Introductions
At the end of the day, outdoor bouldering is a fairly contrived sport. Some person finds some rock sitting somewhere, decides its climbable, picks some holds to start on, cleans it up, and climbs to the top. They slap some subjective personal difficulty rating on there and call it a day. A first ascent has been completed, and all those that wish to repeat the climb must abide by the rules designated by the first-ascentionist.
Now the problem with this whole setup is accessibility. How do people figure out which boulders have been climbed and which holds to start on? How do they know that a climb is within their ability? Typically, climbers use online forums such as Mountain Project and The Crag to post difficulty ratings, boulder locations, and the general method to climb a boulder (beta), but if a boulder is ascended and no one posts about it, does it even exist?
Mount Baldy is in the Angeles National Forest, a set of granite peaks that is frequented by students of the Claremont Colleges due to its proximity to the school. Its got some strenuous climbs, some pretty meh skiing, and a couple of pretty cool waterfalls. It also happens to be home to an extensive set of granite boulders that nobody posts about. The area has been well-developed by local climbers, yet there isn’t much information to be found about the assortment of boulder problems, their difficulties, or their locations.
This is actually a common occurrence in outdoor bouldering: someone finds a nice area and decides that want to keep it a secret, or there is some sort of access issue, in which too many people can come to the area, become a general nuisance (blaring music, power-screaming excessively), and get climbing banned in the area. The lack of documentation of the Mount Baldy boulders on Mountain Project appears to be due to the latter.
However, not providing folks with the info on a semi-decent set of boulders so close to the colleges seems to be a bit of a travesty. A good way to go about this while ensuring the area does not get too crowded is to make a little guidebook that gets shared and passed along among individuals. This allows the passing of extensive info with ease, and ensures nothing gets lost when someone graduates and disappears.
This multi-year project is something I have been continuously working on, and I always update the guide with new finds, better approach directions, and more!
Late 2022
I’ve finally made it to the Mount Baldy hillside boulders, so I will gradually be putting those boulders into the book as well.
Early 2022
After some more work over the semester, the guidebook has now been updated. There are now over 100 problems and more areas, some lead route names have been added (though I still have no clue which route is which), and some approach beta has been updated for the better. Video beta for a bunch more routes have been added. There are also new and improved maps for each area and some more photos of climbers on the routes!
2021
I have began making a guidebook for the Barrett-Stoddard boulders, a set of boulders sitting in and beyond the treeline of the Barrett-Stoddard trail at Mount Baldy. Though the rock quality of the boulders is meh, and there is a horrific quantity of flies that will stalk you around if the weather is too warm, the proximity of the boulders to campus and the super short approach makes it all worth it.
Thus far, I have documented around 50 boulder problems in the area, with many more still to come. The climbing is solid, with a variety of slab, overhangs, roofs, and traverses. I have also been making beta videos – videos denoting the general method to climb a route – on some of the climbs here, and have been ascribing personal difficulty ratings to climbs I have done so folks can get a feel for how difficult these boulder problems are.
(The guidebook can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X872VAX5ORIFtau0HsmZx5Gbz8WTcANd/view?usp=sharing)
This project will most likely go on until I graduate, as there is a huge quantity of boulders and a pretty large variety of problems on each boulder, ranging from easy V0s to tough double digit roofs.
Huge thanks to Cyrus Moassessi for introducing me to this area and providing me with the general area info to get everything off the ground.
Tai Xiang's Random Projects 
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