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Warning: This textual content discusses sexual violence.
On October 30, longtime Bay Area climber Jason William Crist, 38, was arrested in Pacifica, California, and charged with 9 felonies for alleged events that occurred throughout the state between March 2019 and October 2023.
He faces 29 counts associated to sexual violence, a outcomes of 4 police research describing interactions with him in Pacifica, Presidio, Joshua Tree, and Yosemite. The felony costs embrace forcible rape, sexual battery, and assault. He posted bail for $500,000.
Climbing spoke with three ladies who’ve made accusations in opposition to Crist. They describe how he, a former Arc’teryx NorCal ambassador and former Movement Climbing, Yoga, and Well being employee, had a relentless pattern. On the climbing health middle in San Francisco’s Presidio park—beforehand Planet Granite, now Movement San Francisco—Crist would befriend youthful female climbers, sometimes novices who didn’t know many people within the neighborhood and didn’t however have the skills to take themselves exterior. Then he would “act as a mentor or their ‘keys’ to outdoors climbing,” one girl suggested Climbing.
“He was educating on the health middle,” talked about one different of Crist’s complainants. “He was educating women and men. He had the selection to indicate youngsters. It merely appeared like he had a rapport from the health middle and there was safety there.” Nonetheless as quickly as he acquired the women exterior, Crist would “cross established boundaries in strategies that are not OK.”.
“He makes use of climbing journeys as the precise time to hurt of us,” talked about one different complainant. “It’s an precise repeat issue.”
Based mostly on this climber, there are in the meanwhile 10 ladies who’ve claimed to have comparable confrontations with Crist.
Crist’s arrest comes on the heels of former expert climber Charlie Barrett’s February 2024 conviction for raping a woman in Yosemite Nationwide Park—and one amongst Crist’s complainants talked about that Crist’s case was eerily comparable for one fundamental function:
“All people knew,” she talked about. “Nonetheless not one of many totally different guys within the neighborhood would inform a lady, ‘Hey, Jason’s creepy, don’t cling round with him.’ They solely suggested me after the assault, like, ‘Oh yeah, I knew he was a nasty particular person, I was frightened for you.’”
Based mostly on all three complainants, managers at Movement Climbing, Yoga, and Well being have been made acutely aware that Crist—an employee of three years—had allegedly assaulted a variety of workers and members, and, after these ladies filed police research, launched a months-long investigation. Due to this, Crist was fired this earlier summer season and banned from all 29 Movement properties.
Whereas one in all many women with whom Climbing spoke expressed appreciation for Movement’s dedication, and for the assistance that the Movement group has equipped, others are pissed off that the information uncovered by Movement’s third-party investigators was not broadly publicized.
“If Movement knew additional regarding the assaults than anyone else,” says Kimbrough Moorea philosophy professor at San Francisco State School and the author of Golden State Bouldering Guidebook“I’m upset that they sat on the information pretty than sharing it with the climbing group. I don’t understand how any individual might make that choice.”
(In response to Climbing’s request for comment, a Movement spokesperson assured us that “Movement Climbing, Yoga and Well being prioritizes the safety and well-being of all group members, and we take any allegations of misconduct very severely.” Nonetheless they added: “As that’s an energetic investigation, we’re unable to comment.”)
Moore was made acutely aware of the police research in opposition to Crist when the complainants reached out to him this summer season. Determining that sexual assault circumstances normally take years to end in an arrest, he began actively working with the Bay Area Climbers Coalition, nonetheless that they’d not however taken any movement when Crist was unexpectedly arrested.
The women we spoke with well-known that, whereas Crist and Barrett are extreme circumstances, they aren’t the one unhealthy actors.
“When the entire Charlie Barrett stuff obtained right here out,” talked about one girl, “all people pointed at him and was like, ‘That’s horrible. Don’t be that man. Good issue we acquired him. That man’s gone.’ And I really feel plenty of folks missed the aim that it’s nonetheless happening beneath our noses. I don’t want this story to be ‘Obtained one different one; good issue we acquired him.’ I would really like it to be an ongoing dialog. I would really like dudes to talk to their associates about how they’re treating ladies. … I would really like of us to know that sexual assault is a function that girls depart climbing. All people deserves to essentially really feel comfortable and safe after they’re on the crag. I could have left climbing. And if I could have left, then I really feel totally different ladies more than likely have. And I hate that.”
It’s a creating story. We’re going to change it as additional information turns into obtainable.
