In reply to Simon Lee:
> I think you are highlighting that is trivial and beside the point but at the same time churlish and demeaning.
You seem oddly worked up about this, Simon? I think it is an interesting topic but I can't see the need to emotionalise it. I defer to you that you have been on the Nose and I haven't ... maybe I'd feel different if I'd imbibed the spiritual essence of the climb? As to highlighting the topic, surely Mick's done that in the way's he's edited his post at the start of this thread?
> Everyone has different advantages/talents that help in climbing such as finger strength, resistance to training injury, small fingers, balance, persistance, large fingers etc. The important thing is how you leverage these advantages/talents then apply them the challenges you choose and the successes achieved.
> Lynn Hill's is a/the supreme example of this (and I havent even read her book)-
'a' rather than 'the' surely.
> small fingers - so what?
Over the last ten years there's been an explosion of free climbing on other routes on El Cap yet until last weekend the Nose had not been repeated free (unless you count Scott Burke's ascent). In the context of climbing as some sort of competive/ comparative activity it seems a pretty interesting question as to why that is the case? Is Lynn Hill 'better' than Alex Huber, Yuji Hirayama etc? If so, might she have gone on to free the Salathe after the Nose?