Vent 5
Climb Review
I climbed here last year, and my review is unchanged.
420 Shaka Bra Experience (5.7; Kombucha Crag)—This was my first climb of the day and a fun one. While I was a bit worried since I had not climbed outdoors in a while, the mental worries fell away halfway into the climb, and I was able to enjoy the rest of it. It helped that most of the holds were jugs and the rock was reassuringly sharp.
Partially Newt (5.9; Kombucha Crag)—I definitely felt the grade difference between this and the one above as the holds were smaller, and I felt my finger strength be tested. I was so glad that I had gym climbed since January as if it weren’t for that, there’s no way I would have made it to the top. Still, there were great foot holds for every step of the way, and I thought it was easier than Right Crack at Lower Guadalupe Rock, the last 5.9 that I had climbed.
Left Arete (5.6; Kombucha Crag)—I found this to be a fun arete climb with lots of jugs. Because of my fear of heights, I sometimes have trouble with aretes (instead of just focusing on the rock ahead of me, aretes force me to look at the void next to the rock), but this one was so solid that I had no such troubles.
Shaky Bro (5.7; Kombucha Crag)—This was a fun climb, but super similar to 420, which shares the same anchor.
Thanks to Darlene for this picture!
China Pockets (5.10b; Kombucha Crag)—Oh man, I died on this one. I think I fell about 20 times on this route, and thank god Louie was such a patient belayer. I went up as slowly as possible as feet positioning was difficult for me. I did eventually find my way through the bottom by going left more than others, but it was a battle. This was because my finger/tendon strength was just not there, so I tried to avoid any finger pockets—instead, relying on jugs, slopers, and pinches. But I did eventually get to the top, and Louie was then free to do something other than belay... or so they thought.
Bolly Boo Ball(5.10a/b; Vent #5)—This one was a repeat of China Pockets. I was dead tired, and my hands were feeling numb, but being the silly boy that I am, I went for it anyways. I actually didn’t fall at first, but after I got onto the ledge, I fell like a dozen times trying to get to the top. It was a struggle, but helped by the infinite patience of Louie (who unfortunately belayed me again), I did eventually get to the top.
Kind (5.6; Vent #5)—Someone had to clean Kind, and I volunteered. Given that I had struggled so much on the previous two, it was really nice to turn the difficulty down to easy and just cruise to the top. It had been a while since I had last rappelled, so I took my time triple-checking everything before going off PAS.
What I Learned
Darlene brought everyone breakfast, and for Cassie and me, she got us an avocado spinach breakfast burrito. Having lived in California for 30+ years, it might surprise the reader that I had not had one before (I think California is closely associated with avocado consumption)—well, it was super yummy and is something I hope to make for myself in the future.
Cassie and I were concerned that with having backpacked the day before, our legs would be tired, and we wouldn’t be climbing much. We were wrong. Our limiting factor was finger strength and our hand’s ability to deal with the sharp rock—our legs were sore, but performed just fine.
Friends
I climbed with old and new friends—Darlene, Roald, Louie, Michael, Lily, and Joe. It was a really fun and positive group, with everyone encouraging each other and bringing positive vibes. Since everyone here was a friend of Darlene’s, it wasn’t surprising.
Of the above, Roald, Michael, Lily, and Joe were people I had not met before.
Roald is Darlene’s fiancé, and I found him to be such a generous person. He also was unafraid of challenging himself and someone I can see why would make a great fit for Darlene.
Michael was someone I had met once briefly and was someone I had known as Darlene’s climbing partner—they had done some pretty cool climbs in the past year (I had seen posts on Instagram). He proved to be an excellent climber and even cooler person.
Lily turned out to be someone that loves backpacking more than me! She had tons of knowledge about backpacking, and you too can learn more by visiting her blog. She’s also a Fuji camera user (there are dozens of us!).
Lastly, Joe was someone that Darlene had spoken highly of, and I found him to fit the bill. He was extremely friendly and easygoing—someone who made the extra effort to connect, which was super cool.
What Happened?
Darlene organized this climbing meet with her closest climbing friends, and Cassie and I were honored to be invited.
We woke up groggily at 5 a.m., found out Google Maps gives terrible time estimates versus Apple Maps, so we hit the snooze and slept for another 15 minutes. We then clumsily brushed our teeth, packed some hot water into our water bottles, then headed out. I was less sleepy than I had thought I would be, which was great since the drive on Highway 1 is a high-consequence one.
When we arrived at the parking lot, we found that Darlene, Roald, Lily, and Michael were already there waiting for us. We waited just a few minutes for Louie as we introduced ourselves and made small talk. At one point during the waiting, I thought I heard music and saw someone at the top of the cliff above Vent 5. I assumed they were playing this peaceful music live and I was impressed. I was shattered in seconds as I learned that it was probably just someone playing music on a speaker, which is not cool at all. On our way down to Vent #5… yup, just someone playing music out loud.
We decided to climb Kombucha Crag first. Michael and Darlene climbed first to set anchors, while the rest of us took photos or ate. I should mention that Lily was nice to declare herself as the unofficial photographer for the day, which I appreciated a lot as it took pressure off of me to take good pics of everyone’s climbs. I mean, I’d still try to, but I could just focus on the photos I wanted to take, instead of feeling like I had to document the whole event.
After not too long (I think less than an hour), Joe joined us. And we just continued on with our winning formula, which was climbing, being positive, respecting everyone, and just having a great time.
After a few hours of climbing, we moved our base of operations to Vent #5 proper and continued to have a grand time climbing, belaying, snacking, and encouraging each other.
At around 2 p.m., we called it a day and hiked back up to the top. Here, we said our goodbyes to Joe and Louie as they had other plans and couldn’t join us for our late lunch. The rest of us converged on PizzaHacker in Mill Valley, ate yummy pizza, and got to know each other at a deeper level with fun conversations.