Outside Magazine, October 07

This month's edition of Outside arrived in the mailbox Saturday. I excitedly and dutifully unfurled the pages between my thumbs with the bag I was otherwise carrying in my teeth as I walked the steps to my door. (I love mail, and I love the glossy de rigeur adventuresome pages of this particular magazine).

As this is the 30th Anniversary edition, there is an expanded cover adorned by nine "icons" or greats of their sports. The requisite appearance by Lance Armstrong, of course, along with Kelly Slater (surfing) and Amanda Beard (swimming) makes for pretty photographs with athletes nearly everyone knows.

The surprise member of the cast, for me, was the inclusion of one Lynn Hill. She is a rock climber- the first rock climber, ever, to free ascent El Capitan's nose (way back in 1993). After reading the brief one page interview inside, the looming question became- why hadn't I ever heard of her before?

Now, for those of us who aren't rock climbers- let's put her most famous accomplishment in perspective.

What is a free ascent?
Free ascent, or free climbing as it is otherwise known, is rock scaled without any artificial aids to make upward progress. E.g., the climber uses only his or her hands or feet, but no mechanical devices of any kind. Unlike free soloing, however, they do use straps and harnesses to ensure that if they fall (and most had on El Capitan prior to Lynn Hill), that they will not plummet to the ground below.

That said, being strapped by a rope to a bunch of rock hardly ensures your health or well-being. It merely means that when you fall, you'll crash just five to ten feet below into the wall of rock you had just surmounted, not the potentially hundreds of feet below into the ground. It's just choosing the frying pan over the fire.

Now consider doing this 5.13c route under the power of your hands and feet alone.

Falling has been all but the inevitable fate of those who've gone before you.

And failure means, at minimum, slamming into the most famous granite wall of Yosemite National Park.

Bloodied, bruised, battered.

Now, this is in no way meant to detract from the noteworthy accomplishments of Lance, Amanda, Kelly or Laird Hamilton, all of whom adorn this cover with the diminuitive Hill. But they race against competition, outflash or style one another on waves and, at the end of the day, if they do not win - means only that they have come in second place. At worst- they've wiped out.

If you fail in rock climbing, especially free ascents, you can only hope to survive the slam or fall.

In the interview, when asked why she had undertaken so difficult a route that many good climbers before her had attempted and failed, she offered only that she felt "it was my fate. Even if it's not rational, if you believe in yourself enough, that desire can make you rise to the level of whatever you've imagined." (pp. 116)

Kudos to you, Lynn Hill.

Outside magazine's October 2007 / 30th Anniversary edition is available at newstands now.