Cragmont Rock Park
Climb Review:
Cragmont is a local park in the Berkeley Hills neighborhood and parking can be a luxury. However, when i arrived around 9am, there were plenty of spots.
The place was clean of trash, though I did spot a few glass bottle bits.
Cragmont Crack (5.6, Northeast Face)—I thought the first 5 ft was the trickiest bit for my feet. After that, the hold were great and the route felt very easy... well, except for my fear of heights.
The Seam (5.8, Northeast Face)—After warming up on the Cragmont Crack, this climb wasn’t too bad at all. There was a bit of a struggle near the top where I had to trust my feet on this rock, but once I did, it felt great to reach the anchor.
Face (5.8+, Northeast Face)—This was the hardest climb of the day, and to be honest, it felt like a 5.10a/b for me. There were foot holds that felt iffy, and hand holds which were nothing more than a nib for my finger to put pressure on. Still, I trusted my body, I didn’t slip, and it felt awesome at the top.
Friends Made:
Jo came to this climb, but when I checked out her harness, it was a no-name brand one she bought from Amazon, and based on the design of the harness (there were no redundancies around the belt/leg loop), I recommended that she not climb with it—she did not climb. Gene came and he relearned how to belay, and he was an awesome belayer.
What Happened?
I organized a late announced climb at Cragmont, and so just Gene and Jo came for the climb. What we lacked in numbers, we made up in the quality of the climb session. We had a great time because the anchors were really easy to reach from the top, the routes were fun (and not too hard), and it was peaceful. There was a solo top-roper next to us, but he was really nice and we just engaged in a few simple conversations about spiders, ascenders, etc.
After a few routes, Jo and Gene left, and so I headed down to Steve’s BBQ for lunch, but they were closed due to it being Memorial Day, so I caught a yummy veggie dog at Top Dog instead.