Climbing Free

Blurb

Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World is an autobiography written by American rock climber Lynn Hill. Co-written with mountaineer and writer Greg Child, it was published in 2002 by W.W. Norton & Company.
Hill describes the writing process with Child as collaborative: "He would take my writings and organize them, and he encouraged me to elaborate on certain elements. He emphasized that telling the story is what's important, so he really helped me think about what I wanted to say, and figure out who my audience was." Hill explained in an interview that writing about past events was easier because she had had time to reflect on them. She wanted to "convey the history and culture of free climbing", specifically how it became as specialized as it is today. She felt that she had a unique perspective to offer, both as someone who climbed at a particular moment in climbing history and as a woman: "And I wonder if a male writer would have presented that information differently. I think the book is important from that stand point, because I am a woman, and there are not many female viewpoints on climbing, or the history of climbing, out there."