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Harvey Carter’s Saves

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

Colorado Springs journalist Dave Philipps called me a while ago for impressions about pioneer climber Harvey Carter. Result is a nice article about Harvey that was just published. As a mentor in the 1970s and climbing partner after that, Harvey was a huge influence on my career as an alpinist. He even rescued me — more than once.

Colorado climbing.
Harvey Carter in Glenwood Canyon, 1975. Michael Kennedy photo.

The second time Harvey saved me, (as described in Phillips’ article), was when he dropped down Keno gully off the backside of Aspen Mountain and hauled me to safety in a patrol sled. But the first time, he talked me up a climb in Yosemite that almost killed me. Here is the story:

Fall, 1971, Harvey Carter invites my girlfriend and I on a climbing trip to Yosemite. (I’d been there one other time, but hadn’t done much climbing due to weather and inexperience). After a late night arrival, the three of us head for a classic Yosemite free climb. It starts with what’s known as a bombay chimney, which is exactly what the words picture: a slot that narrows as it gets higher, thus forming an inverted funnel. At the time, experienced Valley climbers had developed techniques to climb such features – I hadn’t a clue.

By crawling to the back of the chimney, I’m able to use a series of jutting chockstones to work myself about fifty feet off the ground. I couldn’t place any protection (this was the day we were still carrying pitons and a just a few stoppers), so the cord dangles from my waist to Harvy in a graceful curve — the trajectory I’ll take to the ground if I fall. Above me the smooth walls of the chimney look tough, but I’d read about how you climb by bracing your back against one side and knees or feet against the other, then wriggle up in a sort of crabbing motion.

I brace my back, and by pressing my feet against dime sized footholds I am able to traverse out under the main part of the chimney. Harvy is now almost directly below me, with my friend sitting a few feet away from him. If I slip I’ll free fall to the ground like a base jumper with no chute.

The footholds evaporate, leaving me with my 1970s slick rubber climbing shoes squashed against polished granite. By lurching and scrabbling I climb about 20 feet higher, where the slot narrows. Now in a sort of vertical kneeling position, I have my knees jammed against the rock in front of me, with my back, butt, and feet on the rock behind. At first, my body jams into the crack perfectly, making it nearly impossible to fall, but as the crack narrows, the angle of my knees shortens and I end up stretched out, using strength instead of geometry to hold me in.

Wriggling and lurching, I use brute force and gain another fifteen feet. I’ve traversed farther out towards the cliff face, so my brutalized body is jammed in the crack above the wide part of the bombay formation. I’m breathing hard, my legs weaken. I slip down a few inches and hear the denim tear over one knee. I hook a shoe toe over a crystal and jam my back against the rock with all my strength. My bare knee seeps blood and fires pain like a blow torch. Every muscle in my body is working. I breath like a locomotive. I keep slipping downward.

I’m gripped by fear as look 80 feet down at Harvey and my friend, knowing I will either die or be crippled for life by the fall. By now I’m lurching and scrabbling, my breath mixing with fearful bleats as I slip inch-by-inch down closer to the bombay.

“Can you work your way back up to the narrow part?” yells Harvy in an angry tone.

“I … just … can’t… hold on,” tears spring from my eyes as I blurt out what words I can, “I might fall.”

“Just brace your back and knees and go,” Harvey yells, his tone ever more gruff.

I try harder, breath harder, and rip the pants over my other knee. I panic, thrutching my feet against glazed granite like a mad parody of a bicycle sprinter. Friend can’t take it any more — I watch her stand up and walk away.

“Lou…Lou,” I hear Harvey shouting. His voice sounds different, like he knows I might die on his watch. He is standing up, moving in closer to the base of the cliff , “Calm down, just try to stop moving,” I pause, hanging by threads of flesh and denim.

“Now, just move really slow, look for small footholds for your feet,” yells Harvey, still in a tone I’ve never heard from him. (I’d hear that inflection again, six years later in Keno Gulch).

Harvey’s instructions sink in. I feel my mind and spirit lock into something I’ve never before experienced, a peaceful knowing I was out of options, had to try my best, but take what came. It’s a powerful peace, because all the strength my fear was sapping suddenly flooded my body. In a moment I’m secure, with my back and knees jammed with firm strength. Taking stock, I see only two choices: drop out of the chimney and hit the ground, or make careful upward progress no matter how scary the process is. I study the rock like Sherlock Holmes examining hair follicles with his magnifying glass. Yes, even though the chimney walls are polished like bathroom tile, I can see small defects and the occasional protruding flake or crystal.

Pressing my boot soles and hands against razor blade width flakes of rock, I push upwards. I make a few millimeters progress. Shooting pains stab my knees, but my mind is calm. I find rhythm: stop and stay calm, search for friction, push upwards, don’t try for much at once, just keep it slow and steady.

