Count Chalkula

Yea, Tom added the line back in the day. Sep 9, 2016

Charlie, I think that straight up variation was a crazy persons attempt to make a bolt ladder so that they could practice aid climbing. It outraged the community several years back and the bolts were quickly chopped. It was...crazy! Sep 13, 2016

---I redpointed this about two years ago. It may need a little brushing, but the moves are fantastic - a powerful crux to surmount the small roof and then an explosive finish to a jug! It all requires a hard smear with the right foot and some killer side-pulling/gastoning and some fun air if you miss. This route def. adds another cool test piece for locals. Thanks for posting Charlie! Sep 13, 2016

I was walking past the Bat Wall with my then-toddlers several years ago when I saw these middle age guys bolting right through Dracula. I stopped and made really clear that they were going right through both a classic sport route and an old A4 route (Go back to the gym? Wayne Wallace maybe?) , and that they needed to immediately stop unless somehow both FA parties for those routes had given permission to commit this atrocity. They more or less ignored me and said that Portland needed an aid route for people to practice on. I explained that leaving bolts 3 feet apart, so you can hang directly in your harness and clip the next bolt, was not exactly aid climbing and had no real value anyway. They didn't stop, and I told them their route had a 100% chance of being chopped, although not by me, and that they were just scarring the rock pointlessly and wasting their own time. I posted on this site later in the day about what I saw going on, and obviously the right thing was done. Funny to see that incident referenced here, as part of our collective local climbing history.
Dec 21, 2016