There’s not a lot of good accurate writing about climbing in the mainstream media. Climbing is still a somewhat esoteric sport with an arcane jargon, and it’s difficult for nonclimbers, as almost all journalists are, to translate climbing and it’s seeming daredevil attraction to their reading public.
So it was exciting to read the great story For Rock-Climbing Guru, the Sky Is His Roof about Yosemite big wall climbing legend, writer, and vagabond Chongo, also known as Charles Victor Tucker III, by New York Times reporter Michael Brick.
Brick, who spent months researching the article from Yosemite Valley to the Loaves and Fishes homeless shelter in Sacramento, California, called Chongo the “scourge of Yosemite National Park, fixture of the lodge cafeteria. To acquaintances, he was Chuck, harmless and stoned jester of the mountains. And to climbers the world over he remains Chongo, the Monkey Man, named for the sticky soles he had once fashioned from Mexican rubber.”
To read more, go to the New York Times Sports section. Let me know here what you think of Chongo and the article. Is it an accurate portrayal of a Yosemite legend?
Check out Chongo's website.
Photo above: Chongo was the big wall master of El Cap in Yosemite.
Photo © Stewart M. Green
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