Lynn Hill - WikiHQ

Hill first attempted to free climb The Nose in 1989 with Simon Nadin, a British climber she had met at the World Cup that year. Although he had never climbed big walls, she felt at ease around him and both had a background in traditional climbing; they both shared a desire to free climb The Nose and agreed within hours of meeting to try the feat together. Their attempt to free climb The Nose failed. Four years later, in 1993, together with her partner Brooke Sandahl, she became the first person to ever free climb the route. Hill's original climbing grade for the "Free Nose" was 5.13b. One of the most difficult pitches—Changing Corners—she rated at a 5.13b/c, but she wrote in her autobiography that "rating the difficulty of such a pitch is almost impossible" and "the most accurate grade would be to call it 'once, or maybe twice, in a lifetime'". The rock face is nearly blank and there are next to no holds; to ascend the section, Hill had to use a "carefully coordinated sequence of opposite pressures between [her] feet, hands, elbows, and hips against the shallow walls of the corner" as well as turn her body completely around.

The next year, in 1994 she surpassed this achievement, by becoming the first person to free climb the entire route in a single 24-hour period. Usually the climb takes four to six days (Hill had previously done it in four) and most climbers are aid climbing; that is, most climbers allow themselves to use mechanical aids to assist their climbing rather than just their own skill and bodies.

Hill wanted to join her effort with that of making a film that "would convey the history and spirit of climbing". Hill started endurance training in the spring for her summer ascent of The Nose, aiming to be able to on-sight a 5.13b after climbing all day. She trained in Provence and tested herself against Mingus in the Verdon Gorge, making the first on-sight free ascent of the route without a fall while simultaneously being the first woman to on-sight a 5.13b. At the time, climbing legend Yvon Chouinard called it "the biggest thing that has ever been done on rock" and Alexander Huber later wrote that this climb "passed men's dominance in climbing and left them behind". He also regarded her statement upon completing the climb of "It goes, boys!" as reasonable although other climbers regarded it as provocative.

The Nose saw a second free ascent in 1998, when Scott Burke summited after 261 days of effort. Then, on October 14, 2005, the team of Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden also free climbed The Nose, and on October 16, 2005, Caldwell did it in less than 12 hours.

World traveler

thumb|right|Hill videoing a climber at [[Hueco Tanks as part of Lynn Hill Climbing Camp]]

In 1995, Hill joined The North Face climbing team and was paid to travel around the world to climb. She first visited Kyrgyzstan's Karavshin Valley to climb with Alex Lowe, Kitty Calhoun, Jay Smith, Conrad Anker, Greg Child, Dan Osman, and Chris Noble. They camped for a month and were cut off from the world, without even a radio. In her autobiography, Hill writes that "such isolation made me feel vulnerable". Hill was not used to mountain climbing (as opposed to rock climbing) and the unpredictability of it unnerved her, with its increased risk of storms and rock slides. Furthermore, she liked focusing on the style of ascending rather than just summiting; she realized on this trip that her style of free climbing was not conducive to summiting or mountain climbing. Rather than pursue ever higher climbs, therefore, she chose to climb in new places, such as Morocco, Vietnam, Thailand, Scotland, Japan, Madagascar, Australia, and South America; many of these climbs were filmed and helped promote climbing in general. As of 2012 Hill was living in Boulder, Colorado, and still travelling widely. From Boulder she runs a small business offering climbing courses and also works as a technical adviser for various climbing gear companies. As of 2013, Hill was a sponsored athlete for the Patagonia gear and clothing company. While Hill used to easily obtain sponsorships, in 2010 she said in an interview that she was "too old" to obtain shoe sponsorships.

