The »Great Lady« of climbing – Lynn Hill

There is hardly another woman as famous in climbing, and as esteemed for her successes. The climbing ethic, with which she pursues her routes, has always been particularly important to Lynn Hill. This is also reflected in her first ascents.

Sport and more sport

By the end of the 1980s, the climber from Detroit was famous around the world. In 1979, when she was 18 years old, Hill was the first woman in the world to climb a difficulty rating of 7c (IX) on the »Ophir Broke« route in Ophir, Colorado. Since then, she has been considered one of the best sport climbers in the world. Lynn grew up in California and was soon noticed because of her talent for sport. When she was 14 years old she began to climb and was quickly at home on the walls around the legendary »Camp Four« in the Yosemite National Park.
Between 1986 and 1992, she won more than 30 international competition titles; she won five times at the Arco Rock Master alone. Moreover, she was also successful outside the competition arena. In 1984, she successfully made the first on-sight free ascent of the »Yellow Crack« (IX) in the Shawangunks, New York. She reached a further milestone in 1991 with the first red-point performance of »Masse Critique« in Cimai, France as she was the first woman to climb the difficulty level 8b (X).

A route for eternity

After she left competition climbing in 1992, Lynn Hill devoted herself more intensively to traditional climbing once again. This was to become the high point of her career. In 1993, she made climbing history when she was the first person to free climb the »Nose« on El Capitan in Yosemite. And in 1994, she successfully repeated the feat but this time in a single day. Both performances remained unrepeated for over ten years until Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell likewise were able to notch up a free ascent for themselves in 2005. However, Lynn Hill is the »Freer of the Nose«. She lives in Colorado and passes her knowledge on in various ways. The 48-year-old organises climbing camps as well as bringing up her 6-year-old son Owen. For her, climbing is more than an athletic challenge, for her it is »a means of developing as a person, of learning to understand the world and of sharing these experiences with others«.

Source: Der Bergsteiger

Go to the official website of Lynn Hill...