Chongo Chuck

Chongo Chuck, whose real name is Charles Victor Tucker II, was born in the 1950s on a military base in Japan. He is an iconic figure in Yosemite climbing. Chongo began climbing as a self-taught teenager in California. He was born on a U.S. military base in Japan and, in his own words, still remembers the fear he felt at birth. His father was a civil engineer, and Chongo was the eldest of seven children. He graduated from high school in Los Angeles and then spent a year studying undergraduate mathematics at the University of Arizona. Chongo speaks fluent Spanish and lived in Mexico for eight years in one of the capital's most dangerous neighborhoods, which even many Mexicans avoid. Chongo says the local narcos respected him as much as the climbers in Yosemite. But while smuggling cannabis across the border to the American side, he was imprisoned for several years, and any faith he still had in capitalist society was lost for good. Known for his atypical vagabond lifestyle and his involvement in the climbing community, Tommy Caldwell, a slackline pioneer and developer of big wall climbing techniques, has compared him to Master Yoda from Star Wars. Chongo spent many years living ill...