Holy shit, life in prison.
That evidence must have been overwhelming. The article was very in depth. I just feel like cases like these are often under sentenced or even dismissed.
Glad justice was served. Let it be a strong example to other predators out there.
>That evidence must have been overwhelming.
It didn't help that he recently showed no remorse/guilt at all, and was caught on prison phones talking about how he was going to intentionally try to delay sentencing. Check the MP thread on it for more info.
I read he told his uncle on the phone he felt like a #MeToo victim.
I do find it weird that your private calls from prison can be used as evidence in US. If I would be in prison and call with my favorite uncle I would lie to him out of embarrassment...
Calls from prison aren’t private. Conversations with his lawyer are privileged which is completely different: they might be recorded but they can’t be used as evidence and evidence derived from them is tainted.
Yeah it's definitely pretty stupid of him to admit to a crime on a prison phone. It's well known that mail in and out of prisons is read, why wouldn't they record calls?
>Unfortunately, assaults in rural climbing areas are less likely to be as aggressively pursued by small time local law enforcement.
Man. I just want local governments to actually work: write equitable laws; enforce laws equally in policing and judicially; keep roads paved, schools funded, trash collected, and utilities reliable & affordable. I wish that wasn't too much to ask most days.
The largest county in WV (at the time I was working there) had 7 deputies.
It can take them hours running lights and sirens to get to an emergency call. The county’s first CVS was a big deal.
Some places are so rural that there is no tax payer base to support the things you list.
In Australia they are all state-run, and our states are generally bigger (geographically) than US states. I cannot imagine the shitfight of requiring local government areas (closest to counties) to fund and operate their own emergency services.
>In Australia they are all state-run
That's how it works in most countries, isn't it?
Also beyond the funding and operation at a local level, in a many parts of the US the sheriff is elected rather than appointed on merit, so the whole thing is politicised.
Madness.
I’ve taken care of several patients who live in areas of Nevada that have maybe 1 functional ambulance and then went to montana where in certain areas you had to maintain a clearing for helo and get to the clearing or you were not getting emergency services. That blew my mind.
I live in a pretty well off area and taxes are crazy high so we can afford these things. I don't see how it's possible without an enormous tax base or affluent residents willing to pay.
Same but at Yellowstone for possession of marijuana. Legal in my state, Wyoming not so much. I got a ticket and my buddy got taken to the jail. Live and learn
If you were in Yellowstone the state laws don’t matter. The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over all of Yellowstone. State laws don’t apply.
Very true and accurate. We should have known better but we're younger and clearly dumber. I honestly didn't take into consideration the federal laws and was only concerned with state laws. We knew it was illegal and still chose to bring it with us. We weren't using it in the park but we still were in possession. Like I said, live and learn :-)
Me too. I got charged with biking under the influence by the damn rangers when I was living in camp 4 for a summer. Ruined the whole experience. Should have drove to curry village instead I guess.
I heard of few people getting hit with that. I worked for the concessionaire, and there was a phone extension (1001 I think) we could call for a free van ride any time after the busses stopped running. It was meant to help late night employees commute, but everyone used it as a drunk taxi.
I worked for the concessionaire. A few times at night we played broom hockey on the ice rink, which apparently was closed, and resulted in a trespassing charge. The judge thought it was hilarious. They let me rake leaves at the preschool instead of paying the fine.
Unfortunately assaults anywhere are very unlikely to be pursued. Everyone I know who was assaulted the Police just said, your word against his and we can't prove it do we won't investigate it.
I was surprised too. It’s so sad that our first reaction to a sexual predator getting punished is surprise and it’s not just what we expect from the onset.
>Holy shit, life in prison.
>Let it be a strong example to other predators out there.
It won't be. It's well known in the criminal justice world (at least academically) that harsher sentencing has basically no effect on deterring future crime, either by the sentenced individual, or by anyone else in society. [Here](https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2020/07/do-harsher-punishments-deter-crime) is a university publication saying as much, it is easier to find others.
A much more effective deterrent is the perceived likelihood of being caught. For example - you probably speed when you drive your car. Without looking it up, what is the penalty for going 10 mph over the speed limit? Most people reading this won't know unless they've been ticketed recently. It might be $100, or $1000, or $10,000 - as long as we don't hear about it, it doesn't impact our decision to speed, because we just assume that we won't get caught. Instead, suppose three friends all independently tell you about how they got pulled over in the last week. It doesn't matter how paltry the fine is - even a $10 fine is too much when you consider the wasted time and embarrassment that goes into getting pulled over.
And this strategy only works on rational actors.
Suppose a clone of CB is still out there, being a total shit bag. He reads this article. He knows he could go to prison if he gets caught. He knows his clone was already caught. Does he stop? Probably not, because he's a fucking lunatic who thinks everything will work out for him because he's great and special.
The way to prevent more incidents like this is for the justice system to *do it's damn job*. He had multiple encounters with the justice system throughout his life, clearly exhibiting a pattern of behavior, and they gave him a slap on the wrist each time despite the fact that he kept going off his meds and harming people.
What we shouldn't do is purpetuate the myth that longer, harsher sentences deter crime. All this does is keep criminals with more petty offenses locked up longer for no reason.
Rational actors is a main point in modern economic theory, the basis for capitalism as we know it today. It has it's logic but lacks integration of systemic factors, mainly emotional. Behavioral economics behind to address this.
It is difficult to conceptually acknowledge that aspects of your legal system, and the penalties it does, are associated to such a paradigm. Socratic vs Platonic, organismic vs mechanistic, independent vs intradependent, all these as deeply rooted in our meta narrative.
Fed don’t mess around. Especially when it impacts the image of a National Park and tourism.
If this was a local city charge it probably would have been dismissed based on the amount of sexual predators that get released back to the wild.
> According to court documents, in 2017, seven years after he assaulted one of the victims who testified at trial, Barrett purposely climbed at a rock-climbing gym where the victim attended. She then disclosed Barrett’s assault on her to the gym owner in the interest of protecting other women at the gym. Barrett responded by harassing and threatening her for several years.
