“Dog bone”, “butterdish”, “trailer hitch”, “football”; while to most Americans these are things you might see in a West Elm catalog or a Budweiser commercial, but mention these to any rabid boulderer and you might get a soliloquy about how sick it is to find such unique grips on actual rock. Ever since the days of the sport’s pioneers like John Gill and the Verm, the most storied boulder problems in the US have been defined by unique features that just beg to be climbed on.

What makes a climbing hold iconic? There’s three primary ways for a grip to rise to the status of legendary. First, by being a defining feature of a historically significant boulder problem; think the bolt on Midnight Lighting or any of the holds on Full Service. Next, by being so unique and mind-blowing that one just feels compelled to grab it (i.e. the handle bar on No Substance.) Finally, and overwhelmingly based on your votes, by being a critical and memorable component of modern day test pieces.

Lets get into it — in reverse order, the 10 most iconic grips in US bouldering, assembled and voted on by Sickos like you:

“What, bouldering has rules?!” I don’t remember who the poor sap was who elicited this sardonic response out of bouldering’s incumbent ombudsman Jamie Emerson but it has stuck with me over the years. While to Jamie and many boulderers who’ve been practicing the sport for decades, the rules of climbing on small rocks seem fairly obvious, its always bothered me that there wasn’t a canonical guide to point to and say “that was an invalid start, bro!”

Why does it matter? Why not leave people to their own devices, let everyone claim whatever they want, and worry about one’s own personal ethics? While our sport benefits from the creativity and nuance inherent in starting from point A and finishing at point B using any means necessary, the lack of systemization and reliance on the opinion of first and subsequent ascentionists makes benchmarking achievements against one another much more difficult.

Why is comparing outdoor bouldering ascents against a concrete set of standards important? For me it’s the only way to legitimize a sport that’s in desperate need of being taken seriously. Indoor climbing has had a much more well defined (if not constantly evolving) set of rules that has brought it to the highest level of international competition, the Olympic Games. I for one want to live in a world where the incentives for groundbreaking accomplishments in outdoor bouldering are put on the same pedestal as an Olympic medal. I want the Soratos and Tobys (Tobies??) of the world to use their talents to climb 10a or 9A+ rather than practice quintuple dynos 6 hours a day.

The Sickos Council has convened; here’s the exhaustive list of rules and guidelines that define the practice of ascending outdoor boulder problems:

30 minutes West of the neon desert of Las Vegas Nevada lies one of North America’s most popular bouldering areas, Red Rock. The deep narrow canyons that line the scenic loop and Calico Basin hillsides hold thousands of Aztec Sandstone boulders that have drawn the interest of old heads and new climbers alike since the 1970s.

The area’s popularity dramatically sky-rocketed with the release of Tom Moulin’s Southern Nevada Bouldering guidebook in the early 2010’s. With California’s surge in climbing gym development, Red Rock began to draw seasonal weekend warriors from Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, and Bay Area, and became an internationally renowned destination after landmark first ascents such as Meadowlark Lemon and The Nest. For years the most popular areas such as the Kraft Boulders, Gateway Canyon, and the First Pullout struggled to sustain the increased foot traffic and parking capacity needed with this spike in use.

After the shockwave of COVID in the early 2020’s, remote work became much more prevalent and brought a whole new slew of local climbers who chose to relocate to Las Vegas from other metro hubs. With a low cost of living that dwarfs that of many cities in the American West, these new locals and climbing advocacy groups helped invest into sustainability infrastructure such as trail building, parking lots, and rest rooms to help stabilize the effects of increased traffic.

In 2025 Red Rock finds itself as one of the premier destinations for those seeking to test themselves on America’s hardest blocs, with Shaolin and Return of the Sleepwalker being two of the four V17s in the US and the only area in the world with more than one problem given that grade. At the same time, it continues to be one of the best areas for those brand new to the sport with its ease of access, incredible food and entertainment options, and affordable accommodations.

To quote Ethan Pringle’s iconic 8a.nu comment from his first ascent of Wet Dream, “If you psyched little boulderers only knew…” — Without further ado, here is the definitive list of the best boulders in Red Rock, as compiled and voted on by the SICKOS: