Climber who sexually assaulted woman in Yosemite National Park sentenced to life in prison

A well-known professional climber who was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman during a hike in Yosemite National Park was sentenced to life in a federal prison on Tuesday.

Charles Barrett, 40, was found guilty by a jury in February on two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact with the woman, who was 19 when the attacks occurred in 2016. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Mendez in Sacramento.

Barrett, born in Santa Rosa, was known for “opening up some of the most difficult bouldering routes in California,” Tahoe Quarterly wrote in 2019. He has written guidebooks describing challenging climbs in the eastern Sierra Nevada, where he lived for many years, and in Yosemite National Park, where he lived and worked in 2016.

He also has a criminal record. After a park ranger in Yosemite National Park warned him for drunk driving in 2005, prosecutors say Barrett slashed the tires of the ranger’s personal car and threatened to kill the ranger’s child 11 years later. He was convicted in 2022 of making threats against one of the women who testified against him in the Yosemite case.

This was supported by testimony from three other women who said Barrett had attacked them in previous years, attacks for which he was not charged. And while Barrett was in custody, prosecutors said, he made hundreds of threatening phone calls to his victim and a witness.

“Barrett’s long history of sexual violence justifies the imposition of a life sentence,” U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in a statement. “He used his status as a prominent climber to attack women in the climbing community, and when his victims began to speak out, Barrett responded by publicly responding with threats and intimidation.”

Barrett’s lawyers had asked for a prison sentence of less than 16 years. In court documents, lawyers Timothy Hennessy and David Torres said that although Barrett was an alcoholic, he was kind-hearted.

They recounted an incident in which he volunteered to design and build a sled to help an elderly paraplegic man reach the top of a 4,000-foot mountain in Mammoth Lakes. And his mother, Joan Wyman, described Barrett as “a light-hearted, funny, loyal, honest and determined person.”

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