> While in custody on the present case, Barrett made hundreds of phone calls. On these calls, he showed no remorse or regret. Instead, he threatened to use violence and vindictive lawsuits against the victims, claiming that they designed a conspiracy to ruin his life
Jesus Christ what a living nightmare this man has created for his victims. As if it weren’t bad enough to assault and rape his victims, he’s spending his time in jail, not reflecting and trying to improve his own life but actively harassing his victims. Just the most disgusting and vile behavior.
My heart goes out so heavily to the women that trusted this person to take them on a fun day of rock climbing in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
>On these calls, he showed no remorse or regret. Instead, he threatened to use violence and vindictive lawsuits against the victims, claiming that they designed a conspiracy to ruin his life
When people talk about psychopathy, this needs to be what comes to mind.
This dude is a violent, unrepentant rapist and still thinks he's the victim. This dude is human in appearance only.
When public figures succeed with tactics like this, it emboldens the closet abusers. It's like how when someone is a bully and gets away with it, or even gets ahead from bullying, more bullies suddenly crawl out of the woodwork.
I sincerely hope victims and their friends and family have closure and a path forward. and I also hope everyone recognizes that what we can do is listen and believe.
It's about time. This guy gave the entire community a bad name and I'm glad to see something was finally done about it. It's just too bad it took this long and he was able to cause so much damage in the meantime.
While I agree that this person gave our community a bad name, it’s important to remember that climbers are not exempt from being terrible people. There are as many “bad apples” in climbing as there are in just about any community of people. It’s just easier for us to overlook it because we have a shared passion. There’s no doubt that there has been a serious amount of “overlooking” Barrett’s behaviour by our community which enabled him for so long.
Yep.
You can build clout by being strong and sending hard stuff. We conflate that with who someone is as a person because an athletic pursuit is laudable. But that doesn't mean someone is a good person.
>There are as many “bad apples” in climbing as there are in just about any community of people. It’s just easier for us to overlook it because we have a shared passion.
Good reminder that shared passion does not necessarily a community make.
I mean, if you look at the history of alpinism and climbing, it’s kind of filled with its people trying to steal other people achievements, up to the point where they are ready to literally murder them.
I’ve found myself getting into that “climbers are cool people (or even, by extension, good people)” mindset. After all, I get along better with most climbers than I do, say, frat boys, or rich golfers, or cops. But statistically, there are probably as many narcissists, abusers, and sociopaths in the climbing community as in any other group of people.
Oh there's a ton. I worked for summit gyms in dallas and one of the owners, who was like 45-50, was dating a team girl he'd coached. She was 18, they met when she was a minor.
Thought I remembered this case, it was covered in this harrowing article.
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-assault-trial/
Disgusting to read some other climbers defended (or at least, didn't condemn) him because of his climbing achievements.
Probably also a reason as to why he got away with it for so long too.
Honnold is the only big name climber who was willing to speak with Outside for the article. He should be applauded for condemning his own poor judgment and “blind spot” as he called it. He spoke openly and on the record about dismissing talk of Barrett’s crimes as only rumors and downplaying them in his own mind to justify the occasional climb with a fellow Yosemite climber.
Joergensen and others were completely unwilling to speak to press at all. None of them came out to condemn their relationship or admit to any mistakes they made regarding Barrett. Call them out if anyone.
I see absolutely nothing but bravery and honesty from Honnold here.
Here’s her [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lisa_rands?igsh=MTJoeGYwd2o1MGZreA==) along with her company she’s built of her climbing accomplishments [Synergy Climbing](https://synergyclimbingandninja.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZO-vRBxSICDXrzJUHe-LpXgmMBxzQZPPcInCIo1Oun05HeGgH76KXtBZM_aem_AWgDdyTeLF5CEnD9NhHL05G0amGDrs76prs-H0oWXzca8WLBfEf-KGoZGiKnt65MY1dWtU8wwoThwJaTGxF4pFdR)
Lisa could have protected a friend instead protected a predator. Hope all women are made aware just what she thinks of them, they should be flattered to be treated like meat.
Not sure if I can share a link, but this is where I found the witness list. There's a document from January requesting if Lisa could testify via Zoom because she recently had hip surgery and couldn't travel. I haven't looked at any of the recent documents.
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64936484/united-states-v-barrett/
While I understand Honnold may not have know for sure he heard multiple rumours of his violence including his friend who was punched in the face by him. He could have asked her but apparently thought she might have deserved it or something, what a friend.
>“I thought: That’s crazy,” Honnold said. “But then I immediately thought: Maybe he was really drunk and they were fighting and that’s how he ended up punching her in the face. And she is a very strong person who holds her own.” (The climber, who Honnold named, did not respond to interview requests.)
Dismissing rumours is bad. I hoped he would be more offended by the rumours and at least try to check up on them. There's lots of room for improvement in his actions, and hopefully he knows better now. It would be really interesting for people to stop and say "wait a minute, I also heard rumours and this other guy..." But he's not saying that she deserved it.
There are a lot of places that are absolutely loaded with rumors that are complete lies designed to destroy people. Rumors can be quite evil.
First hand accounts or direct accusations can be checked or verified.
His response is a very common way people deal with this sort of cognitive dissonance. It's an instinctive search for context, like 'maybe he was drunk', to resolve the dissonance and understand the situation, while still accepting the bare facts. Making out that only evil or 'deficient' people would have this response doesn't really help, IMO, in recognising times that we might ourselves have this response and be inclined to minimise rumours against a friend.
Yes he could have done better of course, along with the 50 other people who likely heard the same rumour and did nothing. But his self-awareness in identifying his response retrospectively is a valuable contribution to understanding why so many people did nothing and trying to avoid the same trap in the future.
It's good he has spoken out, but I think 'bravery' is a little generous. Alex faced far worse reputational damage if he didn't go on the record and say something to correct his public praise of Barrett.
Here is the link to character reference letters sent to the court. **These individuals wrote letters to the judge to show support for Charlie**, including Thomasina Pidgeon and Katie Lambert (I am unsure if this is the same person associated with Sacred Rok out of Bishop/Yosemite and a writer for Climbing Magazine which is associate with Outside Magazine who broke the story about Charlie...).
