UKC

NEWS: Magic line, 8c, repeated after 20 years

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 UKC News 11 Jan 2017
Lonnie Kauk, 4 kb20 years ago, Ron Kauk made the first ascent of Magic Line, 8c, a thin crack in Yosemite. Now it has been repeated for the first time. It took another Kauk, Ron's son Lonnie, to do it.

On Instagram, Lonnie wrote: A giant thank you to my Father, Ron Kauk, 1st ascent - December 6th 1996......

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 Tom F Harding 11 Jan 2017
In reply to UKC News:

I remember seeing a black and white version of this picture in a climbing instruction book years ago and thinking it looks impossible - amazing it's finally had a second ascent

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/21/f8/2d/21f82db8d4ff6a15a86...
 SuperLee1985 12 Jan 2017
In reply to Tom F Harding:

I genuinely thought he was soloing it in that picture and I was like "Jesus Christ, it's taken 20 years for someone to repeat a line that this guy soloed on the first ascent!?"
Eventually noticed the quick draw and harness, still cant see the rope tho.
 CurlyStevo 12 Jan 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Is it bolted - hard to tell from the pics and some places seem to grade trad routes sport grades.
1
 1poundSOCKS 12 Jan 2017
In reply to CurlyStevo:

> some places seem to grade trad routes sport grades.

It's the French grade I presume, anyway not a sport grade.
1
 SuperLee1985 12 Jan 2017
In reply to CurlyStevo:

No, it's trad (on pre-placed gear) according to the internet.
 CurlyStevo 12 Jan 2017
In reply to SuperLee1985:
Even more impressive then and possibly explains the lack of repeat. I'm hazarding a wild guess that this route weighs in around E9 and must have been one the hardest trad routes in the world at that time and quite possibly the highest french grade for the climbing on a trad route back then also.
Post edited at 10:49
 Andy Moles 13 Jan 2017
In reply to UKC News:
Saw Ron Kauk do a chat about 'the naturrre' in Yosemite last year. Someone asked why he thought no one had repeated this route, and he just shrugged and said it was a little out of the way and in an out-of-fashion style. And sick hard and tenuous.
Post edited at 08:48
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