Have we found the limit of pro climbing? || Climbing Gold W/Alex Honnold 

I think that the ultimate limit to climbing grades has to do with the number of people capable of enduring the training required to push to the next level. So it comes down to how much of a training load the human body can tolerate. Elite athletes in other sports are limited by their training cycle, which includes not only developing their physical attributes but also recovery (both from training and from injury, which are really a continuum). The use of some classes of performance enhancing drugs increases training tolerance. Mental outlook also factors into training tolerance, a strong motivation to train is required, and often this focus excludes other aspects of life. Training at this level is also hard, so the "value proposition" is another factor, what value to I get in pushing to the next grade given what I have to sacrifice to the training? In the end, the number of people who check all the boxes: have the physical capability, have the motivation, can tolerate the training, etc, is finite. As the difficulty increases, the number of people who can accomplish the training diminish until no one can. And whatever grade that happens at is the limit. Taking the timeline of Yosemite free climbing difficulty and interpreting it as a logistics curve, 5.17d is around the limit, and happens around 2040-2050. (The logistics curve, aka "S-curve" is characteristic of the exhaustion of a limited resource, in this case that resource is people who can train hard).

Jonathan is always a blast to listen, thanks

live with your limitations, accept them. and then applaud those who exceed.