[https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64936484/251/united-states-v-barrett/](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64936484/251/united-states-v-barrett/)
The article does a great job providing their point of view. I think instead of condemning those folks you take it as a lesson on how your opinion of someone can distort your view regardless of how virtuous you are.
Excellent follow up article from today by the same journalist:
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-rape/
My favorite nugget:
>No court documents had been filed by the defense at press time to reveal what the arguments for an appeal might be. **However, the defense will not be able to employ the same legal strategy used by attorneys for Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, whose 2020 rape conviction was overturned in February by the New York Court of Appeals, on the grounds that testimony from other victims interfered with a fair trial.** A foundational strategy used in prosecuting Barrett’s case was Federal Rule 413, which allows the testimony of uncharged victims in sexual assault crimes. The rule applies to all federal sexual-assault cases and is also allowed in 16 states. But it is currently not codified in New York state law.
Thanks for posting; that was a good read, but infuriating. Deal after deal after deal, judges refusing to send him back to jail after probation violations- judges literally letting him walk out of the building with no jail time just to get arrested in the parking lot by the feds! So glad to see he is not able to hurt women ever again.
The system was the main enabler for this germ to continue his evil existence and cause so much harm to his victims. If he’d been treated more fairly, as in punished for his disregard for court orders instead of being allowed to do whatever the fuck he wanted, there would have been less victims.
I wanted to respond with an angry rant about how badly the climbing community and law enforcement failed these women. But the more I think about it, the more disturbed I am, and there aren’t any words that can convey how fucked up this is. I’m glad he’s finally getting his.
It’s very rare that I have to stop reading out of sheer anger and disgust - the only other time was American psycho. I came back to finish both but goddamn were they difficult.
I knew immediately from the headline that this was referring to him - and it made me smile. Dude can rot in fucking hell.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Charles Barrett, 40, was sentenced today to life in prison for two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact that occurred during a weekend in Yosemite National Park, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
“Barrett’s long history of sexual violence supports the imposition of a life sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Talbert. “He used his status as a prominent climber to assault women in the rock-climbing community, and when his victims began to tell, Barrett responded by lashing out publicly with threats and intimidation. This case is a testament to the courage of the victims who reported these crimes. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to investigate and prosecute violent crimes in National Parks like Yosemite.”
“We are grateful for the tireless work of the National Park Service investigative team and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring this case to justice,” said Yosemite National Park Superintendent Cicely Muldoon. “Today’s sentencing sends a clear message about the consequences of this criminal behavior. It makes Yosemite a safer place for the climbing community, park visitors and our employees.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, in August 2016, the victim went to Yosemite for a weekend of hiking, and Barrett, who was living and working for a private business in the park, sexually assaulted her three times. During trial, three other women testified that Barrett also sexually assaulted them. These assaults were not charged because they were outside federal jurisdiction but were admitted at trial as relevant to the charged assaults.
According to court documents, in 2017, seven years after he assaulted one of the victims who testified at trial, Barrett purposely climbed at a rock-climbing gym where the victim attended. She then disclosed Barrett’s assault on her to the gym owner in the interest of protecting other women at the gym. Barrett responded by harassing and threatening her for several years. In August 2022, he was convicted for criminal threats he made in January 2022.
While in custody on the present case, Barrett made hundreds of phone calls. On these calls, he showed no remorse or regret. Instead, he threatened to use violence and vindictive lawsuits against the victims, claiming that they designed a conspiracy to ruin his life
This case was the product of an investigation by the National Park Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael G. Tierney and Arin C. Heinz prosecuted the case.
Updated June 4, 2024
Repeat offenses, no remorse, stalking, harassment, beating humans and an animal, violating his restraining orders, and multiple brutal rapes. It adds up. It doesn’t help that he isn’t even pretending to feel bad. He also has talked about trying to delay his trial. I’m sure that didn’t help the decision.
i think, as another commenter mentioned, is mainly due to him being prosecuted in federal court. that along with the well documented evidence of SA and harassment (usually not so in SA cases) against multiple victims, his priors, and his very evident lack of remorse probably all also contributed to the "heavy" sentencing (imo its sad that its heavy). I think there was also incentive to set a precedent to make people feel safe in national parks, and this was an easy picking relatively to other similar cases.
>mainly due to him being prosecuted in federal court
even killing somebody doesn’t usually get you life in prison
Yeah, life in prison is actually the mandatory minimum for a federal murder conviction. The only other possibility is the death penalty.
Read the outside article linked above. Repeated history of the same thing over and over again which he managed to basically get away with barely any consequences. He was clearly mentally unwell and likely to eventually kill someone. But the life sentence is due to his history of repeating the same crimes and inability to reform
Beyond "mental" illness. Dude was practicing evil. Reminds of the ID Show "Evil lives here." Wish all rapists would have life in prison (not the ones falsely accused but that is another subject). This dude was going to keep going until he murdered someone, not maybe but would. Glad he is in jail. Unfortunately, there are plenty like him roaming around in human skin.
So this comment made me want to look up the statistics and they're abysmal. One source claimed you're 167 times more likely to be murdered by a man between 18 and 24 than a bear. And we all know this isn't just about murder.
Bit of a selection bias issue with that statistic, no?
Not trying to refute the overall point that there's many bad men out there. Just saying this particular comparison is not exactly correct.
Yeah if the average woman spent as much time with bears as with her male family, friends, and partners, there would almost certainly be more bear-related deaths.
Yeah I don’t even know where this “statistic” could have possibly even been pulled from. There’s in the ballpark of like 1 bear attack death per year worldwide.
Good. This should give the rest of us in the community a little bit of pause. A lot of lady friends will share details on less than stellar guys in various communities I’ve climbed in and the other men do what happened with Barrett: they defend him because he can pull down hard.
Being strong isn’t a moral achievement. It’s just a cool human trick. Rather, being ethical and moral is what makes you morally sound. I feel like it’s silly we have to review this point.
