New (to us) boulders and the DMMFP -UPDATED

On Sunday I went up to Black Mt with Alex Hoffman, Marina Campana, and Eden and Itai Axelrad for another day of beautiful Pacific Crest granite pebble wrestling.

After the twins eventually sent Velvet Revolver, Alex sent the stand, and I failed to hold on to the upper hold from the sit yet again, we found a new cluster of boulders on top of the hill above the trail between Boulder Basin and Velvet. Our eyes caught a steep boulder up the hill covered in bright green and black lichen that looked like it could yield a difficult line. We brushed the features and chalked them up, and it will probably be something in the v12 or harder range, but only time will tell.

The start hold on the project

Eden and Itai puttin some chalk on those "holds"

Rather than waste too much skin trying this difficult project while none of us feel quite in shape yet, we decided to check out the rest of the boulders behind it and further up the hill. What we found was a cluster of beautiful moderates and a few potential hard projects. I've never heard of these boulders and they did not look as if they had ever seen any traffic, but it's Black Mt, so you can't really know. In honor of all of our growing obsession with Gloworms gummy candy, we jokingly began referring to the hill-top cluster as the gloworm boulders. (UPDATE: apparently the guidebook authors, Alan and Ian, have heard of this area, and although there appears to have never been traffic and holds broke on the V4 we ended up doing, they say that probably everything under V9 was done years ago)

Marina sending a beautiful V1

Eden in the middle of sending the V4 that we dubbed the Mystery Gloworm (will probably have a different, older name in the guide)

Myself pulling the cool (and a little harder than it looks) heelhook cross to a hueco on this bulletproof and enjoyable moderate (v1?)

Itai running up the topout of the same.

After sending the three most obvious lines on the same boulder, we headed back over to the main Boulder Basin area to throw down a few attempts on the recently opened (by Ian McIntosh) and more recently named DMMFP (Dan Mills Memorial Face Problem). Excellent name if you ask me. This problem is the Midnight Lightning of Black Mt in my opinion and I hope to send it in the next few weeks.

Eden trying the DMMFP (v9/10?), Marina Campana photo

Myself on the DMMFP, Alex Hoffman photos (above and below)

DMMFP fail, Marina Campana photo

We'll be heading back up this Saturday, so check back Sunday or Monday for more photos of beautiful SoCal granite.