Sasha DiGiulian Repeats Legendary Ron Kauk Route

Sasha DiGiulian made a rare ascent of Peace 5.13c/d, a Ron Kauk line that appeared in one of the Masters of Stone videos. The 100-metre route is a Yosemite test-piece.

It was originally being climbed ground up by John Bachar, who had climbed the first pitch and some of the second and had named his project Die Hard. Kauk rap-bolted the remaining route and sent it with Chris Falkenstein in 1995.

Photographer Christian Pondella was there to capture the action, visit his Instagram here for photos of DiGiulian on Peace.

DiGiulian posted this photo along with this message on her Facebook page: “Mission Completed! I have been trying an old Ron Kauk test piece, Peace. I grew up with a poster of him on this climb hanging in my room and I have always wanted to climb it. I’m happy thank you for all the positivity and encouragement.”

In 2009, Katie Lambert made the second female ascent of Peace and wrote the following on her blog: “I partnered up with Lonnie Kauk [Ron Kauk’s son] and together we made the fourth and fifth free ascents of Ron Kauk’s contribution to Medlicott,  Peace. 

“In over a decade this superb piece of rock had only seen less than a dozen ascents. With a successful red-point of this knobby crimp-fest my ego made me feel special but I wondered why such a beauty had been left alone for so long.

“This route opened up a new world to me of Tuolumne climbing and in my search of the climbs of lore what I found were mossy holds, old bolts, weird bolts, run outs, technical test pieces and few people who wanted to embark on these journeys. It was becoming clear to me that these gems of the past were being looked over for safer, easier, more traveled terrain.”