Probably Tucson's most well-known boulder and the home of our most famous problem, the Matterhorn is a fantastic chunk of roadside granite. Sitting at about 7000 feet, with a great view looking southeast towards the Rincons and Santa Ritas, the Matterhorn is a good place to spend a morning or an afternoon. While there is only one boulder here (with the Secret Gully a 10 minute scramble downhill), there is a good handful of high quality problems to keep you busy for a while, ranging from tricky v1 slabs to crimping on razor thin edges.


The most sought after send here is the Bob Murray testpiece Jewel Thief (in the photo above, Jewel Thief climbs the center of the face, just left of the white streak). Sent in the early 1980's (I think), this is still a difficult and committing climb, with most people opting to rehearse the moves on toprope first. The climb involves a strenuous sit start on horrendously sharp incuts, then moves to a rail, then up to a series of difficult sidepulls. Using the sidepulls, you set up up for a long deadpoint for a bad sloping edge at the lip, with your feet well above the ground, and facing a potentially dangerous swing off the lip. You bump your right hand up to a small hold higher up the lip, then match your hands, then topout. All the more impressive is that this problem was originally sent without crashpads, and with a potentially jewel thiefin' tree right in the fall zone. The fact that it may not have been repeated until 2008 is a testament to the vision and strength of Bob Murray, possibly the strongest boulderer of his era. Since 2008, Jewel Thief has been sent by Brent Silverster (probable 2nd ascent), Jared LaVacque and Sam Davis, and maybe a couple others.