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They are an unassuming cluster of boulders. Rock-climbing books barely mention them. No official guide to the area exists.

But nestled in the Sandia foothills and a short walk from the parking lot on Copper Avenue off Tramway Boulevard, U-Mound is Albuquerque's bouldering treasure.

"A lot of people dog on U-Mound because it's sharp and chaucy," Claude Smith, a local climber, said of the boulders' flaky, biting surface. "But for being so close to Albuquerque, it's a pretty nice spot."

In the climbing world, bouldering is an unfettered practice. Climbers need shoes, a spotter, chalk for their hands and a crash pad to cushion their falls. Despite its purity, ascending boulders is not for the meek. "It's sharp," climber Sam Coulter said of U-Mound.

"The holds are thin. The rock is crystalline granite. There's a lot of granules that poke you in the fingertips when you try to hold on to them. But you get used to it."

Said Smith: "There's not a lot of feet, but that improves your technique and your finger strength. People that climb there a lot like it because it makes you a better climber." What more could a climber ask for?