Pietro Vidi does Magic Line (8c+) trad

Pietro Vidi has repeated Magic Line (8c+) in Yosemite (CA). In 1996, Ron Kauk completed the route using pre-placed gear, and his son Lonnie repeated it in the same “pink-point” style in 2016. Two years later, Lonnie achieved the first true clean ascent, upgrading the grade to 8c+ to reflect the added difficulty of placing the gear on lead. (c) Victoria Kohner-Flanagan

Pietro’s repeat of Magic Line follows his ascents of the big wall The PreMuir (8a+) on El Capitan, and the trad line Meltdown (8c+) trad last month - topping off a very successful trip to The Valley.

”After a last minute change of plans and not starting my push on The Nose, the obvious goal was Magic Line. I have always been attracted by the beauty and aesthetics of the line, but at the same time intimidated knowing it wouldn’t suit me as well as meltdown. The thought of climbing both routes in the same season got me even more psyched to try it! I found the route actually suited me really well - with a hard intro boulder, followed by some very delicate laybacking on really bad smears and little edges and then a final no-hands rest before the last boulder.

On the first session on a Top-Rope I could quickly link the two cruxes, but it took me 3 further sessions to optimise my beta for the long middle section and figure out the most efficient gear placements and all the little details. I eventually top-roped the route placing all the gear on my fourth session and felt really confident to send even with thr limited time I had left on the trip. On my first day of lead attempts I made it to the last, (easier) crux on both tries, but my foot slipped on one of the very last moves, seeing me take a couple of big whippers.

I managed to send the route on my first try of the next day, finding myself flowing through the cruxes without even thinking and “magically” found myself at the chains! For sure one of the best, most aesthetic and most technical lines I’ve ever climbed! Really happy to have climbed both this and Meltdown in the same trip, but I’ll definitely have my focus back on the bigger walls for my next trip to The valley!”