Magic Line 8c+ trad by Lonnie Kauk

Rock & Ice report that Lonnie Kauk has once again repeated his father's Magic Line in Yosemite, upgrading it to 8c+ as he placed all gear on lead. Ron Kauk did the first ascent in 1996 and Lonnie did the first repeat in 2016, both with preplaced gear, i.e. pink point. (c) Lonnie's Insta. The logic with the upgrade is basically that it is harder to climb a trad route placing the gear also because sometimes some of the holds are blocked. Back in the days when sport climbing was created, you were also supposed to place the quick draws on lead and as a matter of a fact, until like 15 years ago, this was for many the way to go for onsights. One of the reason why a trad 8c+ is considered as harder than a sport 8c+ is because of this. Until now, no 9a trad route has been established and there exist only a couple 8c+ in the world, out of which two in Yosemite, including Beth Rodden's Meltdown.