Harvey Carter—climbing icon and legend—passed away Tuesday, March 13, at the age of 83.
With a climbing career lasting more than 60 years, Carter pioneered and
discovered many of the well-known climbing areas in the four-corners
area, including the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, and is
rumored to have made over 5,000 first ascents.
In those 60 years, Carter organized the first formal bouldering
competition in the Garden of the Gods in 1956; he completed the
then-hardest climb in Colorado in 1956, an 800-foot buttress on Hallett
Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park that was long considered one of the
classic climbs of North America; he saved numerous lives in the Aspen
ski patrol, some of them his close friends; and he founded Climbing magazine, in his basement, with $900, in 1970.
“The editors of Climbing claim no authority for assuming this
task other than the fact that we believe the magazine is needed and we
have the desire and the capacity to supply it,” wrote Carter in the
first issue of Climbing. “Being climbers ourselves, we relish the task and will do our best to serve satisfactorily.”
