Tommy Caldwell Frees Nose in a Day, Lynn Hill Comments

Mick Ryan

19th October, 2005

This has been read 2,306 times

David Schmidt at Climbing.com has reported that Tommy Caldwell, fresh from his free team ascent of the Nose with his wife Beth Rodden, returned two days later and fired off a 12 hour ascent of the Free Nose leading all the pitches whilst belayed by his wife.

This is the second time that the Free Nose of El Capitan has been free'd in a day, the first time was of course by Lynn Hill in 1994. Lynn Hill had this to say at her blog about Tommy and Beth's ascent,

"It is great to hear that the Nose has had another free ascent. First of all, Tommy and Beth had the right state of mind, ability and desire to make it happen! I've heard many times, “Lynn could do the great roof because she has small fingers.” Tommy is missing the tip of his index finger on one hand and even though it would have been easier with all of his finger tips, clearly he was able to find a way to make it work. He proved my point that one's attitude and spirit is more important than one's physical make-up. The point of climbing is to adapt to the natural features of the rock and Tommy and Beth found a way to do it rather than letting physical limitations distract them. They both love to climb, have tons of experience climbing on all types of rock, and it makes me happy to hear that they succeeded as a team! They are an inspiration as climbers and as a supportive couple in their daily lives!"

This post has been read 2,306 times

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Comments

tobyfk

19 Oct, 2005

Anyone trainspotterish enough to be interested in the 'do small fingers help?' topic should take a look at this article by one L. Hill in 1994 .. see paragraph seven: http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/nosehill.htm

UKB Shark

19 Oct, 2005

She says small fingers were definitely an advantage but I would suspect that she would have found a way to do it even if she had bigger fingers. Ron Fawcett for example couldnt do the mono move on Revelations but contrived an (unrepeated?) alternative without it (maybe a bad example). Not many people dimiss Seb's achievements for long reach, Dawes for natural talent etc. The small fingers thing seems to be one way for closet misogynists to deal with the fact that at the time she was probably the best and most accomplished climber in the States - male or female.

Skyfall

19 Oct, 2005

Agreed. Have you ever heard such rubbish? Though not *that* well written, her autobiography was quite inspiring - even to a non-female. She clearly has bags of talent and, more importantly, the desire to succeed.

tobyfk

19 Oct, 2005

I always thought a misogynist was someone with an aversion to fermented soya but - having checked the dictionary: isn't that a little harsh? It is perfectly consistent to believe both that Lynn Hill is one of the most accomplished (inspirational, determined, etc) climbers of that, or any, time AND believe that she had some physical advantage on that pitch on the Nose, as she states herself in that article. Some might say that it's rather excessively PC to refute the latter ... Speaking personally: the achievement that raises her to deity status for me is her effortless upstaging of Timmy O'Neill in the appalling recent 'Petzl Roctrip' video ... see Petzl website.

UKB Shark

19 Oct, 2005

isn't that a little harsh? Not when people keep banging on about it for a decade

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