The prickly brown stone crests over me like a tidal wave about to crash. It’s 1995, my first full-fledged trip to Hueco Tanks, and I’m not sure what’s more intimidating — topping out above my thin homemade pad consisting of a sleeping pad wrapped in carpet and duct tape, or the testosterone filtering through this cluster of boulders. Nearby, high-profile rock star Todd Skinner slaps out a sloping rail on a new problem he calls The Whole Hog as a photographer fires off a roll of film. Below us, Dean Potter and Jim Belcer hike laps on the 45 Degree Wall (V5), sans pad, to the amusement of a group of itinerant, smoky sandpeople. Around the corner my friend Ed Strang battles The Full Monty (V12), one of the country’s hardest boulder problems.
My tips, which are beginning to resemble raw tuna, are hopelessly shredded, and little purple bruises reveal themselves on my peeling digits. I brush the holds, preparing for another go on the aptly named New Religion (V7). Scrrraaaape ... My fingernails gouge the back of a potato-chip crimp. As I struggle to reel it in with all four fingers, my foot pops, and I land flat on my ass on the thin “pad” for the twentieth time.
Development began at Hueco in 1980 with the pioneer Bob Murray, with Mike and Dave Head, Todd Skinner, John Sherman, and other locals pushing things throughout the rest of the decade. Then, in the late '80s and early '90s, during the winter months, transient climbers began to assemble here en masse as word of this pile of rocks just south of New Mexico continued to spread. Each year Hueco Tanks State Historic Site, located east of the multi-million person border towns of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, became the unlikely host to an intense international convergence. Though far from any established climbing scene, Hueco drew a cult-like following due to its location, crisp temps, perfect syenite porphyry stone, and freeform dirtbag culture.
The V-grade system and the crash pad were born here, and for the first time masses of people gathered from all over the world at an American crag just to boulder. During this golden age progressively harder problems such as Sex After Death (V9), Full Service (V10), Full Monty (V12), and Shaken Not Stirred (a.k.a. Martini Right) (V12) were established. Then, as the hordes reached critical mass, the party ceased ... or so it seemed.
Hueco Tanks, for those of you living in a bubble or who are new to climbing, is considered by most climbers to be the world’s bouldering destination. Ask any boulderer if they’ve visited and the answer is almost certainly either “yes,” or “I plan to go soon.”

Initially, the few climbers to visit in the ’70s were captivated by the park’s wealth of traditionally protected cracks, and in the ’80s bolted face routes became popular. This began to change in the late ’80s, however, as bouldering eccentrics like Mike Head, Bob Murray, and John Sherman established many hard problems and recognized Hueco’s world-class potential. Sherman liked Hueco so much that he began bouldering there almost exclusively, and personally developed the open-ended V-grade scale (V for Vermin, Sherman’s self-styled nickname) at Hueco to grade his and friends’ efforts. Verm went so far as to pen the 1991 and 1995 guidebooks Hueco Tanks Climbing and Bouldering Guide, which were the first comprehensive bouldering guides to the area. Partly as a result of V-grades, bouldering’s meditative, loner soul began to morph into a more community-based, goal-driven pursuit, as participants now had a way to measure their performances. “Half the climbers out there wouldn’t be bouldering if their efforts weren’t quantifiable,” says veteran Hueco first ascentionist Boone Speed. “I mean honestly, do you think those people out there sieging crumbly butt starts would be doing it if there was no grade involved?”
Hueco Tanks, for those of you living in a bubble or who are new to climbing, is considered by most climbers to be the world’s bouldering destination. Ask any boulderer if they’ve visited and the answer is almost certainly either “yes,” or “I plan to go soon.”