SendAustin!

This is not Jack Mileski’s old camper shell, but it’s close enough.

Jack Mileski was this beloved, important climber and teacher who climbed in Austin, and all over Colorado and Mexico. You see his name in guidebooks as a first ascender, and there are walls are areas named after him here (and there).

There’s a legend that he was the one who first called beta “beta”….

The original use of the term Beta in climbing is generally attributed to the late climber, Jack Mileski. “Beta” was short for Betamax, a reference to an old videotape format largely replaced by the VHS format. This was actually a play on words, as Jack would often ask, “you want the beta, Max?”

Jack was murdered in 1997. It took a long time for his killer to be sentenced, so it seemed for some people like it went on forever, or like it happened more recently. Here’s the most recent Climbing article about the case

Last month Rupesh sold his “I’m Already Against The Next War” truck, but he kept the camper shell. “The truck was worth more without it,” he said. The camper is Mileski’s last camper, known as the “cheesebox.”  Apparently, Mileski used to punch in the bubble windows and shout, “fucking cheesebox!” Then wait for them to pop back out (this illustration doesn’t have the right windows).

After Jack died, Clayton Reagan took the cheesebox. After that Dave Teykl used it, then Rupesh. Rupesh just got a Yaris or a Matrix, one of those rides that riff on the style of the Prius but, ya know, isn’t. Obviously, it doesn’t take a camper shell, and now the Mileski Memorial Cheesebox needs a home.

If this legacy is any indication, this camper (for a small truck) carries some seriously good climbing juju. If you think you are worthy of carrying on this Austin climbing tradition, be in touch with SendAustin or with the executor of the cheesebox, Rupesh.