Positive Vibrations had become a bit of an obsession for Karén and I. Last year we got pummeled by a hail storm halfway up, and upon a recent attempt we had discovered not one, not two, but *five* parties were already ahead of us in a slow moving train (needless to say, we chose to climb something else). So anyway, we figured third time is a charm, right? Given that it was almost October, we were hoping for a lack of crowds, in theory.

We encountered our first obstacle on Friday night leaving the Bay Area. The BMW's fuel pump died about 100 miles from home, leaving us stranded on the side of I-5. There are very few times in my life that I've felt as vulnerable as on the side of a busy highway with trucks screaming by a few feet away. Yikes! Eventually we got picked up by a friendly tow truck driver who may as well have been a stand-up comedian. The ride to San Francisco was very entertaining as a result, covering a wide range of topics - from cars (duh), to girls, to "best places to live" (he was from Stockton). The highlight was perhaps the expression on his face when we arrived on Mission Street, "Hahhahha, this guy's jeans are skinnier than the girl's!" with an honest surprise on his face. He also asked what's up with the skinny handlebars on a bike. Not many hipsters in Stockton, I guess - culture shock! By the time we dropped off the car at a shop and sorted through all of that and got home it was nearly 1am - ok, we're not leaving tonight after all.

Saturday morning started off fairly exciting as well (we had to go to SF to wheel the car into the mechanic's shop), but eventually we did make it to the mountains in the afternoon. Not having much daylight left to climb, we elected to just play around at the Sonora Pass pull-out, with plenty of awesome street side climbing (we bouldered the easier stuff and led / top roped the rest). Do not think it was smooth sailing from here, however - on the way to the Twin Lakes trailhead that night, I hit a small deer with the subaru (the last one of three that sprinted perpendicular across the road). Now we were really wondering - are we totally jinxed when it comes to the Hulk!? It seemed like things were conspiring against us!

Almost superstitious at this point, we had a nice & huge dinner at the trailhead, and decided to take advantage of the full moon and hike in that night, and bivy at the base. Going car-to-car in the morning didn't work out for us last time, with so many parties ahead of us, and we wanted to improve our chances... Well, the full moon was amazing indeed, as we hardly needed to use our headlamps! The temperature was perfect for hiking, as well. 9pm to midnight, not too bad. We brought ultra light sleeping bags/pads and nothing else, which meant we didn't really get as much rest as we wanted - the night was pretty chilly, being almost October!

Dawn was really cold - we brewed coffee and lazed around, and didn't start climbing until 8:30am, but we were lucky and had the route to ourselves all day. I linked the first two pitches, which is 65 meters of fun to the large ledge with bolts - definitely the way to go (the topo is wrong on the pitch lengths here, btw). Nice warm-up! Karén made short work of the 3rd pitch, which is the first of the two 5.11 pitches - a short but tricky traverse. I then did the next one, which is an awesome 5.10c stemming affair that keeps on going, and we kept swapping, doing the whole route in 8 pitches total (well, 7 and one mini-pitch). We had only gone to pitch 5 in the past before the storm came, and the route gets *a lot* better after that - the last 3 pitches are mind blowing with great exposure and continuous cracks, Splitterville indeed! Pitch 6 starts with super fun stemming and a short but sweet 5.10d finger crack - I stopped after it to get a closer belay for the 5.11a after that (which is a little trickier). Pitch 7 had an amazing splitter on a vertical face as well, great exposure and quality of the climbing. The 5.10c at the end was pretty tricky, felt like a crux! And then the 8th pitch was basically something out of a dream. It goes for a full 200 feet, of which 150 are perfect hand jamming that lead to the top of the ridge, wow!

Soaking in the sunshine at that point, we rappelled down the Venturi and packed up, hiking out before it got dark, and driving back to the Bay Area. We dodged several deer on 108 and thought we were home free, but at the Oakdale gas station the credit card was rejected. It turned out it was hijacked earlier that day, with a fraudulent charge for $500 from "Folsom Prison Blues". A hilarious final obstacle - what a weekend! Positive Vibrations is definitely one of the best climbs I've ever done, if not *the best*, and I already can't wait to do it again, as well as sample the other climbs on the Hulk - there is plenty else to do there!

	The Incredible Hulk, in all of its glory! (photo from a previous trip)	The approximate line of Positive Vibrations on the Incredible Hulk	Starting up the first pitch

	Starting pitch 1	Looking down pitch 1 & 2 - a long ways!

		The crux move on pitch 3

		Pitch 5 has an awkward/wide crack, but it's fun

	Starting the spectacular pitch 6	The 5.10+ roof is pretty exciting	The amazing 5.10d splitter on pitch 6.

			The crux is pulling left onto the arete

	Karen coming up the 5.11 mini pitch - note the incredible exposure!		Welcome to the town of Splitterville, CA

	Amazing crack climbing, two pitches from the top		What a location!

	Looking down pitch 7	Coming up the 7th pitch - the end is pretty tricky 5.10+ climbing	Starting up the last pitch - amazing 5.10 hand crack. 150 feet of hand jamming out of a 200 foot pitch.. what more can you ask for?

	At the top of the ridge	Looking down the amazing 8th pitch	Rappelling the Venturi

	Rappelling the Venturi	You can see the crux of PV on the left (thin double cracks to arete)	The Venturi Effect follows that thin crack right of the rope - sweet!