For a town with no rocks to climb, Ventura sure has a remarkable history with the sport. Yvon Chouinard created Chouinard Equipment, Ltd. in the '60s and set up shop in a shed near Surfer's Point. He started banging out Lost Arrows and hexes right behind what is now called Great Pacific Iron Works, the original Patagonia store. Mike Graham, who was a 80's era Yosemite hardman started his company clothing company Grammicci in Oxnard (I used to work there), and lives in Ventura. There are other local climbing luminaries but that's not what I'm promoting here. Ventucky has it's very own rock gym, and a good one at that. I'm talking about Vertical Heaven. This is the real deal. Lots of vertical roped climbing, excellent bouldering, room to move and plenty of padding. If you've ever wanted to try climbing on a risk-free basis, this is the place for you, and they do rent climbing shoes. Check them out, climb a little plastic.
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| Darren Ogden and Ruth. You may recognize Darren from Real Cheap Sports, Venturas home grown mountain shop. I worked with Darren at Sport Chalet through the early '90s. |
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