EgoBoy

Wow...I am really surprised those bolts are still there. The hangers alone would be worth the trip. Anyhow, I feel like I should add a twist. The upper section of this "route" seen some attempted free climbing. A couple individuals have managed to break left from Dracula and pull through the roof seen in the previous pics. However, the rounded upper section seems about as desperate as the top Frightnight. Anyhow, I have a little free time on Sat and some PC7 to boot...any takers?

We climbed both routes. Oddly enough, I hadnt done Gandalf's.

I recently climbed through this route. Begin up Frodo's Journey 5.9+ tell you reach a large belay ledge. Follow a moderate slab to the first bolt on a shallow dihedral. Scum and stem your way to the next 10+. Pull around the arete using marginal half pad crimps. From the same crimps reach up into the roof using terrible slopping crimps, work your feet up and reach blindly over the roof. Your hand ends up about a foot from the rail, dyno. Throw your heel up on a far right nub. Mantel using bad side pulls. <-- Crux 1 V6ish. Recover through an off balance sidepull slap section. 11+. Your feet start to disappear as you enter the business of the route. Your left with bad single pad sidepulls and no feet. <--V7 at least. At least some of the sidepulls are incut. The goes for a about two bolts, making the clips quite tenuous. The moves somewhat reminded me of the Metolius move on Churning. It is also very possible to blow it on the last move as you move (desperately) from sidepulls to pulling down. This line is somewhat similar to Freight night. Due to the large amount of low probability movement. But with a somewhat more reasonable finish. I found no glue or obvious chipped holds. The FA, Philip is calling the line Dark Tower. It would be a stout 13b if not 13c.

It would have made little difference had I called him. If the route were to be handed down it would have certainly not have gone to me. It would have definitely gone to Kevin and would remain unclimbed. Egoboy was a name given to me by one of your counterparts. I dont really agree with the humbling due to the fact that neither side is so. I could care less what you call it. In fact I dont even care if I'm in the guide, so long as the route remains open.

Ok, say I made a call to Kevin or Jason ( I do have both of your numbers), Jason finally decides he’s not up to the line and is willing to give it up. Kevin is next up (really sorry to make assumptions), however, he as a new father has had little time to stay in climbing shape and will need the rest of the summer to get back in shape. The summer passes and the line is not sent. What then? The route is handed down again and another year passes. Btw I was never asked to call Kevin or Jason I hate to include others in this incident, but it was one of the fore fathers of Ozone who encouraged me to climb the line; I’ll let you guess who. You all seem to forget, I would have most certainly equipped and cleaned the line myself. Yes the development of new lines is dangerous, however to me it is an acceptable risk. Said loose boulder is not loose, nor does it come into play on the route. I came within four feet of it without trying to avoid. There are surprising few new moderately hard lines going up in Portland Metro nowadays. Yes there is room for more and I am developing, but most of what’s left over are contrived squeeze jobs or simply unpleasant to climb unaesthetic glue jobs. I do not believe it is acceptable to take another’s line, pretty sure I made this known. However, I find it strange that one can simply stake claim of public property and hold it indefinitely. Yes there are a bunch of people who can climb this grade, many of whom are friends with the developers, of course they should get a crack at the route before anyone one else, because friends of developers deserve preferential treatment in the climbing world. We are in a very grey area. What I did was wrong, reserving the line was wrong. What I took was a small piece of credit, people will always know Jason did the work. An FA holds so much more weight than an FFA. Yes, I did what many had encouraged me to do. I will not name names, but it is substantially more than those who opposed. I am not talking about climbers verses developers, I am referring to others who have developed routes. I was told by Kevin and others that Jason had hurt Himself AFTER he developed the line in a totally isolated incident. Had he been hurt preparing, this would be a much different story, and I would have not considered climbing the line. Kevin, I did respect your wishes…a year ago. One whole season passes and there is no end in sight. It was good of you to show me around the area, because of that kindness at the time, I avoided it. This is an issue where I will not see eye to eye with the developers of Ozone. My ethic is that all routes are open after a reasonable period (a month max). Yes I am actively working a line which I prepared and it is open to all. This particular route was extremely dangerous to clean (high cave in risk). So to all who didn’t read my original post, I would have prepared this line myself had I seen it first. -Ryan Palo

Kevin thanks for posting my good deeds on the net. You know communication between us would have yielded nothing. I would have asked you (and Jason) would have said no. When you first told me of the line I understood, you guys did a tremendous amount of work out there for which I am thankful of. However, when I found out when the line was developed I was shocked. No line should be closed for such a reason. I had asked around and heard that the line need more prep work due to a large boulder being loose. After inspection I found said boulder to be quite solid and far away from the line of weakness. Knowing that it might be many more months before Jason healed and got back into shape and that Kevin being a family man, the line had potential to be closed indefinitely. So I climbed the line, it contained some excellent movement in my opinion. I moved the tag to the anchors to signify the line had been sent and was now open. I assumed (rather foolishly) that a man with so many FA wouldn’t care all that much, in fact I was told that he would “laugh it off”. Poaching the line is not something I am proud of. The FFA means very little in my book. What matters to me is the act of climbing itself. Yes, I could have taken therefore negating the FFA, but that wouldn’t have solved the problem of a closed line. Many of you can say “you don’t know what its like to engage in such an undertaking” when in fact I do. I will not mention where for obvious reasons. The work is hard, there is no other way to look at it. That line caught my eye, had I seen it before you I would have developed it myself. Yes Kevin what I did was selfish and I do deserve some flack for it and I expected it. But isn’t keeping something very public private? You know what I think is more selfish? Taking the bolts out of TWO lines and DESTROYING THE HOLDS!! I am sorry, but the whole “I don’t like the way you play so I’m going to take my ball home” attitude is weak. I’d love to hear you defend your friends position. I am not going to name the route. I said that only after I was threatened with violence. Getting emails saying I know who you are, talking shit about my friends who had nothing to do with this, and of course openly calling me out on the internet, this is childish bullshit. And come on, do you really think it was my intention to go around spraying about it just to boost my ego. You want to talk about big egos, look at yourself. Why is it that you care so much about a FFA? Do you think it might have something to do with YOUR ego? -Ryan Palo