Get Shorty - The 5 best miniature sport routes in America

Beavis (5.13a), the Franks, Palomas Peak, New Mexico
OK, so Beavis has five bolts, making it perhaps the longest (at least, clip-wise) route on this list. But it’s still in a fairly user-friendly “Zone” (as in Zone 2) — and if this limestone swell didn’t have a hillside-dropping-away landing, you’d likely be in Zone 1, totally comfortable bouldering out the pocket moves. No, New Mexico has never been known for long sport climbs (save the rope-stretchers at the Enchanted Tower). It’s instead a land of bouldery caves, volcanic blocks, and limestone and sandstone highball tors, which might be why so many strong boulderers — Timy Fairfield, Jon Cardwell, Bob Murray — call it home. Here, whether you’re roped or not, it often makes the most sense to apply V grades (See New Mexibolts further in the article).

Lorne Rainey established the crack-like Beavis in the mid-1990s, as part of the Palomas gold rush. The crux comes between the first and second bolts, where you reef a cross-through with your body tensioned hard on vertically aligned pockets. Although Fairfield says he personally hates the route (“Too painful!”), he commends the spirit in which it was bolted — roped bouldering. “Short power routes are turbo,” says Fairfield. “They’re all business, no fluff.” Fairfield would know: he put up the 5.14b (or V12) Sick Man, on the same cliff, featuring a hyper-condensed two bolts of business. Fairfield also sees miniature routes as useful teachers: “They really test my will and cause me to question why the hell I’m investing so much energy to travel such a short distance,” he says. “But it can be a metaphor for life, because so many things we do (especially in climbing) are senseless in the grand scheme of things.“

New Mexico Honorable Mention: Didgemaster
(5.13c), Eagle Canyon: Probably also New Mexico’s tweakiest — 30 feet (four bolts) of micro-pocket pimping including a clip off a monodoigt in the crux bulge. FA: Jean Delataillade, 1991.