Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding Autobiography, May 10, 2002
This is one of the very best climbing autobiographies I've read.6 Stars. First off, I'll admit that I'm biased towards Lynn Hill. I met her in the early 80's and was taken by her unassuming, humble nature, let alone her incredible climbing prowess. But my bias has not interfered with my ability to give an honest review. This book was co-authored by Greg Child, one of my favorite climbing authors, but I'm guessing that Lynn's words formed the core of the book. It just doesn't read like Greg's other books. Regardless, the two must have an excellent synergy going because the book is enjoyable and very readable. As do all good autobiographies, this book goes well beyond the boring chronological list of events. It takes you into the life and mind of Lynn Hill and lets you see what makes her tick. Lynn chose to treat difficult situations in a straightforward, honest manner. Few punches are pulled, but it's obvious that there is no malicious intent. Lynn merely states the facts as she saw them, then goes the extra mile to tell us how these events made her feel. In doing so, difficult times, such as divorce or leaving the competitive arena are taken full circle and we see how, through her ability to adapt, Lynn was able to move on and grow from her experiences. One knows that people who repeatedly achieve at a high level have something good going for them and this book makes it clear that Lynn is no exception. Her ability to get into the proper mental state for difficult climbing is clearly conveyed. For example, while preparing to climb the Nose in a day, she wrote: "While lying on the ledge in a half-asleep state, I thought about the various people who inspired me throughout my life. These thoughts helped me cultivate the faith and energy I needed to persevere. For me, the ascent represented a kind of performance art to demonstrate the values I believed in. My belief in this effort is what allowed me to access a force of energy much greater than my own. I thought of what I had learned from a seventy year old Chinese Chi Gong master whom I had met in France earlier that year during a martial arts workshop. At the end of the weekend, this Chinese master asked me to arm wrestle him. As hard as I tried, our hands remained upright and locked in an impasse. Then he asked me what I was thinking about. I told him I was concentrating on bringing my hand down to the table. When I asked him what he was thinking about, he said he was focusing way beyond the table, toward an infinite source of energy. I noticed that his eyes were transfixed into space as if in a trance and I felt an inpenetrable wall of force in his arm. Afterward, we discussed my goal to free climb the Nose in a day and he said: 'When you are on the wall, try to imagine a source of energy that extends beyond the summit towards infinity.' " This book is full of motivational insight and should be a valuable resource for anyone that wants to move beyond preconceived limits in their everyday life.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed feelings, August 22, 2002
I just finished reading the book early this morning. I picked it up because I used to do very mild climbing (5.7 range). I'm sure I don't even SEE the holds Lynn works with. In brief, she seems to do the best of climbs in the best of style.In the book, she makes her climbing preferences known without trying to define "the way, the truth and the light" for all climbers. I think the same held true for her descriptions of people with whom she had climbed. What I most appreciated was her love for climbing without any need for being "extreme." No death wish, no search for a new adrenaline rush. Lynn seems to seek challenge but not danger per se. The non-climbing public seems to think that all climbers enjoy flirting with death. Lynn is not naive about the potential of danger; in fact, her words show a great understanding. Again, she just wants to climb the hard routes because they are hard. The danger is simply an issue to be dealt with, not an end in itself. I was just a touch dissatisfied at the end. The final pages seemed to end rather abruptly. However, given that this book is not a work of fiction, but rather a description of a developing life, maybe that's as it should be. Lynn is still climbing, still changing. There are more chapters to be written.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It isn't just about dangling from rocks!, April 22, 2003
As we travel through life the people we meet and the experiences we share are every bit as important as the mountains we climb. Lynn Hill has expressed this philosophy quite well in Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World.Lynn's story is a life adventure, not just a dangling from rocks, but an embrace of people and places, a reflection of her experiences, the rock wall challenges she has met and over come as well as the romances which have blessed and graced her life along the way. I did not read Climbing Free to learn how to climb, to seek advice on free style climbing or even to learn about some of the best, most exotic places to climb. Nor did I read Climbing Free to glimpse what it is like to hang from a towering granite pillar, a crack and a cranny, a slip and a slide away from death. I read Climbing Free simply for the enjoyment of sharing another person's life adventure. I think if Climbing Free is read in this light it is a joyous experience, one which will add to the reader's own life, for after all, we are the summation of all our experiences, those we have in the real world as well as those we relish from the books we read or movies we watch. Climbing Free is just that, a climbing free experience for the reader. But to enjoy it fully you have to enter without preconception or expectation, and just delight in sharing Lynn Hill's tale. Of course in writing this review and giving Lynn Hill's book a five star rating I must admit I'm a bit prejudice. Although I haven't ever met Lynn, she just had a child, Owen Merced Lynch, fathered by Bradley Wayne Lynch, my dear nephew and a pretty good rock climber himself. I'm sure if Lynn writes a sequel to Climbing Free its adventures will include Bran and Owen. For you see, Climbing Free just isn't about dangling from rocks. It's about life and the people we meet along the way through life. It isn't perfect. It isn't without mistakes or wrong turns. It is a mix of exhilaration and tragedy, of wonder and the finding of one's self through the journeys Lynn has taken with her freinds upon granite walls and spires around the globe. It's about finding your way and moving on until low and behold you find yourself by the Merced River at the foot of Half Dome conceiving a child! The problem, I think, with some people who have read and reviewed Climbing Free is that they were looking themselves for love and didn't find it, thus reflecting the bitterness in their own failures. Or they suffered a few falls themselves with sharp knocks to the skull; or maybe damaged their brains smoking this or that peculiar mix of substances while in an oxygen starved environment at over 14,000 feet high! In fact, I suspect this to be true as I've sat among climbers and listened to their lore. Much of it is petered out muse not worth the lead fillings in an old nag's teeth. In contrast Climbing Free is a masterpiece in the making, the start of a canvas, the first few brush strokes of a woman's adventure through life. Quite frankly I can't wait to see what will follow, especially when Lynn and Brad get little Owen to Yosemite!
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