A federal judge in California sentenced a professional rock climber to life in prison on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
Charlie Barrett (photo, left), 40, has a shocking history of assaulting women, threatening victims, and retaliating against witnesses (see details here).
He preyed on female climbers, and some of his rapes occurred in Yosemite National Park, which is under federal jurisdiction.
So Barrett will be sent to a federal prison. Is he a high-level escape risk? After all, he’s expert at climbing walls.
It depends on the prison and wall. A lot of imposing problems can be climbed, as this video shows, but even top climbers need something to work with.
I don’t know where the photo below was taken, but I’ll skip the barbed wire and guard tower in order to focus on the climbing problem, and just talk about the wall. They’re moot if you can’t climb the wall.
I’m reluctant to call anything unclimbable, because leading-edge climbers keep surprising me, but these smooth vertical concrete walls look unclimbable. You need handholds and footholds, or something to wedge feet or hands into; and for really difficult climbing, you also need specialized rock climbing shoes and chalk. Some easy Class 5 rock can be done barefoot, but bare feet don’t work on friction or edging holds.
Studying the problem, I’d say forget the flat concrete walls, but the circular corner tower might have enough rugosities to “go” for a climber of Barrett’s caliber. It has the added advantage of being invisible to the guard(s) in the tower.
Getting down the other side without breaking a leg may be a problem. Keep in mind it’s easier to climb up than down, so if there’s barely enough there to make it up, it probably isn’t enough to downclimb.
Anyway, Barrett has years to think about how to scale the walls of his assigned prison, before he’s too old to climb anymore. Yes, you do age out of this sport; it’s highly athletic. But starting tomorrow, he’ll have plenty of time on his hands, and nothing better to do with it.
