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Facundo Langbehn Ferro once upon a Time (V3 r)black mountain, california

Fifteen years ago, thousands of people watched Chris Sharma climb at Black Mountain in the 1999 bouldering film Rampage, and many credit this film for jump-starting the American bouldering craze, as well as turning Black Mountain into a Southern California pebble-wrestling hotspot. Over the past few years, the area has experienced a new wave of development spearheaded by locals, including Ian MacIntosh and Alan Moore. It’s known for granite highballs (think 25 feet and up) and somewhat sandbagged ratings (Mountain Project suggests that newcom-ers leave their egos at home), so it’s not for the faint of heart. This aesthetic problem is particularly challenging because it features a 40-foot chasm on one side of the landing and a 60-foot drop on the other. While that adds a serious sweaty-palms factor, combined with the 7,500-foot elevation, it makes for a spectacular view that goes on for miles. Photographer and local Devlin Gandy calls it “one of the most classic, iconic climbs in the area.”

DevlIn GAnDy

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Scott Adamson unnamedZion national Park, utah

During a two-week first ascent binge in early February, Scott Adamson and Angela vanWie-meersch, with the help of Matt Tuttle, climbed more than a dozen major new ice routes in Zion national Park, Utah. Bush-whacking for hours through the rough high country, the climbers fought their way to remote canyon rims, rappelled in, and climbed back out. More than half of the new routes are 400 feet or longer. Many were super-thin (as in less than an inch) for long stretches, leading to dangerous runouts in an area where retreat or rescue would be extremely difficult. Most of the climbs, including this beauty, have not yet been named. Senior Contrib-uting Photographer Andrew Burr says this might be the “greatest water-ice discovery in the U.S. in the last 10 to 20 years.”

AnDReW BURR

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Scott Bennett africa (5.10+)el chorro, Spain

While the route itself isn’t known for its difficulty, the one-of-a-kind approach definitely ups the intimidation factor. To get to the route, one must cross el Caminito del Rey (The King’s little Pathway), a dilapidated, man-made walkway that follows the contours of the limestone cliffs. This via ferrata was started in 1901 and com-pleted in 1905 so workers would have easy passage between hydroelectric plants at Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls. Today, it’s mainly used by climbers to access the numerous routes that line the gorge’s heavily featured walls, and the locals recently installed an additional cable for increased safety. The journey to this particular wall, el Chorro’s infamous Africa Wall, doesn’t stop there. After the bridge, climbers must crawl through a small tunnel that goes into one side and comes out the other side of the wall, and then rappel 60 meters down to the river. Once you’re there, the only means of escape are swimming downriver or climbing out. Then comes the “easy” part: climbing various beautiful limestone cracks on traditional protection. With the canyon on each side and river down below, it doesn’t get much wilder than this.

FOReST WOODWARD

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flashCarlo Traversi unnamedbrione, Switzerland

Swiss photographer Stefan Schlumpf and American pro climber Carlo Traversi have been friends and partners since they first met at Hueco Tanks, Texas, in 2010. During a recent trip when Traversi worked a problem called vecchio leone (v12) near the verzasca valley in southern Switzerland, the pair were on the way home after a day of climbing and shooting when Schlumpf spotted a striking highball directly above the river. He asked Traversi to climb the problem (Traversi later called it “easy,” but keep in mind this v15 crusher’s standards) just for a photograph, and Traversi obliged, dem-onstrating the beauty of an ideal climber-photographer relationship. The verzasca valley became well-known in the 1990s because a bungee-jumping scene from the James Bond flick Goldeneye was shot there. verzasca is also a world-class destination for hikers and outdoor enthusiasts because of its dramatic landscapes, polished rocks, and natural pools.

vISUAlIMPACT.CH / STeFAn SCHlUMPF