Lynn Hill

At 63 years old, Lynn Hill has this physical status:

Hill started to participate in climbing competitions in the mid-1980s, but one of her first significant accomplishments was in 1979. She became the first person to free climb Ophir Broke in Ophir, Colorado, which has a difficulty rating of 5.12d and was the hardest route ever climbed by a woman at that time. It was the hardest crack climb in Colorado at the time and there were only one or two harder ones in Yosemite. Long was amazed by her feat. He has said "that's when I knew for certain that this woman had extraordinary talent". The regional guidebook credits Long with the first free ascent of the route; Hill speculates the reason for this is that at the time she was an unknown climber and known only as Long's partner and protege. In her autobiography, Hill explains that it was during this climb that she realized it is not a person's size or strength but ability to be creative on the rock that is important: "The big lesson for me ... was to realize that despite what appeared to be a limitation due to my small stature, I could create my own method of getting past a difficult section of rock. John's size and power enabled him to make long reaches and explosive lunge moves that were completely out of my range. I, on the other hand, often found small intermediate holds that John couldn't even imagine gripping ... Short or tall, man or woman, the rock is an objective medium that is equally open for interpretation by all."

Living near the Shawangunks during her college years, Hill pioneered many new free climbing routes. In 1984 at The Gunks she performed an on-sight first ascent of Yellow Crack (5.12c) and Vandals (5.13a); Vandals was the most difficult route on the East Coast at the time and the area's first climb of its grade. Her lead of Yellow Crack was a very dangerous ascent, her climbing partner at the time Russ Ruffa calling it "one of the boldest leads I've ever seen ... I had tried leading it. I knew you had to totally commit to doing the moves, otherwise the chance of surviving would be minimal. Those are the moments that really stand out—when you see someone totally on the edge." It was her climb of Vandals that led Hill to reconsider her climbing style; rather than begin the climb again every time she fell or leaned on the rope for support, she hung on the rope in her harness to gain more information about the climb. As she writes in her autobiography, "In one moment I had, to some degree, thrown out years of climbing philosophy ... The subtle advantage of hanging on the rope to figure out the crux moves gave me the added information that helped me learn and eventually succeed on the route. The old style of climbing suddenly seemed rigid, limited, and contrived." That year, she performed a series of impressive feats, leading Tourist Treat on-sight with only one fall, "perhaps the most difficult first ascent in the north country at the time". She was arguably "the best climber in the Gunks", as local climbing legend Kevin Bein called her, and "no man was climbing significantly better" than her.

As a result of Hill's impressive climbs in The Gunks, she was invited to climb in Europe in 1986. The French Alpine Club invited a group of elite American climbers to climb in the Verdon Gorge, Fontainebleau, and Buoux. Hill felt an immediate affinity for French culture and climbing. She particularly enjoyed climbing on the limestone common in France because it has many pockets and edges, producing "wildly acrobatic climbs" with low risk. Moreover, these types of climbs are ideal for people of small stature, like Hill. She tried sport climbing in France for the first time that year. Inspired and intrigued by European climbing culture, she returned later and took part in Arco e Bardonecchia Sportroccia '86, the second edition of the first international sport climbing competition, which later became the Rock Master annual event. The event was divided into two stages, one in Arco and one in Bardonecchia, Italy. She competed against other women on extremely difficult routes, gaining points for style and speed. She lost to Catherine Destivelle in a "disputed ruling" but won in the following year. Destivelle in her autobiography, reckons she won that year because she planned to climb fast from the beginning, as speed was decisive in case of equality, which she doubts Hill was aware of when starting the competition. In an interview, Hill has said that this first competition was "disorienting" because she did not understand the language, the "format" or the "judging" nor did the organizers of the competition. "There were a lot of politics involved, a lot of nationalism and disorganization. The rules seemed to change during the event. I remember asking about the disparity between prize money for men and women. The only response I got was, 'If the women climb without their tops, then we'll pay them the same.'" However, she continued with competition climbing because she found it stimulating to climb with "other strong women". In one interview, Hill said that "if there wasn't a Catherine Destivelle or Luisa Iovane ... or whoever there, then it would be anticlimactic." Destivelle became Hill's main competition in the late 1980s while Isabelle Patissier emerged to challenge her in the early 1990s.

