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Bullwinkle
Boulder climber
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there's still plenty of people living the "dirtbag" lifestyle, the story was about Chuck not dirtbag climbers.
There are a number of people documenting the climbing lifestyle, my work and the work of many others, has been show within the comunity for years now.
The mainstream press perfers to use their own photographers and writers, though they could easily find us, they choose not to. Thats why they ALWAYS get it wrong, it's the safe way of doing things. it's about what sells newspapers and underware, not what is. . .DF
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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I have no problem with the "mainstream press" using their own writers and photogs. That's the way it works in most of Europe, and it's not a big problem.
There just isn't a history of press engagement with climbing in the US, outside of rare events-- Dawn Wall, Spider Dan, something splashy on a 7 Summit dog route. The Guardian has been covering climbing in a serious way for three-quarters of a century, so there's a history there and a knowledgeable public.
We need that in the US, especially as land management gets messier, and especially as increasing percentages of folks get introduced to climbing thru the conquest of the great indoors.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dean, now that you mention it, those photos in the article were kind of lame. I mean, I'm sure Chongo spent plenty of nights underneath that trailer, but the shots were obviously a photoshoot, props and all. I'm sure your pics would have given the piece the authenticity that the NYT should demand. Ah, well.
Anyway, good on Chongo, a man of many surprises. Perhaps the next thing you know we'll be seeing him in Stockholm accepting the Nobel Prize (or maybe knott!).
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Who gives a rip if the press "gets it right" If you climb for yourself, then it doesn't matter what society does or doesn't think about climbing. If you're out for acceptance from society, then my might want to find another past time or life style than climbing.
I liked climbing better pre sport, pre plastic, pre gym. We climbed for ourselves, we climbed with eachother, and we pretty much climbed out of sight of society.
People that seek notoriety do so due to low self esteem and other personal issues. When they get the notoriety they find out those issues are still there, and that fame sucks.
I used to think the response to the question of why do you climb, because its there was a lame one. Then I finally realized that those who ask why you climb couldn't possible understand. And saying you climb because it's there is a good enough answer, and perhaps much closer to the truth than any of us realize.
Sorry to wonder off the op, I haven't met chongo so can't comment.
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skyzona
Social climber
Prescott, AZ
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I agree "FREE CHONGO, let him back in" He should be grandfathered into camp 4 as a historical bench, or put him on display in the archives as an interactive display.
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Ricky D
Trad climber
Sierra Westside
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Having seen Ken's museum display - I think that Skyzona's on to something with the Chongo display.
Put him in a glass case on a big wall mockup with a portaledge - name the display "Dirtbaggus Climbus Americanus".
People can feed him by dropping quarters into a machine that diespenses peanuts and OE out of a chute!
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
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Brenda read this article to me and Kate from the ground when we were up on the wall last week, and what a superb article it is! Chongo is probably the most "one of a kind" guy I have ever met - nobody else even comes close.
I thought the article did a very credible job of describing Chongo, but I think some of you guys are getting a bit bent out of shape in your criticisms of what [to me] is obvious tongue-in-cheek comments made by the writer. If you know Chongo, you know that it's Chongo himself who has made these bold pronouncements about his legendary status, and the writer took evident delight in relating these pronouncements as "facts". I mean, the guy doesn't have a home or even any possessions - surely you don't think the writer believed everything he wrote? The writer is a master troller, and some of you "fish" are biting at the lures he drags through the water.
This isn't a story about climbing or history or a great climber or great contributor to the climbing community - it's a story about a true character, someone who's a cross between a court jester and a climbing hippie, who does stuff his way. And you have to admire that, even if you don't "get" it.
I miss Chongo - the Valley doesn't seem like the same place without him, be it the "Hotel El Cap" [the base of the Trip] or more significantly the Lodge cafeteria. Chongo is my Wall Doctor, and he taught me how to climb big walls, without him ever even leaving the ground!
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Bill Becher
Trad climber
Westlake Village, CA
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RE NY Times coverage of climbing.. I'm a freelancer and have written for the Times about ice climbing and Michael Reardon's free soloing.. and a few months later his obit, a major bummer.. The Times covers climbing occasionally in the Sports section under Outdoors or Adventure Sports under "Other Sports"
Space is tight in newspapers, the industry is in a major upheaval, but I do know the Times does try to give some space to what Yankee fans would call very "minor sports" such as whitewater rafting, paragliding, surf kayaking etc..
See
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/sports/othersports/06ice.html
and
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/sports/othersports/18outdoors.html
Bill Becher
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don't have one
climber
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I like the part where Chongo "had become a master of counter-surveillance and would go through incredible routines to insure that he was not being followed.”
F*#KING hilarious!!!!!!
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Mara
Boulder climber
Fresno
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GOOOD READ!!!!
Nights spent sitting by the fires in camp 4, talking about Zen teachings, talking climbing, and oh the physics. One of the last times I saw him was when he left my little black Jetta for a new life...in the "real world"
Best of luck Chongo.
To all the people I have spent time in the valley with, I miss you!
Marisa
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
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Hey Marisa!
You gotta drop by Chateau Brenda and check out her wine cellar - not bad at all. And bring a long a bottle of some of your good stuff.
Incidentally, we picked up a *great* bottle of zin down in Temecula - can you believe it?
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bware
climber
a short drive from the way new place
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I met Chongo back in the old Center of the Universe back before that was outlawed, before he was Chongo, really, just Chuck, I think. He was fixed on the Trip or some such, and his great quote was "We're going to win this thing through attrition." I pointed out that that was what Westmoreland had said and he just laughed.
I ran into him again a few years later, after the CotU had disappeared, at the base of the Trip-ish. We were carrying loads to someting and he was just hanging (this was before the bears took over the base). I had of course seen him hanging around various places but hadn't talked to him. He tried to sell me his wall book, but I wasn't really interested. He did tell me about the 2:1 haul, which is a good trick but kinda obvious after someone says the words to you. He told me about lots of other tricks that just sounded complicated but I still use the 2:1 and have passed it on for the skinny kids to use.
Anyway, while the NYT article was good, they didn't address the real reason Chongo got run out of Yosemite - the powers that be kept changing the rules. The valley just slowly became way more restrictive to the long term-ers. First the CotU went away, then the Camp 4 time limits got changed, parking permits for the Lodge and C4, then the unrelenting hassling of car campers and lifers not on SAR. I understand the hassling was worse back in the days before Reagan cut the NPS staff back so much (I only saw rangers going through C4 on horses checking all the bivs once), so maybe those days were just a brief respite from the normal state of affairs.
Perhaps the increasing restrictiveness of the system was just an inevitable response to the increasing number of people trying to beat the system, but in the end the lifers in the ditch go away, for better or worse.
I read with amusement that the Coiler was the last of that breed - I remember the day he first pulled up into the caf with his Curry job.
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