Harvey T. Carter Equipment
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- Most of the equipment Vertival Archaeology inherited from Harvey T. Carter
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- The gold painted ring angles on the left were some of the last bunch Harvey and I ever painted.
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- These heavy duty “stoveleg” style angles were made to Harveys specifications for use on the Totem Pole. Im not sure they were exactly what he needed for that ascent but they did eventually see action on a few towers.
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- A big 4 Inch Chouinard bong, 2 inch Chouinard bong, and a great 1 1/2 inch piton without markings (it kind of looks like an old Clog pin but is currently unidentified)
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- A 4 inch LONGware bong (top) and an early style 4 inch Chouinard (bottom)
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- Home made “stoveleg” style pitons
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- Home made “stoveleg” style pitons
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- Early style 4 inch Chouinard bong
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- 4 inch LONGware bong
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- 4 inch LONGware bong and ring angles
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- A wide Leeper Z and two Chouinard angles with Harveys distinctive gold paint
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- A wide Leeper Z and two Chouinard angles with Harveys distinctive gold paint
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- Home made “stoveleg” style pitons
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- LONGware bong piton
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- Early style ring angle pitons. Great for fixing in drilled holes on sandstone
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- Harvey had a heavy hand. He didnt mess around when beating in a piton
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- Mid 1960’s Jumars
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- Mid 1960’s Jumars
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- Home made “stoveleg” style pitons
Featured in this gallery is the equipment I have collected from my time climbing and exploring with desert legend Harvey T. Carter. I climbed with him hundreds of times in the 1990s and our friendship continued until his passing in 2012. He was a true pioneer, an innovator, and a driving force behind many classic ascents across Utah and Colorado. He was a damn hard man.
He sold me a few of these big pitons right before my first trip to the Fisher Towers. I had no idea what I was getting into. By the time I was testing myself on those muddy walls cams had made the wide sections a little faster but rarely any more secure. Harvey refused to even consider big cams when a well placed bong could be pounded in. To me, the dull sound of hammer on piton and muffled cursing, will always be the sound of the Fisher Towers.
“To me, the dull sound of hammer on piton and muffled cursing, will always be the sound of the Fisher Towers.”
I love that comment!
I have photographed many of his pitons that are now at the American Alpine Club museum/library. I was on the hunt for one which he had showed me once in Colorado Springs, and I believe it is an early Lavender piton, evolved from the original round design. I found it! I will post story on bigwallgear.com soon. It is funny Harvey had so many gold plated ones, I think he gave them as awards to climbers for good routes, Harvey’s “golden pitons” 😉
Harvey painted almost all of his gear gold at one time. I have some of his tube chicks and hexes that are painted gold. We painted several batches of ring angles in the driveway of his parents house in Colorado Springs.
The “gold pitons” we given out at the bouldering contests he organized in the early days. He would run around and figure out a bunch of hard moves on boulders back in the hinterlands of the Garden of the Gods and then invite people to “compete” but of course he would enter the comp himself…the results were often skewed in Harvey’s favor. Hehe