There is no doubt he deserves to be in jail, and has been given an absurd amount of second chances.
Many in the climbing community just looked the other way for many years, including sponsors.
There are plenty of big name climbers who need called out for their bullshit in “supporting” this guy.
This one will get buried, but to the men of the climbing community: you have a duty to protect us women in the sport. It’s not always safe out here for us, and some of these women could have been spared if other guys stood up to the creepy behavior, and believed what women had to say about him (more of what’s described in the outdoor.com article)
Investigative tactics for any SA/DV case should include finding out all past female contacts and asking about past conduct in a way that keeps potential witnesses safe. I'm so fucking sick of the first reported case (or ten reported cases...) being treated as an unfortunate outlier or he said/she said and brushed off, when they're actually iceberg tips.
In the orginal outside article Honnold is quoted:
"Honnold said that he’d heard stories about a female professional climber he knew who’d been in a relationship with Barrett and got “punched in the face.”
“I thought: That’s crazy,” Honnold said. “But then I immediately thought: **Maybe he was really drunk and they were fighting and that’s how he ended up punching her in the face. And she is a very strong person who holds her own**.”
Honnold said that he tries to see the best in people and always hoped that Barrett would turn his life around. “\[The violence\] was a step beyond what I could imagine,” he says. “Which I guess is why I had a blind spot around it. And the depressed-alcoholic thing is an easy way to mask some of the actual violence.”"
It's the bolded part that allowed CB and continues to allow others to abuse. His actions were known in the community but overlooked or excused away because of his status.
Unfortunately, part of the reason he was able to get away with so much was because of his personality. He could be very convincing and charming. It was often hard to tell what was true and not, especially in the earlier years when he was still climbing and active in the community.
Look at Ryan Sheridan's [IG story](https://www.instagram.com/stories/ryansheridan/) for the evidence, but Katie Lambert wrote a letter in defense of him very sadly.
Thomasina pidgeon is a big name in Squamish and she wrote a letter in his defense and used her daughter in it to try to make him seem like just some sweet guy who’s nice to her and her kid. Absolutely disgusting and should be removed from any leadership positions in organizations.
I'm happy that he's finally locked up. From what I read, he should have been serving time already a decade ago, but was given slack repeatedly, and climbing community protected him because of his contributions. Shameful.
Fuck, i always thought that climbers are addicted to climbing and nothing else. I thought we are living the dream. There are surprisingly selfish assholes everywhere!
Here is another good in depth article about this pos [https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-assault-trial/](https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-assault-trial/)
As soon as I started reading that in-depth article in Outside magazine I had to revisit a podcast episode. For the Love of Climbing episode 1: Unbroken.
Lots of scary parallels and a great message from the survivor at the end.
Holy shit, life in prison. That evidence must have been overwhelming. The article was very in depth. I just feel like cases like these are often under sentenced or even dismissed. Glad justice was served. Let it be a strong example to other predators out there.
>That evidence must have been overwhelming. It didn't help that he recently showed no remorse/guilt at all, and was caught on prison phones talking about how he was going to intentionally try to delay sentencing. Check the MP thread on it for more info.
Oh yeah I just saw that memo in the MP thread.
MP thread? Where do I find that?
on mountainproject
.com
/forum/topic/122976632/climber-charles-barrett-arrested-for-yosemite-sexual-assaults?page=39
Oof should’ve thought of that but thank you!
I read he told his uncle on the phone he felt like a #MeToo victim. I do find it weird that your private calls from prison can be used as evidence in US. If I would be in prison and call with my favorite uncle I would lie to him out of embarrassment...
Calls from prison aren’t private. Conversations with his lawyer are privileged which is completely different: they might be recorded but they can’t be used as evidence and evidence derived from them is tainted.
Yeah it's definitely pretty stupid of him to admit to a crime on a prison phone. It's well known that mail in and out of prisons is read, why wouldn't they record calls?
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Sexual abuser is also dumb as rocks? Shocking!
Narcissism is a hell of a drug.
He didn’t admit to anything, he just admitted he was using delay tactics, and he was still victim blaming.
Yeah because what you much rather have instead is people in prison being able to conduct crime over the phone without any oversight at all...doy
It wasn’t used as evidence per se. The criminal trial part was effectively over. These calls were used during the sentencing phase.
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>Unfortunately, assaults in rural climbing areas are less likely to be as aggressively pursued by small time local law enforcement. Man. I just want local governments to actually work: write equitable laws; enforce laws equally in policing and judicially; keep roads paved, schools funded, trash collected, and utilities reliable & affordable. I wish that wasn't too much to ask most days.
The largest county in WV (at the time I was working there) had 7 deputies. It can take them hours running lights and sirens to get to an emergency call. The county’s first CVS was a big deal. Some places are so rural that there is no tax payer base to support the things you list.
If only there were larger forms of government to subsidize such luxuries as emergency services.
In Australia they are all state-run, and our states are generally bigger (geographically) than US states. I cannot imagine the shitfight of requiring local government areas (closest to counties) to fund and operate their own emergency services.
>In Australia they are all state-run That's how it works in most countries, isn't it? Also beyond the funding and operation at a local level, in a many parts of the US the sheriff is elected rather than appointed on merit, so the whole thing is politicised. Madness.
Damn. Kanawha County has 106 deputies.
I’ve taken care of several patients who live in areas of Nevada that have maybe 1 functional ambulance and then went to montana where in certain areas you had to maintain a clearing for helo and get to the clearing or you were not getting emergency services. That blew my mind.
I live in a pretty well off area and taxes are crazy high so we can afford these things. I don't see how it's possible without an enormous tax base or affluent residents willing to pay.
I was charged with a very minor offense in Yosemite 20 years ago and still have the court summons that reads “The United States of America v. Me”.
Same but at Yellowstone for possession of marijuana. Legal in my state, Wyoming not so much. I got a ticket and my buddy got taken to the jail. Live and learn
Always have a fall guy?
If you were in Yellowstone the state laws don’t matter. The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over all of Yellowstone. State laws don’t apply.
You don't need to tell him that, obviously.
