VITAL Climbing Gym - Oceanside

Lots of problems that change weekly. There's a top-out boulder, slab, cave, overhang...all good, and a nice workout area too. Lots of room and a well kept facility.

Small but fun climbing gym. The routes tend to be a bit more dynamic and the grading is a grade more difficult than places like Hangar 18. This place is very small, but the quality of the gym is high, and the atmosphere was great. There were also plenty of classes available, including an aerial class which was cool to see. A day pass came out to $22, which is the most expensive out of their SoCal locations. Parking was plentiful as there was a small parking lot and plenty of street parking.

Had a great session here tonight, met some cool people, worked on some hard problems. First time at this bouldering-only gym, seems like they could have more problems on the wall, but it's also refreshing to have nice clean walls to climb on. All grades are represented.

The quality and variety of the holds 6/10. There was excessive rubber on many of the holds, so much so that my hands showed black. Quality of the routesetting 8/10 nationally, and maybe 6/10 for cali. The problems feel very much like outdoor bouldering, which is cool to experience. The color range grading system seemed functional. In addition to old school sets, they have comp problems above V8, and there are many strong climbers at this gym, especially the youth. Unfortunately they had the windows closed due to the heat wave, so I'll have to come again to experience the ocean breeze!

Only complaint is they tried to make me wear a tacky orange carnival-style wrist band since I wasn't a member. What the heck? Lol A day pass is $22 without gear. Overall a very nice small gym and a really cool location. Cheers from the east coast.

My daughter loves this Vital location. They have large floor to ceiling windows they are able to open to let in the ocean breeze!
The facilities are clean and inviting.
Good variety of sets that are regularly changed to keep it interesting.