“That’s it, Lou, can you work your way to the back of the chimney now?” I hear Harvey yelling from the ground, still with an almost tender demeanor that was totally uncharacteristic of his personality.

Using my slow technique of making “mini moves,” I progress upwards and sideways, finally reaching the back of the slot, where a bunch of wedged rocks provided a place to stand and get a safe rest. Fiddling with my gear, I finally wedge an anchor device in a crack, snap my rope through a carabiner, and thus give Harvy the ability to catch me if I fall. With the rope providing safety, and my newfound technique, the last 50 feet of the climb go smoothly, and I’d soon seated at the top of the formation, tied by the rope to several strong anchors, and listening to Harvy scrape and cuss his way up. He does much better than me, but arrives with holes in his jean knees that look remarkably similar to mine.

The chimney epic with Harvey was an epiphany for me, as it revealed a secret of climbing and mountaineering skill. I realized that strength and technique were big, but that hard climbs always go past the physical. If I wanted success on hard natural climbs (as opposed to climbing gym walls and rock with numerous artificial anchors), I’d have to control my mind. I needed a place to go where peace reigned — where I could focus on one thing alone: moving up one rock flake or ice crystal at a time, or hanging by a ski edge on the side of a mountain, as single minded and purposeful as a human being can get. For years I’d work on finding that place, and sometimes I did.

More photos of Harvey here.

Posted by Lou on June 5, 2008 | Filed Under Backcountry Skiing, Mountain Culture 

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Comments

17 Responses to “Harvey Carter’s Saves”

  1. Zahan Billimoria June 5th, 2008 10:57 am

    very well written, and insightful.

  2. Lou June 5th, 2008 11:11 am

    Thanks Zahan!

  3. Joel June 5th, 2008 11:47 am

    yup – I got sweaty palms and fingertips reading it. That feeling of sheer terror, with death a distinct possibility as you hang on a tiny flake in the wall with a bloody nub of a fingertip is not ANY fun for me. Hence, I don’t really climb anything like that anymore. Great piece of story telling though. It definitely took me to a place I haven’t been in a long time.

  4. Teletim June 5th, 2008 11:47 am

    wow…Lou, just wow……..I read your blog almost every day and that is the most riveting post you have ever made in my humble opinion.

  5. Scott B June 5th, 2008 1:31 pm

    I’ll second Teletim’s comment.

    It really makes me think about how climbing is so much more exploration than that of the outdoors.

  6. Steve Pulford June 5th, 2008 1:51 pm

    Lou, don’t let your mother read that.

    Well done from my opinion though! Some people would never climb again after an experience like that, and others take it and learn from the fear to become better. Interesting study in psychology…

  7. Scott Nelson June 5th, 2008 4:48 pm

    Riveting. Felt like I was right there. I think my heart rate even went aerobic for a few moments. Did your girlfriend ever come back?

    The older I get (and hopefully a little wiser) I realize how powerful the mind is, and just how much influence it has over us. Much greater than just brute strength, like you said. Unless of course your…sport climbing :)

  8. Lou June 5th, 2008 5:19 pm

    Scott, that was indeed a defining moment. No stories about former girlfriends, however. Those’ll have to wait till I’m 90 — or at least a 6 figure book contract (grin).

  9. Scott Nelson June 5th, 2008 5:23 pm

    Thanks for the link to the article on Harvey Carter too. Good story. I’ve had a few defining moments too on some of his routes on the Pass. Did he always climb with just a rope around his waist? You guys were hardmen!

  10. Michael Kennedy June 5th, 2008 6:05 pm

    Great story, Lou … really brings back memories of my own brushes with the infinite. Amazing how you can focus when you don’t have any other options.

  11. Lou June 5th, 2008 7:06 pm

    Thanks for the comments guys!

  12. Eric June 5th, 2008 9:51 pm

    Well said Lou. I think you’ve expressed the reason many of us do what we do. It’s not the “adrenaline” as many think, but the calm, totally focused state of mind required when pushing your limits.

    Are you still trying to find that place?

  13. Kristina June 5th, 2008 11:36 pm

    Very interesting post Lou. ;-)

  14. Lou June 6th, 2008 4:13 am

    Eric, yeah, always, and in many different parts of life…

  15. Split June 6th, 2008 8:56 am

    I read your website quite often and this has to be one of the best pieces i have read here. Of course it does not hurt that i am more of a climber than skier, but those moments of clarity are part of any sport that has consequences.

  16. andyw June 6th, 2008 10:28 am

    ……..phew

  17. BillL June 6th, 2008 3:39 pm

    Reminds me of a couple of climbing events long ago:

    The first where I got past the thought that “I might as well jump, ‘cuz I’m gonna fall and die anyway” (Shanashee). After the second, somewhere high on the Redgarden Wall in Eldorado, my buddies and I decided that the difference between an adventure and an epic is the degree of tragedy potential.

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Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

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