Obviously not, based on mentioning Wyoming the way he did. Saying"Wyoming not so much" doesnt make sense otherwise
Very true and accurate. We should have known better but we're younger and clearly dumber. I honestly didn't take into consideration the federal laws and was only concerned with state laws. We knew it was illegal and still chose to bring it with us. We weren't using it in the park but we still were in possession. Like I said, live and learn :-)
Me too. I got charged with biking under the influence by the damn rangers when I was living in camp 4 for a summer. Ruined the whole experience. Should have drove to curry village instead I guess.
I heard of few people getting hit with that. I worked for the concessionaire, and there was a phone extension (1001 I think) we could call for a free van ride any time after the busses stopped running. It was meant to help late night employees commute, but everyone used it as a drunk taxi.
I got one those for a charged aviation infraction. It’s a strange feeling to see your name as the opponent of the entire country.
Same here.
Just curious, what did you do?
I worked for the concessionaire. A few times at night we played broom hockey on the ice rink, which apparently was closed, and resulted in a trespassing charge. The judge thought it was hilarious. They let me rake leaves at the preschool instead of paying the fine.
Dude that’s pretty badass
Unfortunately assaults anywhere are very unlikely to be pursued. Everyone I know who was assaulted the Police just said, your word against his and we can't prove it do we won't investigate it.
A lot of times, the police are doing the assaulting too.
9
B
I was surprised too. It’s so sad that our first reaction to a sexual predator getting punished is surprise and it’s not just what we expect from the onset.
>Holy shit, life in prison. >Let it be a strong example to other predators out there. It won't be. It's well known in the criminal justice world (at least academically) that harsher sentencing has basically no effect on deterring future crime, either by the sentenced individual, or by anyone else in society. [Here](https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2020/07/do-harsher-punishments-deter-crime) is a university publication saying as much, it is easier to find others. A much more effective deterrent is the perceived likelihood of being caught. For example - you probably speed when you drive your car. Without looking it up, what is the penalty for going 10 mph over the speed limit? Most people reading this won't know unless they've been ticketed recently. It might be $100, or $1000, or $10,000 - as long as we don't hear about it, it doesn't impact our decision to speed, because we just assume that we won't get caught. Instead, suppose three friends all independently tell you about how they got pulled over in the last week. It doesn't matter how paltry the fine is - even a $10 fine is too much when you consider the wasted time and embarrassment that goes into getting pulled over. And this strategy only works on rational actors. Suppose a clone of CB is still out there, being a total shit bag. He reads this article. He knows he could go to prison if he gets caught. He knows his clone was already caught. Does he stop? Probably not, because he's a fucking lunatic who thinks everything will work out for him because he's great and special. The way to prevent more incidents like this is for the justice system to *do it's damn job*. He had multiple encounters with the justice system throughout his life, clearly exhibiting a pattern of behavior, and they gave him a slap on the wrist each time despite the fact that he kept going off his meds and harming people. What we shouldn't do is purpetuate the myth that longer, harsher sentences deter crime. All this does is keep criminals with more petty offenses locked up longer for no reason.
Rational actors is a main point in modern economic theory, the basis for capitalism as we know it today. It has it's logic but lacks integration of systemic factors, mainly emotional. Behavioral economics behind to address this. It is difficult to conceptually acknowledge that aspects of your legal system, and the penalties it does, are associated to such a paradigm. Socratic vs Platonic, organismic vs mechanistic, independent vs intradependent, all these as deeply rooted in our meta narrative.
Fed don’t mess around. Especially when it impacts the image of a National Park and tourism. If this was a local city charge it probably would have been dismissed based on the amount of sexual predators that get released back to the wild.
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-assault-trial/
Read this. Guys an asshole
guy’s an ~~asshole~~ monster
Good. We don't need him in society.
The feds aren't messing around.
The Feds don't fuck around.
> According to court documents, in 2017, seven years after he assaulted one of the victims who testified at trial, Barrett purposely climbed at a rock-climbing gym where the victim attended. She then disclosed Barrett’s assault on her to the gym owner in the interest of protecting other women at the gym. Barrett responded by harassing and threatening her for several years. > While in custody on the present case, Barrett made hundreds of phone calls. On these calls, he showed no remorse or regret. Instead, he threatened to use violence and vindictive lawsuits against the victims, claiming that they designed a conspiracy to ruin his life Jesus Christ what a living nightmare this man has created for his victims. As if it weren’t bad enough to assault and rape his victims, he’s spending his time in jail, not reflecting and trying to improve his own life but actively harassing his victims. Just the most disgusting and vile behavior. My heart goes out so heavily to the women that trusted this person to take them on a fun day of rock climbing in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
>On these calls, he showed no remorse or regret. Instead, he threatened to use violence and vindictive lawsuits against the victims, claiming that they designed a conspiracy to ruin his life When people talk about psychopathy, this needs to be what comes to mind. This dude is a violent, unrepentant rapist and still thinks he's the victim. This dude is human in appearance only.
Sounds like the Orange manchild
*Barely* human in appearance
He sounds like he could've potentially been another Ted Bundy. Hope he rots in prison.
This is a popular defense angle these days. We see it prominently. And almost of half of people seem to be ok with it.
When public figures succeed with tactics like this, it emboldens the closet abusers. It's like how when someone is a bully and gets away with it, or even gets ahead from bullying, more bullies suddenly crawl out of the woodwork.
good, fuck this guy.
Simple, but totally the right response to all this shit
I sincerely hope victims and their friends and family have closure and a path forward. and I also hope everyone recognizes that what we can do is listen and believe.
Hear hear!
It's about time. This guy gave the entire community a bad name and I'm glad to see something was finally done about it. It's just too bad it took this long and he was able to cause so much damage in the meantime.
While I agree that this person gave our community a bad name, it’s important to remember that climbers are not exempt from being terrible people. There are as many “bad apples” in climbing as there are in just about any community of people. It’s just easier for us to overlook it because we have a shared passion. There’s no doubt that there has been a serious amount of “overlooking” Barrett’s behaviour by our community which enabled him for so long.
