PBC History

The first Phoenix Bouldering Contest was put together as a fun local competition. 35 competitors showed up to compete, hopefully collect the one prize - a climbing rope, and then return home. The pre-registration fee was $2.00. The "after party" consisted of listening to a stereo in Jim Waugh’s back yard, and everyone taking turns climbing Waugh’s "Bachar Ladder" in as many unique ways as possible. Nobody then remotely guessed that it would evolve into the largest outdoor bouldering competition/event in the world with almost 600 competitors, $40,000+ in merchandise prizes, and 3 days of festivities. Interestingly enough, the one thing that has not changed about the PBC is that it is still "just for the fun of it."

For the first four years, the contest was known as the Central Arizona Bouldering Contest. In 1987, the name was changed to the Phoenix Bouldering Contest coinciding with the publication of Waugh’s new guidebook, Phoenix Rock. Waugh’s previous guidebook had been titled, A Climber’s Guide to Central Arizona. The first six contests were held at Camelback Mountain (#1, #3, #5), the Beardsley Rockpile (#2, #4), and South Mountain (#6), but as the contest/event grew, it became obvious that a new area would have to be discovered to meet the demands of a growing competition.

In 1988, Waugh checked out the area surrounding Oak Flats Campground at the suggestion of Bob Murray, a tremendous climber/boulderer living in Tucson, AZ, at that time. What Waugh discovered was an area with almost unlimited potential for new un-roped and roped problems with all ranges of difficulty. Needless to say, in 1989, the PBC moved its current home to Oak Flats Campground. The '89 PBC opened with 340 competitors (almost 100 more than 1988) and had over 300 new bouldering problems that no competitor had seen. Currently, there are over 1200 developed boulder problems.