She became a professional climber in 1988 and the subsequent interviews, photoshoots and media appearances led to her becoming a spokesperson for climbing. As Hill explained, competition climbing is "such a different activity than going out and climbing on rock ... You're in front of all these people ... You're there to perform." From the beginning of her sport climbing career, Hill was aware that the sport was evolving and growing. For example, she pointed out in an interview that some competition organizers would chop down trees and alter rocks just for the sake of a competition; she could foresee that competitions would all eventually take place on artificial walls for environmental reasons.

Throughout the early 1980s, Hill had remained a traditionalist, but after her 1986 trip to Europe, she started adopting many sport climbing techniques. For instance, she had resisted hang-dogging (hanging on the rope at any point during the climb), holding with the philosophy that it was cheating, but after experimenting with it during her ascent of Vandals, she found it a useful way to learn challenging climbs. During the mid-1980s, there was great tension in the climbing community between traditionalists and new sport climbers. There was even a "Great Debate" in 1986 at the American Alpine Club at which a panel of all-star participants—including Hill—were invited to discuss the merits of the two different styles, especially sport climbing that required the insertion of fixed bolts into the rock. Hill has argued that "the purpose of climbing is to adapt yourself to the rock. You work on yourself to overcome the obstacle of the rock ... I believe climbers should leave the rock as unaltered as possible ... you have a responsibility not only to put in safe bolts but to put them in logical places—to do the least possible alteration of the rock to establish the best possible experience for others".

From 1986 to 1992 Hill was one of the world's top sport climbers, winning over thirty international titles, including five victories at the Arco Rock Master. This coincided with the era when the leading female climbers caught up with the leading men. In 1990, at the final stage of the World Cup Final, she was one of three competitors and the only woman to reach the top of the wall—and the only climber to complete the hardest move. As Joseph Taylor writes in his history of climbers of Yosemite, "at that moment Lynn Hill was arguably the best climber in the world, male or female". Hill describes this as her most satisfying win because her competition—Isabelle Patissier—received information on how to do the final climb from the men who had already finished it. Moreover, Hill was starting with zero points in the competition because she had made a mistake in the previous competition, so she had to win big or not at all (the World Cup consisted of a series of competitions in which the participants were given points for a variety of climbing techniques). "It took all of my effort and concentration to pull through the route. The moves I had to make were really spectacular, but I managed to do them. I was so excited to get to the top ... I proved a point about women and what we're capable of—a lot of the best men had fallen off that route." As a professional climber, Hill was able during this time to support herself by doing what she loved; she made approximately half of her income from climbing competitions and half from sponsorships.

In January 1990, Hill set another landmark by becoming the first woman to redpoint a 5.14 (that is, she practiced free climbing the route before she was able to successfully climb it), Masse Critique in Cimaï, France. J.B. Tribout, who first ascended the route, challenged Hill, saying no woman would ever be able to climb it—Hill completed it in fewer tries than Tribout, after "nine days of exhausting effort". In 1992, it was described as the hardest rock climb ever made by a woman.

Hill has experienced only one major accident in her climbing career. On May 9, 1989, she fell during a climb in Buoux, France; after forgetting to tie a safety rope, she fell 85 ft (25 m) into a tree, and was knocked unconscious, dislocated her left elbow and broke a bone in her foot. She had been training hard for the World Cup and had to stop competing for a few months to recover; she was devastated to miss the first World Cup in the sport. However, only six weeks after her fall, she was back climbing.

