“Charlie is the kind of guy where you just really want to believe him”

June 6, 2024 12:30 PM

Wickwire recalls instances where other climbers lied about their ascents and were quickly banished. “No one would climb with them or believe what they said,” he points out. But when it came to stories about Barrett’s violence against women, people were too willing to look the other way—even after Barrett was arrested and a detailed indictment from a federal investigation was posted online. “There is a dissonance between how climbers think of themselves and what they actually do,” says Kimbrough Moore, a longtime climber, a guidebook author, and a philosophy professor at San Francisco State University. “In my experience, the climbing community has been hostile to women who have come out saying they were assaulted.” As for Barrett, Moore says: “I have never heard of anyone doing more to harm the climbing community than Charlie. He has used his status as an elite climber to hurt people for a very long time.” from How Did This Climber Get Away with So Much for So Long? [Outside; ungated] [CW: rape, sexual violence, violence to animals, stalking, harassment, enabling]
posted by chavenet (20 comments total)

resources: Safe Outside https://americanalpineclub.org/safeoutside

If you or someone you know is in crisis, help is available. To reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline, call 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. For support outside the U.S., visit findahelpline.com.
#believewomen #thereishopeforjustice
posted by HearHere at 12:58 PM on June 6 [12 favorites]

The answer to the question is simple - nobody would believe the women. I also think Krakauer's point is excellent - sexual assault is the only crime where we as a general rule assume that the victim is lying - something that needs to end. It's also revolting that Barrett's lawyers are going with the "not guilty on account of the victim being a lying slut" defense, and the fact that such a defense is not held unethical is a large part of why the legal profession is seen to not be terribly troubled by ethics.
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:50 PM on June 6 [29 favorites]

Yesterday, Barrett was sentenced to life in prison.
posted by miltthetank at 2:11 PM on June 6 [46 favorites]

I only read the first part of the article, because the initial assault described there was very upsetting to me (a sexual abuse and assault survivor).

I have been climbing for over 30 years, and can say that he got away with it for so long because he's a climber. It's a male-dominated activity, and assault, harassment, and even casual sexism are more accepted in climbing than in many other circles. Climbing has a high tolerance for men who are seen as eccentric geniuses. So of course it was easy to get away with.
posted by medusa at 2:39 PM on June 6 [12 favorites]

Yesterday, Barrett was sentenced to life in prison.

archive link for that article
posted by slater at 2:39 PM on June 6 [4 favorites]

The story is just horrifying to read, what so many women endured, how the men closed ranks, and how badly the court system responded. I have a friend who's a former court administrator in California (for a county far north of where all this happened) and I'm going to send this to her, because ... it's hard to believe they could have botched this so badly unless the counties were somehow unaware of what was happening in the different jurisdictions.

I'm glad to see he is finally going to prison and that his victims won't need to keep looking over their shoulders. But it also seems pretty clear that he is seriously mentally ill. That he apparently never received continuous or effective treatment, which might have prevented his crimes, is just one more appalling aspect of this story.
posted by martin q blank at 2:47 PM on June 6 [5 favorites]

After witnessing how events unfolded with Turner (also NorCal, but peninsula rather than north bay), I'm not at all surprised that it took a federal court to jail Barrett. This sort of police and judicial behavior in response to cis white men committing sexual assault appears to be the norm rather than the exception — at least prior to 2018 #metoo.
posted by Callisto Prime at 3:34 PM on June 6 [4 favorites]

I read about this yesterday. In the end, he was brought to justice because the women he assaulted banded together. That is the only way women get justice.

I was surprised/impressed he got life in prison. The judge found that he was a threat to society and was unredeemable. That's unusual.
posted by Toddles at 7:50 PM on June 6 [3 favorites]

it's hard to believe they could have botched this so badly

It's not.

But it also seems pretty clear that he is seriously mentally ill.

He isn't.

