But with the booming popularity of climbing, access issues are bound to arise, either from the rock being on private land (New England and Switzerland come to mind) or over-visited and subsequently restricted (Hueco). What are your feelings on this?
Basically, access is something that people should not take for granted.  There are many places in the world today that are now closed to climbing because of people abusing the privileges that they are given at specific locations.  If this behavior (e.g. not throwing away trash in specific designated locations, parking at locations that are not allowed just to make hikes easier, going off trail to get to a rock faster, and just not listening to the rules) continues, the climbing areas that are open to us today are going to be closed.  I have traveled a lot and have seen the positive and negative effects of climber’s behavior. I have seen areas opened by people who respect and work with the landowners to reach an agreement to allow climbing, but many more times I have seen areas closed or restricted due to poor climber behavior. Two areas that I wanted to visit have recently been closed. Both Sonlerto and Brionne in Switzerland have been closed, it seems, due to very disrespectful climbers who have just not obeyed the rules set out for them to be able to climb there. There are also areas in the States like RMNP, Mount Evans, Hueco, Bradley, and Great Barrington, among others, that have serious access issues today that need to be cleared up.  I really think that building positive relationships with landowners and park rangers is an important task that the climbing community as a whole needs to address. These areas are all amazing and something really needs to be done before these areas are closed as well.

What do you think about “secret areas?”
I think secret areas are OK in certain situations, but not all.  For me, if an area is secret for no other reason other than that the people who found it want to keep it to themselves and their close friends, I think they’re terrible. I mean, then climbing just becomes what group you are in so that you can see "the cool new secret spot."  But in other cases I find that secret spots are totally fine. They’re legit if access is sketchy or if the people climbing there are attempting to get access under control before they alert the crowds.  Again, going back to Switzerland, areas like Brionne and Sonlerto were unheard of by Americans until very recently and because of this sudden attention, both of these areas are closed.   I think that keeping these areas secret would have been smarter than publicizing them before the people there actually got to learn about the access issues they were dealing with.  It is really just a shame to me to see such amazing areas closed in a matter of months because of the sudden publicity that they received.

OK, enough politics. Describe your most perfect day bouldering.
One day that really sticks out in my mind occurred just a few months ago.  I was on a quick trip to Utah to shoot some photos with Tim Kemple.  I wanted to try this project that would soon become A Wrinkle in Time.  I warmed up on the Beyond Life wall, doing both They Call him Jordan and Wills of Fire without a crash pad!  I felt really strong on my warm up and hoped that the rest of the day would feel the same.  I went over to A Wrinkle in Time and was like, “crap! This thing has barely any ice underneath of it now!”  Tim and Mike Call had already begun setting up their video and film equipment so I began putting bits of dirt underneath the landing to make sure I would not just slip right into the freezing water about three feet to my left.  I got the crash pads ready and booted up.  I sat there, under a very thin sheet of ice and thought, “Wow. I have not even stuck the last move yet and it’s a huge move about 14 feet above the thin ice plus the third move is huge and there is a big possibility of falling.”  I knew that if I fell off of any of the moves I was going straight into the river which at the time was about 8 feet deep and really, really cold!  Tim yelled over, “Paul! If you fall in your just gonna get wet, your not gonna DIE!”  I thought about that and with a good friend and great spotter, Chris Lindner, I decided to just go for it.  The climb went well and I fired the final move to make the first ascent. I was so psyched!  After that, Mike Call was telling me about this sick project that had been tried a bunch over the last couple of years up the canyon.  We got up there and the boulder was amazing.  I tried it a bit with Chris Lindner who did really well on it. 

After about an hour, the sequence was figured out and Black Out (V12) was in the bag. After this, I went about twenty feet to my left and fired off Gentleman Jack (V12) in 5 tries!  By this time, it was really starting to get dark and Chris was psyched to try The Worm Turns. I was psyched with my day already and we all walked over there and spotted and shined lights for him in the dark cave.  As it was getting totally dark and we were walking back to the car I got this idea…Black Lung!  I told Tim my idea and he asked me if I really thought I could do it both tired and in the dark.  I told him I was psyched and we headed over there while Mike Call and Chris drove back to Salt Lake City for the night.  We got there and we had one light and my headlamp.  After about an hour I felt so close and had fallen on the final stab toward a gaston pocket up at the top of the wall, but as I fell one more time on the last move the Tim’s light ran out of juice. I was determined to send and went for it again with just my headlamp. I fell off the first move, UGH!  I tried again and went to the top. I was so psyched. I had dreamed about doing Black Lung for many years and sending it in total darkness with just a headlamp was one of the coolest moments of my life and one I will never forget.

That’s quite a day!  Do you plan to continue with bouldering exclusively or do you think you might branch out into more sport climbing or take up trad? Deep water soloing?
I feel like there is infinite potential for me in bouldering.  Bouldering, for me, is the most amazing form of rock climbing and interests me the most.  I want to stick with bouldering as long as I can.  I definitely would like to try deep water soloing at one point; it looks like such a blast!

What don't people know about Paul Robinson?
My secret to success is a lot of Oreos and big glasses of 1% milk!