U-Mound: Urban Bouldering Outside of Albuquerque

U-Mound is a small granite bouldering area located on the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Known about for well over 30 years (with many early Bob Murray classics), U-Mound remains popular for locals and those passing through. We happened to be the latter on our recent trip to the area, as I was in town for a conference.
We had never been to U-Mound, but we quickly found our way around and enjoyed much of what it has to offer. The climbing is similar to that found at Lumpy Ridge or Vedavoo, with sharp crystals, slopy open hands, or micro-crimp edges to help as you try to top out the bulbous little stones.
The best area is a small little corridor at the top of the highest mound. Called aptly "the corridor", it is home to U-Mounds hardest and best problems (actually, all of the problems at U-Mound are surprisingly good and really, really fun to do). I wanted to check out Hito V10-11, but the temps quickly heated up and the beta-intensive and slopy problem proved to not be to my style. However, there were a couple really good ones that we did that should be on anyone's ticklist.
Jita Dyno V9 and Hita V9-10 are two awesome problems, and I don't really understand why they are different. The natural line seemed to be Hita into either Jita Dyno or Hita's traditional finish. I did both, and they area about the same in grade ~ I guess it depends on what type of movement you want.
The Corridor Problem V6-7 as it is called is another fun one we did. I can see why there are multiple ways to finish it off, but the real meat is the first 3 moves. After that, it gets easy but really committing as you are off the deck and the landing is not spectacular.
U-Mound is a great place, and I would go back any time. It would just be nice not to hear the other group's boom-box... but I guess it is "urban" bouldering.

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