Hill did not regard sport climbing to be real climbing and felt out of place on the professional indoor climbing World Cup circuit, so she left in 1992 and went back to traditional rock climbing. As she explained in an interview, "the thing I didn't like too much towards the end was how focused it was on just indoor climbing and training. I didn't start out training on artificial walls, and that's not really ever something that I wanted to do as a full-time profession". In her autobiography, she also comments on the "bad sportsmanship, rule bending, and monumental egos that infested the competitions". She looked for different challenges and set herself the task of free climbing (that is, using climbing aids only to protect her from falls) The Nose, a famous route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

Asked why she was motivated to climb The Nose, Hill has said:

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.

In her autobiography, Hill explains how she had "underestimated" how complicated climbing The Nose in a day would be with a film crew. Endless complications arose, such as the American coproducer backing out at the last minute, the soundman and cameraman refusing to rappel down the summit because they were afraid, and minor technical problems such as dead batteries. Hill herself had to coordinate many of the logistics because the producer had abandoned the project. Her first attempt to free climb The Nose in a day was plagued with problems. She ran out of chalk after 22 pitches, very nearly ran out of water and was taxed by the intense heat. She tried again soon after. On September 19 at 10 pm, she and her partner Steve Sutton, began the ascent again, this time without a film crew. After 23 hours, she had free climbed the entire route. In his book on the changing culture of Yosemite climbers, Joseph Taylor explains that Hill's ascent of The Nose demonstrates how climbing in the Yosemite Valley had altered from its origins in 1960s counterculture to become a "consumable experience". Hill staged what he describes as a "spectacle", filming the event "to capture the spontaneity of her one-day ascent", but she was only successful when not surrounded by a film crew.

The "Free Nose" and the "Free Nose in a day" remained unrepeated over 10 years after Hill's first ascents—despite numerous attempts by some of the best big wall climbers in the world. Over time, a consensus grade of 5.14a/b has emerged for the most difficult pitch, known as pitch 27 or Changing Corners, a fact which cements her Free Nose ascents as two of the most impressive achievements in climbing history. 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 summitted 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.

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 summitting; she realized on this trip that her style of free climbing was not conducive to summitting 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.

Hill started offering climbing camps in five locations in the United States in 2005, with plans for more. For US$2,000, participants received five days of an "immersive adventure camp", including one-on-one coaching from Hill and other famous climbers. 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.

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."

Long an advocate for gender equality in climbing, Hill has argued that men and women can climb the same routes: "I think they should have women compete on the same climbs as the men, and if the women can't do the climbs, then they shouldn't be competing". For example, she argued that both sexes compete on the same routes in World Cup competitions. However, Hill later revised her view, noting that while she could and did compete with men "spectators want to see people get to the top. And since most women aren't climbing at the same level as the top men, it's necessary to design a route that's a little easier for women". In answer to a question about whether or not women "will ever equal or surpass men in climbing", Hill gave a detailed response, focused on body composition, size, and psychology, explaining that climbing "favors people with high strength-to-weight ratios[s]", less body fat, and greater height, articulating that such characteristics often favor men but that women "have the advantage of being relatively light, with the capacity for tremendous endurance". She explained that "theoretically somebody as short as me could be the best in the world because it doesn't depend so much on height now ... And it's a psychological thing more than a physical thing."

Hill experienced discrimination throughout her climbing career and in an interview with John Stieger in Climbing, she pointed out that despite her success and prowess at climbing, this was a problem for her. She pointed to sexist remarks from male climbers who believed particular routes were impossible for female climbers and the fact that "there's a lot less importance and prestige placed on women in climbing, no matter what your ability is". 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. Hill has explained that when competing she is not competing against men or women but with people's expectations of what women can do.

Hill has been credited with bringing many women into rock climbing. The 1980s saw a large influx of women into the sport, in part because more women were visible in it and in part because Title IX funding mandated equal access for boys and girls to athletic programs in public schools. 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."

Source

• 1984 – American Alpine Club Underhill Award