1993: Lynn Hill Busts a Move

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1993: Lynn Hill Busts a Move


	Lynn Hill in Moab, Utah, July 13, 2002. (Photograph by Sian Kennedy)

The Nose route on Yosemite's El Capitan is a famously difficult 34-pitch climb up 2,900 feet of steep and fissured granite, and only one person has done it without mechanical aids: LYNN HILL Now 41, Hill completed her epochal free-climb over four days in September 1993, after retiring from a dominant World Cup sport-climbing career. A year later, she freed The Nose again—this time in less than 24 hours. " I went to Yosemite after I got tired of competing. I thought: I'm going to take all the things I've learned and apply them to something big. I climbed The Nose as a kind of performance art, because I wanted to show the power of having an open spirit. I felt so strongly about this climb that it's no surprise it seeped into my dreams. When a climb gets difficult and you're not sure you can do it, the only thing you've got is your will to persevere. That toughness and faith are priceless."

Interview by Jason Daley