In a 1989 broadcast, David Letterman introduced the greatest climber in the world by saying that the athlete had “a lovely little outfit on”. Lynn Hill had just come off a several-year sweep of climbing competitions, including the world class Rock Master Invitational, and was ranked No1 in the world by the Association of Sport Climbers International. She would go on to complete the first free ascent of the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California, and the first free ascent in under 24 hours, a feat that’s only been repeated by one climber in the 20 years since. She accomplished all this while remaining, as one journalist put it, “probably the greatest athlete the general public has never heard of”.

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