Background

Lynn Hill was born on January 3, 1961, in Detroit, Michigan, United States, and grew up in Orange County, in southern California. She was the fifth of seven children of James Alan Hill, an aeronautical engineer, and Suzanne Biddy Hill, a dental hygienist.

Education

Lynn was an active child. She climbed everything from trees to street lights. From the age of eight, she was engaged in gymnastics. She was part of the YMCA gymnastics team that competed in southern California and performed in halftime shows for the California Angels. Hill quit gymnastics at the age of twelve. During high school, Hill took up gymnastics again and became one of the top gymnasts in her state. This skill contributed to her climbing success.

After twenty years together, Hill's parents divorced, and she immersed herself in climbing. In the early 1980s, she was one of a number of climbers from America and abroad who congregated in Yosemite Valley, living in tents and climbing day in and day out.

In the late 1970s, Hill attended Fullerton College. She worked in order to be able to climb. In 1982, Lynn moved from Las Vegas, where she had previously lived, to Santa Monica, California where she attended Santa Monica College and majored in biology. To make ends meet, she worked at an outdoor store, as a gym teacher, and occasionally appeared on television shows. In 1983, Hill decided to move to New Paltz, New York. After moving to New York, she attended the State University of New York at New Paltz and graduated with a degree in biology in 1985.

Career

Lynn Hill first roped up in climbing at the age of 14 and excelled immediately. In 1979, she became the first woman to climb a route rated 5.12d.

Hill discovered competition climbing during a visit to France in 1986. She 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. Hill competed against other women on extremely difficult routes, gaining points for style and speed. She lost to Catherine Destivelle in a "disputed ruling." Lynn continued with competition climbing because she found it stimulating to climb with other strong women and became a professional climber in 1988.

From 1986 to 1992, Hill won more than 30 international competitions, including five times at the Arco Rock Master, the Wimbledon of competitive climbing. In 1990, at the World Cup Final, she was one of three competitors and the only woman to reach the top of the wall. She also was the only climber to complete the hardest move. In January of the same year, Hill set another landmark by becoming the first woman to redpoint a 5.14, Masse Critique in Cimaï, France.

Lynn first attempted to free climb The Nose in 1989 with Simon Nadin, but their attempt failed. In 1992, she went back to traditional rock climbing. In 1993, together with her partner Brooke Sandahl, she became the first person, male or female, to free climb the route. The next year, in 1994, she became the first person to free climb the entire route in a single 24-hour period. 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, where 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, she led a small team of women to the island of Madagascar to do the first ascent up a steep, two-thousand-foot wall of granite.

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

Currently, Lynn runs a small business offering climbing courses and also works as a technical adviser for various climbing gear companies.

Hill has also participated in various television productions, such as Survival of the Fittest, which she won four seasons in a row. During the early 1980s, she appeared on The Guinness Game, That's Incredible!, and Ripley's Believe it or Not. In 1999, Hill appeared in Extreme, an IMAX film on adventure sports. She also appeared in Vertical Frontier, a documentary about competitive climbing in California's Yosemite Valley.

Achievements

• Lynn Hill was one of the best competitive sport climbers in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s. She is famous for making the first free ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Lynn is frequently described as both one of the best female climbers in the world and one of the best climbers of all time.
  
  Hill has won more than thirty international climbing competitions. She made the first ascent of Ophir Broke which was then considered the hardest climb ever attempted by a woman and became the first woman to climb Masse Critique in Cimai, France.
  
  Lynn is a recipient of the American Alpine Club Underhill Award. In 2015, she was inducted into the Boulder (Colorado) Sports Hall of Fame.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World

    (In Climbing Free Hill describes her famous climb and medi...)

    2002

• movie

  • Vertical Frontier

    (The character-driven history of the art, the sport and th...)

    2002

Views

Lynn advocates for gender equality in climbing. She has argued that men and women can climb the same routes. Later, she 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."

Hill has also spoken about how American culture encourages women to be passive and to forego developing muscles, which makes it harder for them to excel at climbing.

Quotations: "When people say, "It can't be done," or "You don't have what it takes," it makes the task all the more interesting."

"For me, climbing is a form of exploration that inspires me to confront my own inner nature within nature. It's a means of experiencing a state of consciousness where there are no distractions or expectations. This intuitive state of being is what allows me to experience moments of true freedom and harmony."

"Height has nothing to do with it, it is your strength that counts."

"Relaxation, acceptance, and keeping open mind are key. First of all, peak performance isn't possible if one is not relaxed, and if one is going to stay relaxed they must simply accept problems when they arise and decide to solve them. If I can't do a move I merely accept that I haven't discovered the right sequence, instead of trying the same sequence over and over or just quitting. I will try to do it 20 or 30 different ways, making subtle changes in body position and foot placement, until I find something that does work. That's what I mean by keeping an open mind."

"When the pursuit of natural harmony is a shared journey, great heights can be attained."

"I'd been a child during the 1960s when women burned their bras and hundreds of thousands gathered in protests against the Vietnam War. As a climber, I've felt connected to similar nonconformist culture, one opposed to society's increasing materialism, pollution and corruption. Our approach to the rock - clean, traditional climbing, with the least dependence on equipment - was an extension of this ethical viewpoint."

"Many of the women who I've taught to climb have a better sense of balance than the men. I think it has to do with being a little more sensitive to it rather than relying on strength. It's also a reflection of a passive attitude - balancing your way up the rock, rather than attacking it."

"Man or woman, you have to have the mental characteristics, the ability to concentrate, the focus, the flexibility, where women have the advantage, and strength-to-weight ratio. It does depend on the raw power."

"For me, the most relevant factor in my ability to perform well on the rock has to do with my love of climbing. After nearly thirty years of climbing, I still love to do it whenever possible!"

"I was quaking in my boots."

Personality

Lynn Hill is fluent in both French and Italian.

Physical Characteristics: Lynn Hill is 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) tall and weighs 110 lb (50 kg). She is petite. Her arms and shoulders are powerful, and her hands are small, which gives her an advantage slipping her fingers into tiny nooks and crannies to get up a wall. Her size made some climbs more challenging, but was an asset to her on others.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  soccer, baseball, gymnastics

• Athletes

  Yvon Chouinard

Connections

Lynn Hill married climber Russ Raffa on October 22, 1988. Their relationship ended in March 1991. In 2004, Hill began a relationship with Brad Lynch. At the age of 42, she gave birth to a son - Owen Lynch.

Father:

James Alan Hill

Mother:

Suzanne Biddy Hill

ex-spouse:

Russ Raffa

Son:

Owen Lynch

Partner:

Brad Lynch

References

• Pilgrims of the Vertical: Yosemite Rock Climbers and Nature at Risk Few things suggest rugged individualism as powerfully as the solitary mountaineer testing his or her mettle in the rough country. Yet the long history of wilderness sport complicates this image. In this surprising story of the premier rock-climbing venue in the United States, Pilgrims of the Vertical offers insight into the nature of wilderness adventure.
  2010
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