Stonemaster Maria Cranor was a Luminary Climber

Maria Cranor was a rock climber, co-founder of Black Diamond, and a lecturer in physics at the University of Utah. She died in January 2022 at 76 years old. A new film called The Mentor by Mike Call has just been released by Black Diamond about Cranor, which you can watch below.

Cranor was a leading climber during her early years and climbed several test-piece big walls and crag routes. At Tahquitz, California, she became the first woman to climb Valhalla 5.11a, which she flashed. Those who climbed the test-piece were considered Stonemasters, a group of some of the best rock climbers in the world.

“By her own account, she was transformed by her time at Berkeley, and left the university intellectually challenged, energized, and committed to progressive politics,” wrote her niece Alastair Boone in an obituary for Berkeleyside.

In 1991, Cranor, along with Peter Metcalf and a few others, co-founded Black Diamond. “She saw the future of climbing out the windshield not the rearview mirror,” Metcalf told Boone. “She was always genius at being able to intuitively understand where the sport was and where it was going.”

The Mentor: Maria Cranor