Yep. You can build clout by being strong and sending hard stuff. We conflate that with who someone is as a person because an athletic pursuit is laudable. But that doesn't mean someone is a good person.
>There are as many “bad apples” in climbing as there are in just about any community of people. It’s just easier for us to overlook it because we have a shared passion. Good reminder that shared passion does not necessarily a community make.
I mean, if you look at the history of alpinism and climbing, it’s kind of filled with its people trying to steal other people achievements, up to the point where they are ready to literally murder them.
I’ve found myself getting into that “climbers are cool people (or even, by extension, good people)” mindset. After all, I get along better with most climbers than I do, say, frat boys, or rich golfers, or cops. But statistically, there are probably as many narcissists, abusers, and sociopaths in the climbing community as in any other group of people.
Oh there's a ton. I worked for summit gyms in dallas and one of the owners, who was like 45-50, was dating a team girl he'd coached. She was 18, they met when she was a minor.
He was enabled by other people in the community who knew what kind of person he was and covered for him.
They always are.
I would say the people that continued to support him despite the allegations gave themselves a bad name.
Thought I remembered this case, it was covered in this harrowing article. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-assault-trial/
Disgusting to read some other climbers defended (or at least, didn't condemn) him because of his climbing achievements. Probably also a reason as to why he got away with it for so long too.
Agreed. Don’t forget about the sponsors too.
And that quote by Honnold in the article..... I know he has emotional deficits or whatever but come on.
Honnold is the only big name climber who was willing to speak with Outside for the article. He should be applauded for condemning his own poor judgment and “blind spot” as he called it. He spoke openly and on the record about dismissing talk of Barrett’s crimes as only rumors and downplaying them in his own mind to justify the occasional climb with a fellow Yosemite climber. Joergensen and others were completely unwilling to speak to press at all. None of them came out to condemn their relationship or admit to any mistakes they made regarding Barrett. Call them out if anyone. I see absolutely nothing but bravery and honesty from Honnold here.
Lisa Rands and Wills Young are the Bishop couple mentioned in the article. Lisa is listed in court documents as a defense witness on CB's behalf.
Here’s her [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lisa_rands?igsh=MTJoeGYwd2o1MGZreA==) along with her company she’s built of her climbing accomplishments [Synergy Climbing](https://synergyclimbingandninja.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZO-vRBxSICDXrzJUHe-LpXgmMBxzQZPPcInCIo1Oun05HeGgH76KXtBZM_aem_AWgDdyTeLF5CEnD9NhHL05G0amGDrs76prs-H0oWXzca8WLBfEf-KGoZGiKnt65MY1dWtU8wwoThwJaTGxF4pFdR) Lisa could have protected a friend instead protected a predator. Hope all women are made aware just what she thinks of them, they should be flattered to be treated like meat.
The ones who told one of the victims she should be flattered by CB's assault? I've been wondering who on earth that was.
Do you know if Lisa was a defense witness in the trial yesterday too? Who else was a witness for him? I can’t find the trial transcripts
Not sure if I can share a link, but this is where I found the witness list. There's a document from January requesting if Lisa could testify via Zoom because she recently had hip surgery and couldn't travel. I haven't looked at any of the recent documents. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64936484/united-states-v-barrett/
Witness List is item 187, and the testimony via Zoom request is item 198. You'll have to scroll down to see them.
Thanks for sharing. How upsetting
While I understand Honnold may not have know for sure he heard multiple rumours of his violence including his friend who was punched in the face by him. He could have asked her but apparently thought she might have deserved it or something, what a friend. >“I thought: That’s crazy,” Honnold said. “But then I immediately thought: Maybe he was really drunk and they were fighting and that’s how he ended up punching her in the face. And she is a very strong person who holds her own.” (The climber, who Honnold named, did not respond to interview requests.)
Dismissing rumours is bad. I hoped he would be more offended by the rumours and at least try to check up on them. There's lots of room for improvement in his actions, and hopefully he knows better now. It would be really interesting for people to stop and say "wait a minute, I also heard rumours and this other guy..." But he's not saying that she deserved it.
There are a lot of places that are absolutely loaded with rumors that are complete lies designed to destroy people. Rumors can be quite evil. First hand accounts or direct accusations can be checked or verified.
His response is a very common way people deal with this sort of cognitive dissonance. It's an instinctive search for context, like 'maybe he was drunk', to resolve the dissonance and understand the situation, while still accepting the bare facts. Making out that only evil or 'deficient' people would have this response doesn't really help, IMO, in recognising times that we might ourselves have this response and be inclined to minimise rumours against a friend. Yes he could have done better of course, along with the 50 other people who likely heard the same rumour and did nothing. But his self-awareness in identifying his response retrospectively is a valuable contribution to understanding why so many people did nothing and trying to avoid the same trap in the future.
It's good he has spoken out, but I think 'bravery' is a little generous. Alex faced far worse reputational damage if he didn't go on the record and say something to correct his public praise of Barrett.
Cannot agree more with you. The more that big names are willing to stand up and talk about shit like this, the better.
Conversely, respect to Krakauer for the high profile pushback.
Here is the link to character reference letters sent to the court. **These individuals wrote letters to the judge to show support for Charlie**, including Thomasina Pidgeon and Katie Lambert (I am unsure if this is the same person associated with Sacred Rok out of Bishop/Yosemite and a writer for Climbing Magazine which is associate with Outside Magazine who broke the story about Charlie...). [https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64936484/251/united-states-v-barrett/](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64936484/251/united-states-v-barrett/)
The article does a great job providing their point of view. I think instead of condemning those folks you take it as a lesson on how your opinion of someone can distort your view regardless of how virtuous you are.
Excellent follow up article from today by the same journalist: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-rape/ My favorite nugget: >No court documents had been filed by the defense at press time to reveal what the arguments for an appeal might be. **However, the defense will not be able to employ the same legal strategy used by attorneys for Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, whose 2020 rape conviction was overturned in February by the New York Court of Appeals, on the grounds that testimony from other victims interfered with a fair trial.** A foundational strategy used in prosecuting Barrett’s case was Federal Rule 413, which allows the testimony of uncharged victims in sexual assault crimes. The rule applies to all federal sexual-assault cases and is also allowed in 16 states. But it is currently not codified in New York state law.
