Yeah, there a solid shoe. He's also one of the legends of the sport. His son Lonnie Kauk is also a pretty damn solid athlete. High end snowboarder and also a very, very high end climber.

Here's a vid of him repeating his dad's route Broken Arrow(13d) in Toulumne Meadows. The vids not the best but I've been on that thing and can tell you how impressive it is. A month or so later he went back and lead it placing all the gear. Possibly the first true lead with non pre-placed gear. Solid family,

Yesterday was perfect here for climbing. Super low humidity and in the mid-60's. Unfortunately the one climb my friends and I wanted to get on was the one line that was still wet. Oh well. Being the first day of the year on real rock, none of us were complaining.

Man, it's been dry and in the 50's to 60's here all winter long.

Sorry, I had too. lol

I'm actually packing up the bags for a trip to Australia with the wife. We leave Saturday for 2 weeks. 5 days of that will be climbing in Arapiles. It's one of the best trad cliffs in the world. It'll be my second visit and I'm stoked. I'm also about 94% healed from this seasons injuries. Perfect timing.

Lol. I would if I were you. I mean, that's one of the big reasons you are where you are, right?

And stoked for you and your wife. Make sure to take plenty of photos and give us a full report when you get back.

Looks like it's finally drying up around here. Headed out today. Stoked!

@theesotericone , how was the down under?

Cool. Hope the weather cooperates for a bit.

Australia was great. Got 3.5 days of climbing in at Araps. It actually rained on our 3rd day.lol

Since I was with me wife we kept it pretty mellow(at least for me). Cruised some classics from 19-21. That's 10A to 10D/11A for those that aren't familiar with the Aussie system. It is the best grading system out there BTW.

My wife has a few photo's but I didn't take any. It's never my style to take photo's. My style is to climb a lot and photo's slow me down. In 3.5 days we got about 20 roped pitched in. I'll try and get the copies she has and post one eventually. lol

I did a lot of soloing after the wife was done for the day. That place is as good as the Gunks for super easy solo's. Think 5.3-5.6. It's so fun to just move over rock without worrying about anything. I guess it's not as well accepted there as it is in the Gunks though. I got more then a few "WTF" looks from folks. lol

I have mostly just been an indoor boulder-er the past few years but have intentions of getting outside a bit more. I have always just gone to the gym for the most part due to me, my wife and other friends having the lack of coordinated time to go outside and travel even just a little bit. However I am hoping this summer will be different not that I have gotten my wife more into climbing and quite a few more friends going regularly.

I climb around a V7 I think. I climb at the Spire here in Bozeman and they rate boulder problems as an S rating. This means that each S has 2 V ratings, making my S4 climbing around V7 I believe.

Later this year I have a trip to Joshua tree planned so I am stoked for that and being able to get some real good outside bouldering in.

I love Joshua Tree. Been so long since I've been there. SO many amazing boulders. As well as so many scary amazing highballs. Bring your big boy pants!

Yesterday was an amazing day out. Perfect temps (For me at least. I like it a little on the warm side.). Was able to send a line called Turbulence V11/12. Such an amazing line. After a couple of us went to work a line called Penrose Step V14. Felt crazy hard to me, but there was some really good progress made by my friends. I think they can both do it with enough sessions.

Some of my favorite climbing days have been just climbing some super fun classics. I feel like when you travel, that can be even better. Often times when I've gone to a new area, I've sat on just one line or two. Missed out on so many other amazing lines. I think I'm in a mode of projecting local and circuiting when traveling.

That is good to hear! I have never been before and my friend that I am going with hasn't either. He has bouldered in Yosemite but not Joshua tree. Like I said I am so stoked to get one some routes. The only bummer is that i have to wait till October.

That is awesome! I am so jealous of you people climbing those levels. Some day I will get there but I feel like it will be taking a while.

On one side I do believe that some of the best lines out there are in the upper grade range. But on the other side I believe that there is a point of actually being too strong. A friend of mine is definitely stronger than I am, but is not quite strong enough to really compete with the best of the best out there. Which puts him in a weird spot. He has pretty much exhausted every hard line in the area and is now forced to climb really contrived extensions to existing climbs or to search for new climbs. I feel like I'll never run out of stuff around here!

The video below is of him on a few of the hardest local lines. That Drawn and Quartered line is insane. The video does it no justice at how tall or committing it is. Also one that unless you have a huge + ape index, no one under 5'11"-6ft-ish will ever do it.

Sure, but that upper range should be a self-determined upper range. Think of all the climbs you thought where the "best" when V7 was your upper limit. Once you get stronger, that limit increasing and so does your perception of what the "best" is.

Most really good climbers I know have the desire to get stronger to climb harder lines. Alpine, trad, sport, bouldering it doesn't matter. They're driven by an inner desire to perform to max potential. That max will be different for everyone. The one thing that's the same is the determination to keep pushing forward. I've climbed with great, motivated V4 climbers and I've climbed with great, motivated V15 climbers. The mentality in them is the same. The strength, technique, and muscle memory is what's different.

Basically, if your trying your hardest I respect you. If your not, maybe consider golf. lol

Completely agree with that too. Which is why I said that I believe that some of the. Definitely not all of the.

And one of my favorite things about climbing is that the joy of it is the same all through the grade range. Meaning if I see someone working a V1 for a while and see them finally send it I know that exact feeling. It's not any different when you change the grade number. It's one of the few sports you can enjoy with others despite your skill level. Golf for example is not very fun if you have two people at very different skill levels.

And I should also add that it was in response to @tS_kStin saying that he envied stronger climbers. Was basically saying that while yes there may be some great climbs at higher grades, that there is possibly some downsides too. A sort of round about way of saying to be stoked no matter what level you climb.

I totally understand man. Trust me. I got stronger to open up more climbs to me. It was rad when I was breaking into 5.10 but it's equally as rad breaking into 5.12. The difference is there are way fewer people hopping on 5.12 trad. I hate waiting in line for climbs so it was what I had to do. lol

I don't know how much time you have during your J-Tree trip but keep in mind Bishop in only 5 hours north. J-Tree has some really good lines but it's not Bishop. Bishop has, arguably, the best bouldering in North America.

It does take a while to get stronger. Part of it's genetics, part is muscle memory, and part is just learning to be efficient. Genetics you can't help but if you keep climbing regularly the other two will follow.