“Climbing is not just about being strong; it’s about being clever and using your mind,” said Lynn Hill. In Yosemite National Park, where granite walls soar toward the sky, Hill became one of the greatest climbers of all time. In 1993 she was the first woman—the first climber—to free climb The Nose on El Capitan, sending shockwaves across the climbing community.
Hill grew up in Fullerton, California, in the 1960s. She was a member of a YMCA gymnastics team that performed at MLB Angels games, and she became one of the top high school gymnasts in California. During college summer breaks, Hill pursued adventures in the Yosemite Valley. She joined the climbing community, calling it “a ragged occupying army, annoying park rangers by eluding camp fees, overstaying their welcome, and comporting themselves like gypsies.” They eked out a meager life at camp through recycling cans to pay for climbing ropes and living on leftover food from tourists. Hill remembers “these dirt-poor days… [as] among the best and most carefree of my life.” Hill was strongly influenced, in particular, by climber Yvon Chouinard’s ethic of “leaving no trace” on the rock.
From 1986 to 1992 Hill was one of the world’s most accomplished competition climbers, winning over thirty international titles. However, she did not regard sport climbing to be real climbing and felt out of place due to having to perform for an audience. So, in 1992 she went back to traditional rock climbing. She chose to set herself the audacious goal of free climbing The Nose. This was to be a retirement gesture that would bring her back to free climbing—and equally importantly back to Yosemite. Hill did it in just four days. The rock face is nearly blank and there are next to no holds. Her climb remained unrepeated for over 10 years, cementing her ascent as one of the most impressive achievements in climbing history. Yvon Chouinard called it “the biggest thing that has ever been done on rock.”
“For me, climbing is a form of exploration that inspires me to confront my own inner nature,” Hill wrote in her autobiography, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World. “It is a means of experiencing a state of consciousness where there are no distractions or expectations.”