He knows what he's doing and he does it because he knows he'll get away with it. He is demonstrating emotional intelligence. That's why he got away with it for so long.
posted by AlSweigart at 9:16 PM on June 6 [7 favorites]

How Did This Climber Get Away with So Much for So Long?

Is he a tall, good-looking white guy?

He was attractive—tall and dark, with broad shoulders and a big smile—and attentive in a way she’d never experienced.

Yeah, that matches the other rapists and successfully funded tech entrepreneurs I know.
posted by AlSweigart at 9:25 PM on June 6 [9 favorites]

Mental illness does mean “not guilty by reason of instantly”/ I don’t know what I am doing. He certainly knew what he was doing was wrong, but was able to manipulate the system and more victims to keep doing terrible things to women. That is the sickness
posted by CostcoCultist at 9:37 PM on June 6 [1 favorite]

He certainly knew what he was doing was wrong, but was able to manipulate the system and more victims to keep doing terrible things to women. That is the sickness

No, that's the crime he committed. Being a rapist is not itself a mental illness, nor evidence of one, and it does a disservice to people who do suffer mental illness to suggest that being a rapist falls under that heading.
posted by Dysk at 9:51 PM on June 6 [12 favorites]

A couple of things from the article stood out for me. One is that the author is uniquely qualified to address something like this:

I grew up in a home where my father—a caring physician and active church member—abused his family and often flew into violent rages, with me frequently on the receiving end. A large part of my healing from that traumatic childhood has involved advocating for domestic-violence survivors and pushing back against a culture that too often seeks to minimize victims’ experiences.

The other is that, above and beyond the rapist being abusive and manipulated, he was actively enabled by other male climbers:

There was also a segment of the community who wouldn’t talk to investigators, or to me, for a different reason: an apparent desire to close ranks around one of their own. A Park Service law-enforcement officer assigned to the Yosemite case described this group to me as “old-guy climbers.” They were mostly men in their fifties and sixties who were invested in minimizing sexual assaults and harassment while elevating climbing accomplishments. As friends and mentors of Barrett’s, some of them were angry or mystified that he was being investigated at all. Out of more than a dozen professional climbers who had well-publicized relationships with Barrett, only a few agreed to talk.

The rot obviously goes deeper than just one guy.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:34 AM on June 7 [11 favorites]

I feel like there are two components to the enablers. Firstly the kind of wilful blindness of society as a whole about how many women are subjected to sexual violence by men, which persists for all sorts of historic and structural reasons. And then secondly on a more personal/individual level something like what happens with scam victims who reluctant to accept that they have been conned. Because to admit that you didn't see the problem is to admit that you cannot actually protect yourself or those you love from harm.

I am in awe at the courage of the women at the heart of this story.
posted by plonkee at 6:06 AM on June 7 [5 favorites]

Oof, meant "manipulative" instead of "manipulated" above.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:44 AM on June 7 [2 favorites]

While he was being held in jail in the 2016 Yosemite case, Barrett made hundreds of phone calls to victims in which “he showed no remorse or regret,” Mr. Talbert’s office said.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked that this was allowed, but wow.
posted by birthday cake at 8:17 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

And they wonder why we'd choose a bear.
posted by teleri025 at 10:07 AM on June 7 [7 favorites]

I have been climbing for over 30 years, and can say that he got away with it for so long because he's a climber. It's a male-dominated activity, and assault, harassment, and even casual sexism are more accepted in climbing than in many other circles. Climbing has a high tolerance for men who are seen as eccentric geniuses. So of course it was easy to get away with.

Same. Seconded.
posted by Dashy at 5:48 PM on June 8 [2 favorites]

The amount of "innocent until convicted!" And "but what about false accusations" that I read on climbing forums. I can't even.
posted by Dashy at 5:52 PM on June 8 [2 favorites]

The rot obviously goes deeper than just one guy.

Climbers Weigh In on Nims Purja Following Sexual Abuse Allegations [Outside]
posted by chavenet at 9:18 AM on June 9