Carolynn Marie Hill is an American rock climber. Widely regarded as one of the leading competitive climbers, traditional climbers, sport climbers, and boulderers in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s, she is famous for making the first free ascent of the difficult sheer rock face of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, and for repeating it the next year in less than 24 hours. She has been described as both one of the best female climbers in the world and one of the best climbers in the history of the sport. One of the first successful women in the sport, Hill shaped rock climbing for women and became a public spokesperson, helping it gain wider popularity and arguing for sex equality. Hill has publicized climbing by appearing on television shows and documentaries and writing an autobiography, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World.
Hill in Stavanger 2015
Hill spent her earliest years climbing in Joshua Tree National Park.
Hill became a world-renowned climber in The Gunks. (Another person pictured)
Hill fell 85 ft (25 m) while climbing at the cliffs at Buoux, Haute Provence, but was back on the rock only six weeks later.
Traditional climbing is a type of free climbing in rock climbing where the lead climber places the protection equipment while ascending the route; when the lead climber has completed the route, the second climber then removes the protection equipment as they climb the route. Traditional climbing differs from sport climbing where the protection equipment is pre-drilled into the rock in the form of bolts.
Climber leading a traditional climbing route, attempting to insert a nut for climbing protection.
Jonathan Siegrist on The Path 5.14a R, 8b+, at Lake Louise
Traditional climber inserting a spring-loaded camming device for their protection while leading Freeblast (5.11b), in Yosemite
Traditional climber leading Coyne Crack (5.11+), Indian Creek; the crack offers lots of opportunity for inserting climbing protection