Thanks for posting; that was a good read, but infuriating. Deal after deal after deal, judges refusing to send him back to jail after probation violations- judges literally letting him walk out of the building with no jail time just to get arrested in the parking lot by the feds! So glad to see he is not able to hurt women ever again.
The system was the main enabler for this germ to continue his evil existence and cause so much harm to his victims. If he’d been treated more fairly, as in punished for his disregard for court orders instead of being allowed to do whatever the fuck he wanted, there would have been less victims.
I wanted to respond with an angry rant about how badly the climbing community and law enforcement failed these women. But the more I think about it, the more disturbed I am, and there aren’t any words that can convey how fucked up this is. I’m glad he’s finally getting his.
It really just got worse and worse. Good riddance
It’s very rare that I have to stop reading out of sheer anger and disgust - the only other time was American psycho. I came back to finish both but goddamn were they difficult. I knew immediately from the headline that this was referring to him - and it made me smile. Dude can rot in fucking hell.
That was a gut wrenching read.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Charles Barrett, 40, was sentenced today to life in prison for two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact that occurred during a weekend in Yosemite National Park, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. “Barrett’s long history of sexual violence supports the imposition of a life sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Talbert. “He used his status as a prominent climber to assault women in the rock-climbing community, and when his victims began to tell, Barrett responded by lashing out publicly with threats and intimidation. This case is a testament to the courage of the victims who reported these crimes. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to investigate and prosecute violent crimes in National Parks like Yosemite.” “We are grateful for the tireless work of the National Park Service investigative team and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring this case to justice,” said Yosemite National Park Superintendent Cicely Muldoon. “Today’s sentencing sends a clear message about the consequences of this criminal behavior. It makes Yosemite a safer place for the climbing community, park visitors and our employees.” According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, in August 2016, the victim went to Yosemite for a weekend of hiking, and Barrett, who was living and working for a private business in the park, sexually assaulted her three times. During trial, three other women testified that Barrett also sexually assaulted them. These assaults were not charged because they were outside federal jurisdiction but were admitted at trial as relevant to the charged assaults. According to court documents, in 2017, seven years after he assaulted one of the victims who testified at trial, Barrett purposely climbed at a rock-climbing gym where the victim attended. She then disclosed Barrett’s assault on her to the gym owner in the interest of protecting other women at the gym. Barrett responded by harassing and threatening her for several years. In August 2022, he was convicted for criminal threats he made in January 2022. While in custody on the present case, Barrett made hundreds of phone calls. On these calls, he showed no remorse or regret. Instead, he threatened to use violence and vindictive lawsuits against the victims, claiming that they designed a conspiracy to ruin his life This case was the product of an investigation by the National Park Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael G. Tierney and Arin C. Heinz prosecuted the case. Updated June 4, 2024
just fucking drop him
The guy sounds like a scumbag, but even killing somebody doesn’t usually get you life in prison. What am I missing here?
Repeat offenses, no remorse, stalking, harassment, beating humans and an animal, violating his restraining orders, and multiple brutal rapes. It adds up. It doesn’t help that he isn’t even pretending to feel bad. He also has talked about trying to delay his trial. I’m sure that didn’t help the decision.
i think, as another commenter mentioned, is mainly due to him being prosecuted in federal court. that along with the well documented evidence of SA and harassment (usually not so in SA cases) against multiple victims, his priors, and his very evident lack of remorse probably all also contributed to the "heavy" sentencing (imo its sad that its heavy). I think there was also incentive to set a precedent to make people feel safe in national parks, and this was an easy picking relatively to other similar cases.
>mainly due to him being prosecuted in federal court even killing somebody doesn’t usually get you life in prison Yeah, life in prison is actually the mandatory minimum for a federal murder conviction. The only other possibility is the death penalty.
Fuck CB, but that's only for Federal Murder 1. By the numbers, statistically, killing someone won't land you a life sentence
Read the outside article linked above. Repeated history of the same thing over and over again which he managed to basically get away with barely any consequences. He was clearly mentally unwell and likely to eventually kill someone. But the life sentence is due to his history of repeating the same crimes and inability to reform
Beyond "mental" illness. Dude was practicing evil. Reminds of the ID Show "Evil lives here." Wish all rapists would have life in prison (not the ones falsely accused but that is another subject). This dude was going to keep going until he murdered someone, not maybe but would. Glad he is in jail. Unfortunately, there are plenty like him roaming around in human skin.
Another point for the bears.
So this comment made me want to look up the statistics and they're abysmal. One source claimed you're 167 times more likely to be murdered by a man between 18 and 24 than a bear. And we all know this isn't just about murder.
The average person doesn't hang out with bears.
Unless you like hanging out in gay bars, loads of bears there.
Bit of a selection bias issue with that statistic, no? Not trying to refute the overall point that there's many bad men out there. Just saying this particular comparison is not exactly correct.
Yeah if the average woman spent as much time with bears as with her male family, friends, and partners, there would almost certainly be more bear-related deaths.
Yeah I don’t even know where this “statistic” could have possibly even been pulled from. There’s in the ballpark of like 1 bear attack death per year worldwide.
Not a single person has died on the moon!
lol spoken like someone that is a mouth-breather about understanding statistics
That is what I thought reading about this monster. A bear would never.
Nims next?
Oh FFS Nims
NYTimes article about Nims from last week: https://archive.is/ngIMo
Who?
Nims Purja. The 14 peaks guy who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women *so far*
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Mountaineering/comments/1d4rqwi/nims\_purja\_sexual\_harassment\_reported\_by\_the\_new/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Mountaineering/comments/1d4rqwi/nims_purja_sexual_harassment_reported_by_the_new/)
Good. This should give the rest of us in the community a little bit of pause. A lot of lady friends will share details on less than stellar guys in various communities I’ve climbed in and the other men do what happened with Barrett: they defend him because he can pull down hard. Being strong isn’t a moral achievement. It’s just a cool human trick. Rather, being ethical and moral is what makes you morally sound. I feel like it’s silly we have to review this point.
