"[4] Kauk and Bachar set to work attempting the route, and while making good early progress, continuously failed to execute the awkward mantel-move needed to overcome the "lip" which is at a height of almost 5 metres (16 ft).

[8] In 2002, Kauk's son Lonnie ascended the route, which he attributed to being the "key" that unlocked his path into professional adventure sports.

[9][10] In May 2013, the chalk-drawn lightning bolt was scrubbed off the boulder,[11] by climber and Climbing magazine contributor James Lucas, who claimed the image had lost its magic, and was now more of a trademark or tourist attraction.

[4] Sam Moses, writing in Sports Illustrated said the most difficult move on Midnight Lightning is a "spider-monkey swing 15 feet (4.6 metres) off the ground.

[17] In a similar vein in 2015, Climbing called Dreamtime: ".. arguably the first internationally famous boulder problem since Midnight Lightning".

[18] The first ascent was not only an important part of Yosemite climbing history,[4][19] but was also a major milestone in the development of bouldering as a sport in its own right, with one of the hardest known bouldering routes in the world – and the first consensus V8 route – now established in the middle of Camp 4, which was one of the most important gathering places for the world's leading rock climbers.

[23] In a 2017 documentary on his first ascent, Kauk said that: "... to this day [it] has had an effect on my personal sense of place and history, within the climbing community, throughout the world".