Lynn Hill is a living legend. Few have accomplished an athletic feat more than a decade before anyone else- man or woman. Lynn changed the definition of what is possible in rock climbing with her first free ascent of the most famous big wall climb in the world called The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California. Over nineteen years later, Tommy Caldwell and Lynn are still the only two people in the world to have succeeded in making an all free one-day ascent of The Nose.
A natural athlete, Hill has competed as a gymnast and runner as well as a climber. She first roped up at the age of 14 and excelled immediately. By the late 1970s she was climbing near the top standards of the day. In 1979, she was the first woman to climb a route rated 5.12d. Lynn continued to climb routes at the highest standards of difficulty over the years to follow, including being the first woman to do a route graded 5.14 in 1991 – three years before any other woman. In 1992, Lynn was also the first woman to make an on-sight ascent of a climb rated 5.13b.
Hill discovered competition climbing during a visit to France in 1986. She quickly moved into the top ranks and won more than 30 international competitions, including five times at the Arco Rock Master, the Wimbledon of competitive climbing.
The following year after her first free ascent of the Nose in a day in 1994, Lynn took her big wall skills to the high peaks of Kyrgyzstan. There she made the first free ascents of two 5.12 big walls: the 4,000-foot west face of Peak 4810 with the late Alex Lowe and the Perestroika Crack of Peak 4240 with Greg Child. In 1999, Lynn led a small team of women to the island of Madagascar (located off the coast of Africa) to do a first ascent up a steep, two-thousand-foot wall of granite. This route turned out to be perhaps the most difficult first ascent of a big wall ever done by a team of women (5.13d/A0 5.12c mandatory).
As a part-time resident of both France and Italy, Lynn has become fluent in French and Italian. Her travels have taken her to various places throughout Europe and to remote climbing destinations in Vietnam, Thailand, China, Morocco, Australia, Madagascar and South America.
Among the world’s best-known climbers, Hill has been a guest at the White House and has been featured on numerous television shows such as Late Night with David Letterman, Battle of the Superstars (first place in the 50m swim event against sports stars such as Martina Navratilova), Four-time winner of the, Survival of the Fittest competition televised on NBC Wide World of Sports, That’s Incredible, National Geographic Television, Canal Plus, MTV Sports, ESPN “A History of Women in Sports”, Outdoor Life Network, ABC Sports: “The North Face Expedition Series”, as well as been featured in many publications from Life, Time, Sports Illustrated, Self, Shape, New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, in addition to gracing the covers of the best known climbing and outdoor magazines such as Outside, Climbing, Rock and Ice, Vertical, Mountain, Desnivel, and Montagne. Lynn has contributed essays in books such as, The Meaning of Life, Voices from the Summit, Fifty Favorite Climbs, as well as co-authored her own story titled, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World (published by W.W. Norton). Lynn is currently working on a climbing technique video called, Climbing Free, which includes elements of culture, history, and psychological perspectives that have influenced her evolution as a free climber over the past thirty-five years.
Climbing Free is the story of Lynn Hill’s life as a pioneering woman in what was once a male dominated sport of rock climbing. Lynn started out as a traditional climber in Southern California in 1975, where she joined forces with a group of climbers known as the Stonemasters, who pushed the standards of free climbing during the 70’s and 80’s. Lynn’s adventures continued to expand as she traveled across the country from California to New York, and then abroad to Europe in 1986. On her first trip to France, Lynn discovered what is now referred to as, sport climbing on the uniquely featured limestone cliffs of southern France. Soon thereafter, she was invited to return to Europe to participate in the first organized climbing competitions in the history of the sport. Lynn was one of the first champions of competition climbing from the mid 1980’s until 1992, when she left the world of competition climbing to pursue her first passion of rock climbing. Lynn was the first woman to climb 5.14 (three-years before any other woman), and the first woman to on-sight 5.13b.
In 1993, Lynn was able to combine her skills and experiences to author one of the most significant ascents of her generation. Her first free ascent of the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California, is perhaps the most famous rock climb in the world. Lynn was the first person – man or woman – to free climb the Nose. The Nose remained un-repeated for over a decade and will stand among one of the world’s great rock climbing accomplishments. Always curious and interested in learning about the world, Lynn has traveled to various places abroad in Europe, where she learned to speak both French and Italian, to more exotic places around the world such as Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Australia, Madagascar, Morocco, Cuba, China, and South America.
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