There is no doubt he deserves to be in jail, and has been given an absurd amount of second chances. Many in the climbing community just looked the other way for many years, including sponsors. There are plenty of big name climbers who need called out for their bullshit in “supporting” this guy.
Lisa Rands and Wills Young are the Bishop couple mentioned in the article. Lisa is listed in court documents as a defense witness on CBs behalf.
Cough *rhymes with Amex Ronald* cough
This one will get buried, but to the men of the climbing community: you have a duty to protect us women in the sport. It’s not always safe out here for us, and some of these women could have been spared if other guys stood up to the creepy behavior, and believed what women had to say about him (more of what’s described in the outdoor.com article)
met this dude in jtree 4 years ago, thought he was a real asshole but couldnt put my finger on why...now i know my gut feeling was spot on
Hurray!
Wow! Good riddance. I'm glad he's finally locked up, but it's awful how long it took.
First reported assault was 2016. This sentence is a long time coming.
First REPORTED, I am aware of assaults earlier than that where he intimidated the victim so terribly they were too scared to report it.
Investigative tactics for any SA/DV case should include finding out all past female contacts and asking about past conduct in a way that keeps potential witnesses safe. I'm so fucking sick of the first reported case (or ten reported cases...) being treated as an unfortunate outlier or he said/she said and brushed off, when they're actually iceberg tips.
Wrong. First incarcerated in 2008 for beating a woman in the head.
Who are the big name climbers who supported this POS?
Lisa Rands and Wills Young are the Bishop couple mentioned in the article. Lisa is listed in court documents as a defense witness on CBs behalf
Was that really a thing? I cannot imagine any climbers would support him if they had any idea of his actions
In the orginal outside article Honnold is quoted: "Honnold said that he’d heard stories about a female professional climber he knew who’d been in a relationship with Barrett and got “punched in the face.” “I thought: That’s crazy,” Honnold said. “But then I immediately thought: **Maybe he was really drunk and they were fighting and that’s how he ended up punching her in the face. And she is a very strong person who holds her own**.” Honnold said that he tries to see the best in people and always hoped that Barrett would turn his life around. “\[The violence\] was a step beyond what I could imagine,” he says. “Which I guess is why I had a blind spot around it. And the depressed-alcoholic thing is an easy way to mask some of the actual violence.”" It's the bolded part that allowed CB and continues to allow others to abuse. His actions were known in the community but overlooked or excused away because of his status.
Thanks for sharing. Honnold js a badass climbing but he is seriously lacking in basic awareness in any type of social situation
Well shit, never meet your heroes.
Jesus 🤦♀️
Unfortunately, part of the reason he was able to get away with so much was because of his personality. He could be very convincing and charming. It was often hard to tell what was true and not, especially in the earlier years when he was still climbing and active in the community.
Look at Ryan Sheridan's [IG story](https://www.instagram.com/stories/ryansheridan/) for the evidence, but Katie Lambert wrote a letter in defense of him very sadly.
Thomasina pidgeon is a big name in Squamish and she wrote a letter in his defense and used her daughter in it to try to make him seem like just some sweet guy who’s nice to her and her kid. Absolutely disgusting and should be removed from any leadership positions in organizations.
See ya bud. Well, maybe not.
Is this the Charlie Barrett that wrote the Bishop Bouldering guidebook? Yech :(
Yes...hopefully someone publishes a new guidebook.
Pretty sure James Lucas just did.
Great!
this guy was unfortunately well known for years.... there was multiple psa about him in the vegas climbing fb group
Nobody is above the law.
Good, he clearly has zero remorse and I hope this helps the women in healing.
Life in the feds means life... he's going to have some serious hard times real soon
Everyone and anyone who excused his behavior was and is part of the problem
Good, I have a strong stomach and that climbing article about him made my stomach churn.
*former rock climber
Good, everything I read about him suggested he was a terrible human being.
Good, hope he rots in there
I read about this guy a few years ago. He is a fucking monster and absolute sociopath. The life sentence is entirely appropriate. Justice served
Wow! What a piece of shit?
Good riddance
Wow. What an asshole.
Nims is next
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64936484/254/united-states-v-barrett/
I'm happy that he's finally locked up. From what I read, he should have been serving time already a decade ago, but was given slack repeatedly, and climbing community protected him because of his contributions. Shameful.
So where's the list of prominent climbers that enabled this jackass and looked the other way?
Thomasina pidgeon is one
Lisa Rands and Wills Young
Victims can rest easy now
Good. Hopefully, his victims can find some amount of peace and begin recovering.
Oh my god, that’s such a relief. I never thought his victims would see this day. I hope it’s a relief for them.
Rot in hell buddy!
Reading about this guy I feel he was mentally sick.
Definitely. But still legally culpable and has shown zero remorse.
Gee, do ya think so??
Nice
Thank goodness. Throw away the key.
Fuck, i always thought that climbers are addicted to climbing and nothing else. I thought we are living the dream. There are surprisingly selfish assholes everywhere!
Now will be more into indoor climbing
Finally! Glad he's behind bars, and hope he stays that way. Hope he gets treated the same way he treated women on the outside.
... whoa
Here is another good in depth article about this pos [https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-assault-trial/](https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-assault-trial/)
He's not going to be very popular in prison. They hate rapists.
Anddddd absolutely nothing from male climbers who rushed to defend him in the past.
Good! It's a shame as a big part of why I climb is because of the great community. I didn't think this sort of shit was part of it.
Good, fuck him. This is exactly why the Bear vs Man debate is even a thing.
Should have thrown him off a cliff and be done with it
As soon as I started reading that in-depth article in Outside magazine I had to revisit a podcast episode. For the Love of Climbing episode 1: Unbroken. Lots of scary parallels and a great message from the survivor at the end.
Absolutely horrid, glad he was put away for good. Can’t imagine what the victims must have gone through.
Rest in piss, you won’t be missed.