Famous Hard Routes

The Mandala helped bring attention to the hard bouldering in Bishop. First climbed by Chris Sharma in February 2000, it received much acclaim and media coverage. Sharma did not grade it and jokingly said that if he had to, it would have been V16. It was repeated by other climbers in quick succession within a year in this order: Dave Graham, Jared Roth, Fred Nicole, Luke Parady, Ian Vickers and Dave Struthers at V11. The grade settled at soft V12 because a number of holds have broken off from the first. In 2002, Tony Lamiche did a sit-start at V14. And in 2007, Paul Robinson climbed it in one day with The Swarm V13 and made the first ascent of The Mandala Direct at V14. In January 2008, Lisa Rands became the first woman to send it.

On March 30, 2010, Paul Robinson made the first ascent of the highball Lucid Dreaming. He originally proposed a grade of V16, the highest ever at the time, but he later said it was V15. The boulder is 17 metres from ground to top, beginning with a steep overhang and ending with a slab traverse. There are two consecutive V12 moves near the start that both feature small technical holds. It has only been repeated by Daniel Woods, Alex Megos and Toru Nakajima.