Thursday, June 05, 2008

Harvey Carter Photos

Today in The Colorado Springs Gazette's Out There I published a profile on Harvey Carter, the influential pioneer rock climber. Read it here. I wanted to include some more photos.Harvey was a star football and baseball player at Colorado College in the early 1950s, but always preferred the freedom and creativity of climbing. He learned to climb from locals at Colorado College when the sport was still in its infancy.Harvey in May 2008 showing off old angle pitons from his rack. Bolts from Harvey's rack, many of which were cut from climbs where he felt they didn't belong. A photo by Stewart Green of Harvey climbing Montezuma's Tower in Garden of the Gods. Check out that run out. Harvey in 1967 during a trip to Fisher Towers, Utah. Harvey in May, 2008 on his deck on the west side of Pikes Peak. Harvey with the first issue of Climbing magazine, which he started in Aspen with two friends. Harvey has kept detailed, hand-written notes on every climb. He claims to have over 5,000 first ascents. A 1982 Stewart Green Photo of Harvey in Garden of the Gods, where he pioneered several routes. Harvey climbing in Colorado National Monument in the 1960, courtesy Stewart Green.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harvey is a rock climbing monster.

Anonymous said...

Great profile! More people need to know about Harvey's achievements and his character. He's a treasure.

Anonymous said...

I am visitng Co. from Ma.I had coffee in Manatou today.I met Harvey I start conversations.I found him very interesting.I came back and looked him up and found his life very interesting.Terry

Anonymous said...

I had the same experience, talking to a friendly Harvey Carter as we sipped coffee outside the Spice of Life cafe in Manitou. He truly is a living legend. He still lives on Pike's Peak.
Darren Ryan of Lewisville TX

Bill said...

07/25/2011 - I met Harvey today for the for the first time on the road between Deckers and Woodland Park, we talked a bit about his planned Pikes Peak Ski Resort and a little about his past. He seemed like a very nice man and I feel I have benefited from meeting him.

Dennis Kerr

Alan said...

I visited Harvey, I think in 07 or 08, at his rustic house (bigger than a cabin) on the west side of Pikes Peak, on the 320 acres he dreamed would be a grand family ski area. The views from his deck, not far below timberline, were like something out of National Geographic.

He drove a magnificently battered old Datsun, I think it was, whose driver's door no longer opened and he had to scamper across the front seat to get in and out on the passenger side.

We climbed in my Land Cruiser and he gave me a tour of his land, almost like a small boy pointing this way and that, where the ski runs would be, the ski cabins, the restaurant, the parking lot. He even had a 3-D plaster model of his dream -- I wonder who has that now, if anyone.

A year or two after he died I hiked back up to his house. I have no idea how long it had been since he moved out, but it looked like it could have been the month previous -- dirty dishes in the sink, moldy food in the fridge, clothes lying around, tons of books and climbing magazines, ancient climbing ropes, the plaster model. And piles of rodent droppings everywhere and water dripping from a badly leaking roof.

A month or two or three later I hiked up again, with my camera this time, but where the decrepit house once sat was now but a freshly bulldozed smear. Not only had a dozer ripped down the house, big trucks had hauled it all away, so that the only thing now left to show a man once lived and dreamed there were an old concrete cistern and a scattered chunk of metal or wood the scrapers missed.