Watch Dan Mills Bouldering in Joshua Tree

Dan Mills was once one of America’s leading boulderers and this new film is of old footage that captured some of his sends in Joshua Tree. Filmmaker Cole Gibson said, “Dan is one of the strongest rock climbers that I have ever shot with and witnessing his powerful style was a joy.”

Mills rose to the top of the scene after making the fifth ascent of The Mandala V12, considered at the time one of the hardest problems in the world. Chris Sharma first sent the problem when he was 19 and called it the hardest problem he had done. Two years later, Mills climbed it at only 15 years old.

Mills had also established first ascents in Bishop, Tramway, Black Mountain and Joshua Tree. He competed for the USA youth climbing team and finished on the podium a number of times. Mills fell away from the climbing scene a few years ago, but recently resurfaced and posts videos on Youtube here. Joshua Tree National Park 230 kilometres east of Los Angeles.

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This is a savage @fred_nicole problem up at The Underground on Queen Mt. Huge move from a sharp crimp. Dan floated this problem a few times, I love the sound of his slap in this vid, so satisfying. I'm not sure how many trips Fred has made to Joshua Tree but he sure left us some classics. Link in bio to full vid.

A post shared by Giant Rock (@giant__rock) on Oct 9, 2019 at 11:29am PDT

Dan Mills in J Tree