The fish dies through the mouth and some largemouths, like the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Tribout. His unfortunate statement that no woman would be able to complete a most demanding route, like the one he opened in 1989, Masse Critique, in France, motivated the intrepid and delicate Lynn Hill (Detroit, 1961) to work hard to complete it. a year later, thus becoming the first climber in history to sign a line of such difficulty, classified as 8b. This and other niceties uttered by male colleagues never intimidated the petite and discreet Lynn. Things get more interesting when someone says they can't be done, she considers the athlete who, without fuss, has made the impossible easy.
“I showed that I was capable of competing with men; Your desire must be stronger than your ego,” she stated in this interview recently conducted in Barcelona, where she traveled invited by the Gràcia Excursionist Club to participate in the Amunt Festival.
When Lynn looks back, a slight smile appears on her face and she relativizes the sexist comments of which she was a victim. What she tells about her is her brilliant career and having been and will be a source of inspiration for men and women who love this sport, like Sasha DiGiulian, with whom this fall she completed her latest project. “We have opened Queenline, on the south face of Maiden, in the Flatirons, in Colorado, with a grade of 8a or 8b. She is very strong but I have more experience in charting new paths in a classic style; My role has been more logistical, of solving problems because with every step you enter unknown territory,” says Lynn, 62, at the bar in the Tradicionàrius de Gràcia center.
Talking with Lynn Hill inevitably leads us to stop in the year 1993 and in one mythical enclave, El Capitan, a gigantic granite mass of more than 900 meters, in Yosemite National Park. Before, at the end of the seventies, Lynn began to cut her teeth in these Californian places. At the age of 14 she took her first steps in climbing, but she says that at the age of nine she already liked to climb. The practice of gymnastics and athletics, her innate agility and her mental strength helped her progress through the rock. For a time she was one of the Stonemasters, the legendary group of climbers made up of Jim Bridwell, John Long, Tobin Sorenson and Ron Kavik, among other devotees of the rock, and also of the grass, who made Yosemite their temporary home. .
Lynn starred in her great story in El Capitan at the age of 32, after working in other destinations. She returned to Yosemite to prove that what had been impossible for any human being, man or woman, she would achieve. On September 13, 1993, together with Brooke Sandahl, she began the adventure. After four days of vertigo, Lynn did it, he summited El Capitan via The Nose route freely, that is, he ascended naturally, only with the strength and push of his hands and feet, without clinging to any artificial device fixed on him. the rock. In this type of climbing, the anchors are there for safety in case of a fall.
The phrase he uttered after that achievement is famous: “It goes, boys!”, something like “That's it, boys!” Yes, a girl like me, weighing 45 kilos and just over 1.50 meters tall, has done what none of you have been able to do. To top off the task, the following year she repeated The Nose in the same day, in less than 24 hours. It should be noted that in these three decades only ten people have completed the same route freely.
“I have never stopped climbing, but when I had my son, whom I have raised alone, I have not had much help from his father, I felt the need to not take so many risks and I saw that I could not be a mountaineer, since it means going through a lot time away from home. But until now he had had a lot of freedom, he had traveled a lot and what he wanted was to assume the role of mother,” he recalls.
She says that she is now involved in finishing setting up a space in Hueco Tanks, in Texas, where she will organize climbing workshops. And what is taking away her dream is that Donald Trump will once again be chosen by the Republicans to run for the US presidency. She trusts that women will gain ground in all areas. “We are very strong, we should be more involved in politics and the economy, I think that in certain situations we can do better without men feeling threatened, I defend the feminine style to move forward. In general, we have a more compassionate and kind approach. Kindness brings more success because it makes you feel good, in the mountains too.”
With determination and confidence she has achieved historic milestones in climbing and has also done her part to correct the discriminatory treatment of women. On an NBC television show, Survival of the Fittest, which she won four years, she stood up and demanded doubling the amount of the prizes awarded to the contestants.
