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Title: Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World by Lynn Hill, Greg Child, John Long ISBN: 0-393-32433-8 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.91 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Must read for climbing Enthusiasts
Comment: As a novice climber and avid reader I try to read most climbing novels. This book will definitely please climbers as it covers this climbing legend's life from how she got into climbing, to her experiences growing up as a climber in Yosemite, to her triumphs in competitive climbing.
But it also covers much more like the problems a female must conquer in the male climbing world. Some of my favorite parts were the stories in Yosemite and the many other great climbers she climbed with and the bond they shared. As with every climbing book, if enough climbers are introduced, you will encounter the climbers that are not living when the book is written due to accidents.
This book also delves deeply into who Lynn Hill is. Mainly concerning her relationships, both climbing and romantic, many of which have tragic endings. The book starts by describing her worst fall and clearly demonstrates how lucky she was to survive. But to me the most introspective part of the book is her feelings of high altitude mountaineering. This was not her speciality and the book deals with why she stayed out of this arena and how uncomfortable she was in what high altitude climbing she did.
A true climber's book. I recommend this book if you enjoy rock climbing.
Rating: 5
Summary: It isn't just about dangling from rocks!
Comment: 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!
Rating: 4
Summary: Not quite a cliffhanger...
Comment: This is an interesting book but hard to characterize in just a few words. The book certainly offers a comprehensive perspective of Hill's climbing experience from her first climbs as a teenager to recent years. The personal perspectives of many of the key rock climbers of the 70s, 80s and 90s that she offers in this book are often insightful, humorous and touching.
However, I think the reason why I give this 4 stars (versus 5 stars) is that I felt that it was missing a bit of the spirit that characterizes the best books of the climbing genre. Even the opening chapter where she describes her fall is missing just a little bit that make it less gripping. There is definitely a lot to like in this book but I can't help but think that it could have been just a touch better.
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Title: Training for Climbing: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Climbing Performance by Eric J. Horst ISBN: 0762723130 Publisher: Falcon Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Climbing: A Woman's Guide by Shelley Presson ISBN: 0071351515 Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Pub. Date: 13 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training for Climbers by Arno Ilgner ISBN: 0974011207 Publisher: Desiderata Inst Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: A History of Free Climbing in America: Wizards of Rock by Pat Ament ISBN: 0899973205 Publisher: Wilderness Press Pub. Date: August, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: How to Climb 5.12, 2nd by Eric J. Horst ISBN: 0762725761 Publisher: Falcon Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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