Gender politics

Hill repeatedly tells a story from when she was 14 years old and bouldering in Joshua Tree: she succeeded on a route when a man came over and commented how surprised he was that she could do the route because even he could not. "I thought, well, why would you expect that you automatically could do it? Just because I was a small girl, was I not to be able to do it? It was a memorable experience because it occurred to me then that other people had a different view of what I should or shouldn't be capable of doing. I think that people should just do whatever they can do or want to do. It shouldn't be a matter of if they're a man or a woman. It shouldn't be a matter of one's sex." Hill has also commented extensively about how American culture encourages women to be passive and to forego developing muscles, which makes it harder for them to excel at climbing. She lamented this trend and was happy that her family and friends had allowed her to be the "tomboy" she wanted to be. In answer to a question about her position as a role model for women climbers, Hill responded that she felt "responsible to communicate something that touches people, that inspires them, that gives them a sense of passion". Climber John Long explains that Hill "was a prodigy and everyone knew as much ... Twenty years ago, no female had ever climbed remotely as well as the best guys, so when Lynn began dusting us off—which she did with maddening frequency—folks offered up all kinds of fatuous explanations. Some diehards refused to believe a woman, and a five-foot article at that, could possibly be so good. Out at Josh, it was said Lynn shone owing to quartz monzonite's superior friction, which catered to her bantam weight. In Yosemite, her success apparently hinged on midget hands, which fit wonderfully into the infernal thin cracks. On limestone, she could plug three fingers into pockets where the rest of us managed two. In the desert Southwest, she enjoyed an alliance with coyotes—or maybe shape-shifters. Even after a heap of World Cup victories, it still took the climbing world an age to accept Lynn as the Chosen One, and perhaps her legacy was never established, once and for all, till she free climbed the Nose." For that production, she and Nancy Feagin had been filmed the previous May crack climbing in Indian Creek Valley in Utah. She also appeared in Vertical Frontier, a documentary about competitive climbing in California's Yosemite Valley.

In 2002, Hill collaboratively wrote an autobiography, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World, with mountaineer and writer Greg Child, published by W.W. Norton & Company. As she describes the process, "He would take my writings and organize them, and he encouraged me to elaborate on certain elements. He emphasized that telling the story is what's important, so he really helped me think about what I wanted to say, and figure out who my audience was."

Personal life

Hill met fellow Gunks climber Russ Raffa on her first trip to New York and by 1984 he had become "her constant companion". On October 22, 1988, the two married

In 2015 she was inducted into the Boulder (Colorado) Sports Hall of Fame.

Notable ascents

thumb|right|upright|Hill made the first female ascent of Yosemite's Midnight Lightning in 1998. (Others pictured)

thumb|right|upright|Hill made the first female ascent of Yosemite's King Cobra in 1998. (Others pictured)

1979, Ophir Broke II 5.12d, Telluride, Colorado − First free ascent and first-ever female ascent in history of a ,

Competitions

1986, Grand-Prix d'Escalade, Troubat, winner

Filmography

First Ascent (1982)
Bambous (1987)
Moving Over Stone (1988)
Moving Over Stone II (1991)
Climb (1991)
Psycho Anthropologist (1992)
The New Spider Man (1993)
La maîtresse du vide (1994)
Sea Kayaking (1995)
Rock (1996)
Vietnam - Into the Dragon's Teeth (1997)
Free Climbing the Nose (1997)
Pabbay - Outer Hebrides (1998)
L'arte di arrampicare (1998)
Extreme Summer (1999)
Extreme (1999)
Big Stone (1999)
Yosemite - Ascending Rhythm (2000)
Beyond Gravity (2000)
Madagascar - A woman's first ascent (2000)
Vertical Frontier (2002)
The Center of the Universe (2003)
Pro Tips - Volume 1 (2003)
Petzl Roctrip Millau 2004 (2004)
Petzl Roctrip Squamish 2005 (2005)
Wall Rats (2006)
First Ascent (2006)
Petzl Roctrip Millau 2006 (2006)
Petzl Roctrip Zillertal 2008 (2008)
Progression (2009)
Petzl Roctrip Jonte 2009 (2009)
Rocky Mountain Highball (2010)
Climbing World Cup in Arco, Italy (2011)
Origins - Obe & Ashima (2011)
The Fanatic Search 2 - A Girl Thing... (2011)
Outside the Box (2011)
Petzl Roctrip China 2011 (2011)
Best of EOFT No. 8 (2012)
Stoney Point (2012)
The Network (2012)
Reel Rock S1 E1: La Dura Dura (2012)
Valley Uprising (2014)
Jeff Lowe's Metanoia (2014)
Wild New Brave (2014)
Climbing the Nose (2015)
Reel Rock S3 E5: Young Guns (2016)
Reel Rock S4 E1: Break on Through (2017)
Fine Lines (2018)
Hip Hop Gone Wild (2018)
Legends (2018)
Liv Along the Way (2018)
A Thousand Ways to Kiss the Ground (2020)
The Rapture of Free Soloing on Acid (2020)
Here to Climb (2024)

References

Cited texts

External links

Climbandmore.com – Lynn Hill complete climbing profile
Lynn Hill climbs Midnight Lightning
Excerpts from a documentary about Lynn Hill climbing the Nose from the Autry National Center
Video showing Hill climbing West Face, Leaning Tower
Interview Lynn Hill and the Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite
Lynn Hill on theCrag (Profile with notable ascents)