The Mandala

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For the film, see Mandala (film).

For the spanish band, see Mandalas (band).

For the spiritual pattern, see Mandala.

The Mandala is a boulder problem (a sequence of hand and foot holds constituting an ascension route) in The Buttermilks, which is a popular bouldering area near Bishop, California.

The problem climbs a steep prow on a large granite boulder and was considered a great project for many years before it was first climbed by Chris Sharma in early 2000^{[citation needed]}. This ascent received much acclaim in the climbing community^{[citation needed]}. Although Sharma did not rate the problem (jokingly, he stated that if he did, it would have been V16)^{[citation needed]}, it was thought by many to be hard V14 in the bouldering grading system.

Over time, however, the grade was consolidated at V11 or V12. Since the first ascent, several holds have broken including one of the crux holds. The problem is now thought to be soft V12.

It was given a sit-start by Tony Lamiche in 2002. The sit-start is about V14/8B+. The Mandala is one of the most widely known boulder problems in the world.

Other famous boulder problems include Dreamtime by Fred Nicole and The Wheel of Life by Dai Koyamada.