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 y…