INTERVIEW: Lynn Hill on her amazing climb to the top
Discovery Channel is set to air the extreme documentary Valley Uprising, which depicts the rock-climbing awesomeness of Yosemite National Park in California. Lynn Hill, one of the met respected and accomplished climbers of all time, is featured in the film, which will air 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25.
Hill, according to her official website, is the first woman to climb a route rated 5.12d, plus 5.14 (in 1991). “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 [on El Capitan in Yosemite],” Hill’s website states. The author of Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World is a “living legend.”
Recently, Hill talked to Hollywood Soapbox about her thrilling career as a professional rock climber, her past accomplishments and future goals. Answers have been edited.
On her first adventure in rock climbing …
“Well, I consider myself very lucky because I grew up in southern California, and I started climbing in 1975 because my oldest sister’s boyfriend saw a notice on a bulletin board in an outdoor shop offering lessons to learn the basics of rock climbing. And we lived in the Los Angeles area, so there really isn’t that much climbing nearby, at least I didn’t know of any because I didn’t know about climbing at all back then. We learned in a parking lot how to rappel.”
On an early climb in her career …
“So on my very first experience climbing, [my sister] said, ‘OK, here’s how you tie into the rope. Here’s your harness.’ … She said, ‘OK, you go first.’ And so I had to lead my very first time, and it wasn’t an easy climb to understand. It was a low-angle slab where there are no concrete hand holds or foot holds. It’s just frictioning against the face and occasionally a little edge of rock that you can grab on to, but nothing that felt secure at all. So my first experience climbing was kind of scary. … My sister would say, ‘Oh, yeah, just clip your rope into that metal thing.’ I said, ‘What metal thing?’ ‘Oh, up there. Just climb a little higher.’ And I looked down, and I could see that if I fell I was going to slide down this slab and hit the ground. So it was pretty horrifying the very first climb.”
On how she took climbing to the next level …
“I mean that first day was so intense I wasn’t sure what to think of it, but I kept reflecting back on my experience and processed it. And I realized that it was something that I wanted to do any chance I could. So I was five years younger than my older sister, and she could drive a car. And I obviously couldn’t at 14, so I was at their mercy to go out climbing again. So I knew that I wanted to pursue it as a hobby in many years, but it wasn’t until I was about 25 that there was even an idea that I could possibly make a living through it or make some money at least.
“And that was only because of the climbing competitions that were happening over in Europe, so when I first went over there I was invited by the Italians. … So I went there in 1986 and started to win some prize money, and that’s kind of where it all started. I didn’t get a contract with a company until 1988, so a couple of years into it, and then I finally got sponsorship. But the sponsorship in climbing is not like any other mainstream sport like football, for sure, not anywhere close. Football players make a huge amount of money. Climbers barely make a living. In fact, you could say they don’t. Most climbers have to do a job on the side, even if they’re professionals.”
On breaking into the industry and the higher number of female climbers …
“Well, over time, there has been increasingly higher numbers of women climbers, and now you see a lot of women climbers, especially in a climbing gym. I think women tend to enjoy the aspects of the sport that are relatively safe as opposed to high-altitude mountaineering or free soloing, where you climb without a rope. That’s what a lot of people see in the media is the spectacular stuff, but that’s really a small portion of what climbing is about, or small number of people that even do the free soloing. But I guess it’s all a matter of perspective and relative difficulty. … I don’t know what the percentages are, but there are a lot more women today than there were.”
On her historic ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite …
“What makes that climb special is the fact that it’s one of the most historic climbs in the world of its type. … And Yosemite has always been a very important cultural place for climbers. They would be experimenting with equipment there and optimize and create new forms. …
“That’s kind of what made that climb special is the rich history and evolution, and when I climbed the Nose, I was bringing a new vision to that route. Nobody had been able to free climb it, and I was the first person to actually put that together and make the first free attempt. It was obviously a very important moment for me, and it seems almost surreal when it actually happened because there was so much effort put into trying. Finally something worked, and I was able to do it. It was a magical moment when I made it to the top. … Then I came back the following year to do a free ascent in one day, which is much different doing it in four days. Imagine you could run a quarter mile on a track from a certain place. Imagine doing that same pace for a marathon — quite a bit different. Or running a marathon and then when you get to the 20th mile, you have to run your fastest quarter mile. And that’s kind of what it was on El Cap. The hardest section was 2,500 feet off the ground.”
On her future goals …
“Climbing for me is a lifestyle. It’s an activity that I do on a regular basis. … It’s not so much about achieving a grade at this point. Although I’m 54 years old, and a lot of people my age say, ‘Ah, I’m old. I can’t do that because of blah, blah, blah.’ I don’t believe that I’m limited … The activity itself, climbing itself, is a way of preventing injury because you maintain a lot of strength in your abdominal muscles. … Climbing is keeping me young and keeping me healthy as long as I don’t lose perspective and push too hard.”
On Yosemite …
“Thankfully John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt protected this national park, and it’s one of the great things about America is that we have these special wilderness areas that we can respect hopefully for generations to come.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
- Valley Uprising airs 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25 on Discovery Channel as part of Vertical Weekend. Click here for more information.
