Arete, a super-technical and strikingly beautiful rib which checks in at V7 or V8. Other standouts of the period include the scooped overhang NRA and the striking diagonal line Cracker Boy, both in the Lookout Tower/Summit area. Then there was stasis. There are rumors of Tom Gilje and the late Dan Osman spending time at Black Mountain, but their deeds are unrecorded.
In the mid 1990s Idyllwild local Matt Beebe discovered the Visor, just downhill from NRA, and the pace quickened. The Visor soon sported three excellent problems: a body-length-and-a-half horizontal roof climbed on incut crimps at V6, a V3 lip traverse on the left, and the Can Opener, which busts out the right side of the overhang at V8. The Belgium climbing star Arnould T’Kint and the dyno master Greg Loh both took jobs at FiveTen shoes in nearby Redlands, contributing plentiful enthusiasm and skill to the Black Mountain bouldering scene. This surge of interest turned out to be just the warm-up for the intensive activity that was soon to follow.
The summer of 1998 saw an explosion of energy that continues to this day. The Upland climbing gym, Hangar 18, bore its first fruits, producing a motivated crew. Greg Loh and others at FiveTen were still stoked to discover new lines. I moved to nearby Riverside to finish school and start more than a few projects at Black Mountain. Even Chris Sharma dropped in — with a well-funded camera team following his every move and antic as if shooting for a Boys Gone Wild video.

It was as if Black Mountain took Viagra and sprang to life. Faces we had walked by countless times suddenly had grips. On the boulder next to OK Arete, we brushed off a few leaves and quickly sent Peeping Thomas, named for the man I awoke to looking in my second story window back home in Riverside. At a moderate V4, the rounded top-out of Thomas offers one the opportunity to either style to the top or hump like a beached whale. The Austin Powers boulder, up the hill from the OK Corral, has five new problems from V0 to V7. A British kid, Chris Savage, passed through and pulled a major coup, battling it out with Sharma in front of the cameras to snag the first ascent of the much attempted Arnould Special, a classic one-move-wonder on a 45-degree-overhanging wall first envisioned by T’Kint. Savage renamed the climb Dark Horse.
Ben Moon stopped by after visiting his brother in Los Angeles, hiked the second ascent of Dark Horse, and added his own gem of a testpiece, Bang On, climbing perfect incut slots out a 45-degree overhang. The first sequence is the hardest. You can either reach out with your right hand, to be faced with a ridiculous piano match, or roll out with your left in a contortionist cross-over. Both ways put most aspirants on their backs. If you make it through this, a couple of set-up moves leave you about five feet from the lip. Your only option is an all-out chuck. At V11, Bang On stood as the area’s hardest for two years until Regeneration went up in the OK Corral. This obvious sit start to Gimme Some (V8) doubles the number of moves on that jump-start problem and bumps the grade to stiff V11.
Chris Sharma’s eye for a subtle line is as rare as his climbing ability, evidenced by his 1998 new-school problems at Black Mountain such as Smack Down. Through a corridor on the backside of Where Boneheads Dare is a huge, blank, overhanging face. Before it was chalked it looked completely unclimbable — in part because the first hold is about nine feet off the ground. A nice hop puts you on it. With the right momentum you can then campus to the next hold. This quick wake-up delivers you to exit moves that might dish you a smack down, as you reach over the bulge, press your hand on a crystal, and will it to stick. Recently, Lisa Rands and Wills Young deciphered a less exotic sequence, matching and moving out left, which lowered the grade from V10 to V9, but this is part of the beauty of bouldering. Sharma’s flowing campus moves still stand, and Rands’ efficient variant opens possibilities — you can choose either sequence or make up something new.
In a few short months, Black Mountain went from a mostly unheard of local bouldering area to a world-class destination. The last few years have seen contributions at the traditional areas — OK Corral, Boulder Basin Campground, and the Summit — from myself, Tyson Atwell, Mike Snure, Tim Clifford, Lisa Rands, Wills Young, Reed Bartlett and a host of other So-Cal climbers. Even more exciting is last summer’s discoveries on new stone. Zach Shields, owner of Hangar 18, spurred on an energetic group to establish new problems on the ridge lines on both sides of the group camp. He also ventured up six miles past Boulder Basin, to find many new boulders near the spooky and abandoned YMCA camp. In short, Black Mountain seems to be living up to its reputation as an area with limitless potential.