Lynn Hill, Legendary Rock Climber, Chats w/ Jim Clash

[MissKennyBee]

Do male monkeys climb any better than female monkeys? NOPE. Then why assume male humans are automatically stronger climbers than female humans? Fools.

[yuichifujita1]

I'm not climbing nor even interested in, but I really love to hear and read what she talks.

[Vinnygil]

she's just sexy to me lol

[AlexDaDojoDude]

Jim did a ok job, but he's obviously never rock climbed. Maybe a little field research a good factual interview could turn into a great interactive interview. Just sayin

[kshep1983]

FFA of the Nose. Countless other feats that are not only technically difficulty, but huge head-games. Lynn Hill is a pioneer and visionary. She is not the best female climber in the world. She is arguably the best climber in the world.

[norsum9]

Lynn once fell 70 feet from the top of a sport climb. She fell when she was lowering off because her harness was only velcroed closed, not threaded properly and doubled-back.. She broke both ankles and is lucky to be alive.

[fuddam]

@norsum9 not true: she hadn't tied a knot at all, but didn't notice due to her jacket hiding the rope. She'd been distracted while roping up, and didn't check the knot. She explains it all in the first chapter of her autobiography.

[orangegold1]

LOL hahahahah.... "Lin Hill is arguably the best female rock climber in the world" HAHAHAHAHAH "Well, I'm ARGUABLY the best sky diver in the world" lol

[denniscmerritt]

OK three points - most sports are designed by men and play to men's strengths. Men are better at sugar metabolism, women at fat. This gives men an advantage for short term exertion and women for long term. Time trial cyclist Beryl Burton could not beat the men at 50, or 100 mile distances, but held the absolute record for 12 and 24 hour time trials. (See wikipedia on her) And of course, the Iditorad was dominated by a woman for many years.

[denniscmerritt]

Two - the interview was good, but you missed what is a difficult concept about climbing. The game is to try to get up more difficult rock than the next person. (steeper, fewer/smaller holds, etc.) What Lynn Hill did was climb, without the aid of the gear, rock that many top men had tried and failed to climb. It was almost 10 years before it was repeated by a top male climber. And his wife.

[denniscmerritt]

Two points - in climbing it's the strength to weight ratio that is important, not pure strength. Women are competitive with men in this regard. The World record for one arm chin ups was held for a long time by a Russian woman.

[Hikingphotobug]

She is so articulate.

[thejugglingfool]

she explains it really well, it's really hard to explain cmilbing to non-climbers.

I hate how the interviewer says everything like men are so much better than women.like in the beginning he's like- a woman who can outclimb most men. women are no less capable than men so that comment should never even have been made. but that's just my rant...

[jimclash]

I normally don't respond to comments, but actually thought I did a decent job of handling the man-woman thing here.

[valkyrie1960s]

to say a woman is equal capable of physical activity than a man, is absolutely foolish sorry thats nothing agianst woman, but its just not rue

[d1a2n3e489]

but at climbing its just like that! except a few split-degrees of difficulty. like 5.14a or 5.14d... ;-)

[valkyrie1960s]

in this case it seems be true!

[isurelike]

@jimclash But is the fact that she can outclimb "most men" the important aspect of her career? You are essentially stating that by opening with the statement.

[plutoplatters]

@jimclash you did a great job. and it's great you responded ! love it.

[valkyrie1960s]

no there are differences in physic! In climbing its good, when you are light, so that gives small woman an advantage! No doupt that lynn is a good climber, but there are many man today who are much better and thats why man are more made for strengh stuff! Its just fact, i mean look at all records in sport not even a single one is done by a woman!

[thejugglingfool]

not true. i can beat every boy in my grade at an arm wrestle and can do more chin ups. i'm really stong because i have to be because i'm extremely short. instead of being able to reach long moves i have to do lots of dynos and campus moves and that's because i'm not very technical. look at women like cicada jenerik. she's a tank. men are definetly made for strength, i'm not arguing there but if women need to be they can be strong...

[valkyrie1960s]

well girls develope faster until the age of 18, so you cant compare people in that age group, because they are not grown up!

Of course woman can be strong, but by far not as strong as man! Look at the weight lifters and you will see huge differences there! And you cant compare trained people to purely untrained people, if you really want to compare that let a mannly build man and a female build woman do the same stuff and you will see, that nature has programmed them for different things wfr

[d1a2n3e489]

just an example: who was the person to free climb the nose in one day?! you see...

[valkyrie1960s]

yeah you are right here! I am generally not argueing, that women are not capable of performing well in sports, but if you look at the physic there should be a difference in most sports. An average man has 42% muscle mass and an average woman has about 23%, so thats about half as much muscle as a man has! But in climbing, it seems that doesnt make any difference!

[ImAnOcean]

@thejugglingfool he has a point - women actually are less capable than men because they have different bodies

[01Eldar]

We love you Lynn! And all you've done for our sport. Thanks for giving Da' Gunks a shout out!

[rngrchad]

Hell yeah.

[tisaacso3625]

the interviewer is kind of funny.

[crismalcolm]

Hell, ya. Representing for the women!

[1singlet]

Not me, baby!

[chillkill1192]

cool shes good