freak Posted September 27, 2001 Share Posted September 27, 2001 Dude it was bad ass, I was beat from climbing too many days in a row, dean potter comes strollin through camp in the mornin and say's you guys should come to the trial and help Free Chongo. HE knows we're from Washington and never leave home with out the reefer. ANy ways we go to the trial hang out in the air conditiond court room, and watch the drama unfold. IT was better than judge Judy. He was on trial for fixing ropes on El cap, (sea of dreams) they couldent prove in court that the ropes had been there for more than 24 hours. When everyone knew that they had been there for two years. It was one bad ass rope swing, Anyways he got off scot free, and my friend got a copy of his new book,the green stuff is good barter material, the book is called, The homeless interpretation of Quantum mechanics. That book is way the fuck out there if you know what I mean. And thats the highlight of my Yosemite trip, dude it was better than snakedike, just kidding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willstrickland Posted September 27, 2001 Share Posted September 27, 2001 Whether you are making this up or it really happened is irrelevant to me, but leaving fixed ropes on El Cap for two years is BS. I've ranted about this before, but... Last summer I asked Chongo when he was finally going to blast-off (his bags and ropes had been on the Sea for the entire season, maybe longer). His reply was that he was looking for someone to go up with him to cook and deal with food/water/etc so he wouldn't have to. Judging by the amount of shit he had up there (three pigs if I remember correctly) he could have fed an army. When I left the valley that October the stuff was still there. Apparently, it is still there. If it were Mt Hooker, or some middle of nowhere spot where only other climbers would see it, I'd say "who cares". But the fact is, the valley is already enough of a pain in the ass between the rangers and restrictions. I support civil disobedience, but this was not planned as such and without alot of other climbers doing it concurrently to stage an actual "protest" the only thing this is getting us is more problems. Now say this leads to strict enforcement of the 24hr rule...would you be pissed if you fixed ropes, it stormed the next day so you sat it out in camp, went up the next day and were promptly ticketed and forced to remove your lines. This is the kind of thing that results from such behavior. The ranger/climber conflict is already bad enough (I stayed out of the John Muir hotel aka the jail, one night last year only because someone drove off the loop road into the ditch while I was being read my rights..."You stay here, we'll be right back" yeah, right!) So while it might have seemed cool at the time, it don't seem so cool to me. And I don't doubt it was better than Snake Hike, 16 miles is a long way to walk for a bunch of 5.4 slab pitches and a trillion tourons (I did have fun on SD though) Just my opinion, WS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freak Posted September 27, 2001 Author Share Posted September 27, 2001 This really happend and if he had been found guilty it would have changed how walls get done in the Valley, People routinely leave ropes up for more than 24 hours. I doubt that the climbing rangers whould ever give ya a ticket for fixing and leaving gear for a reasonable amount of time. I agree that he stepped over the line totally, way over the line. It was just insane, the whole thing was so random, the main peice of evidendce was an onion bag, imagine a prosecuteing attorney holding up an onion bag. .I guess you would have had to be there, nic  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallstein Posted September 28, 2001 Share Posted September 28, 2001 Great to hear Chuck didn't get tooled! He had way more than 3 bags up on the wall. It was something like 5 bags and 5 food buckets. Last time I was down there he had fixed past the hook or book. So at the rate he is going he still has another 2 years to go. Man I freak out when I have 5 days to go. mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freak Posted September 28, 2001 Author Share Posted September 28, 2001 ya dude it took him like a year to get to where he's at, It came down to freedom of expression in some ways we all climb to express our selves although he did cross the line, but wether you solo or fix and go slow its up to you right? The question is where do we draw the line that says alright its time to bag it. and go home takeing all your crap with you. I dont know man but I am down with the informality that exists now, we shouldent have to have the state impose a restriction on how we must climb. okay that my 2 cents. nic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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