I Dream of Hueco

By: What Matters?, 1 year 10 months ago

Hueco Tanks is arguably one of the best bouldering areas in the world. Located in the Chihuahuan desert, 30 miles east of El Paso, Texas, this 860-acre park is an extensive outcropping of sun-baked syenite porphyry boulders with over 2,000 established problems ranging from V0-V15. Every winter, from November thru March, climbers travel across the globe to this isolated island of cratered rock for its warm, dry climate and large quantity of quality climbing in condensed areas. The boulders, ranging from VW Bug to house-sized, are adorned with incut edges and trademark huecos (Spanish for hollows) that lend themselves to brilliant face climbing and dynamic overhangs. Hueco Tanks is far from being tapped out – there are more than 200 unpublished problems and over a dozen concentrated areas in the park’s most visible places and darkest caverns. This past season alone, around 50 new classics were established throughout the park’s four mountains. There’s a lifetime of climbing in Hueco--just never enough skin.