Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon

by Tom Myers and Elias Butler

Book Overview

Legendary Grand Canyoneer Harvey Butchart climbed, hiked, floated and bushwhacked 12,000 pioneering miles below the rim during a 42-year obsession with the world-famous gorge. Here for the first time is Harvey's life story: his years as a fatherless child in the mountains of China, his struggles in America during the Great Depression, and finally, his all-consuming drive for greatness by exploring one of the West's last unknown wildernesses. Lace...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970097352
• ISBN13: 9780970097354
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Puma Press
• Length: 455 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Don't read this before bed...

...or you'll never get to sleep! Grand Obsession is a riveting biography of one of the most interesting characters ever to set foot in the Grand Canyon. An author himself, many hikers are familiar with Harvey Butchart's series of "guide books", Grand Canyon Treks. Even though Harvey somewhat vaguely reveals the secrets of the Grand Canyon in his books, he himself has remained a mystery until now. It is evident that the authors put an amazing amount of work into writing this biography. Every detail of Harvey's life, from his childhood in China, to "settling down" in Sun City, has been clearly and interestingly explained. The biography takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions, from the elation of summiting a virgin butte to the heartache his frequent forays in the Canyon caused his wife. The authors break up the biography with the tale of their own adventure; following the footsteps of Harvey Butchart to the summit of Wotan's Throne. Their quest, a series of triumphs and failures, mirrors the life Harvey Butchart and helps the reader understand what Harvey must have felt in an even more profound way. I didn't want to put this book down. Every page was a new adventure, leaving me hungry for more, and making me want to go to the Canyon and follow the footsteps of Harvey Butchart myself!

A Great Biography of a Great explorer

This is a tremendously interesting and enjoyable biography. The writing is superb, the photographs enriching, and the flow and structure of the book are excellent. Most importantly, the authors have beautifully and humanely illuminated the life of an extraordinary -- and until now for me and many others -- a somewhat mysterious man. I met Dr. Butchart 35 years ago when I took his Algebra course at Northern Arizona University. He was a challenging professor (the best kind!), and as a young hiker and beginning Canyoneer, I was in awe of his Canyon reputation. I didn't get to know him beyond class. In subsequent years and after many off-trail and below-the-rim miles attempting to follow his terse guides, I was mystified as to who he really was. Thanks to Butler and Meyers, I have finally come to know him. And what a great arm-chair adventure getting to "know him" has been! "Grand Obsession" is not only a fine addition to the ever enlarging literature of the Grand Canyon, it is a fittingly great biography of a little known but great western explorer.

A Grand Book for a Truly Grand Obsession

Harvey Butchart was a mathematics professor. His doctoral thesis was "Helices in Euclidean N-Space", and at one point he had to get twenty feet of wrapping paper to do his massive calculations for it. He looked the part, for he was scrawny at five foot seven inches and 135 pounds, and he had thick bifocals. He was socially awkward and shy. He was a good mathematician, with further papers and competence within the Northern Arizona University Mathematics Department. He had a perfectly respectable professional life. So far so dull. You would not have known it if you had seen him in his professor role, but he was a tenacious adventurer who made the Grand Canyon his realm of expertise. He logged 12,000 hiking miles in over forty years of canyoneering, he found new routes of access from the canyon rim to river, and he climbed 83 of the buttes in the canyon, often climbing by himself, and 28 of those climbs were the first recorded conquests. Everyone who knew him knew of his obsession with the canyon, and he is a hero to the many who have followed the trails he described. No one appreciates Butchart's life's work more than hikers Elias Butler and Tom Myers, who have written an admiring biography of the man who knew the Grand Canyon better than anyone, _Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon_ (Puma Press). Not only is this big, well-illustrated book an account of Butchart's life and work, it chronicles much of the history of the canyon, especially after the boom in camping and nature appreciation that has occurred in the past decades. It is also an account of an obsession that was dangerous at times, and even tragic. The obsession was also hazardous to Butchart's family life, but he did put it to practical use for the benefit of others. Butchart only started hiking the canyon when he was 38 years old and moved to its region. It presented one challenge after another; he might have to bushwhack through a disused trial, float down a river, ascend sheer cliffs, or raise himself up scorching buttes. The almost photographic memory he used when he did mathematics was also put to work on the trial, so that he could remember routes long after he had trekked them. However, he took to documenting each hike he made, obsessively typing up a description once he returned home. He remained extremely fit, and as supervisor of the college hiking club, he found he had to take care so that he would not leave his students, less than half his age, in the dust. He was hard on himself. "You aren't really living if you don't risk your life once every six months," he wrote, and he was only half joking. Butler and Myers examine at length the effects of his hiking on his wife. Roma had no interest in hiking and had disdain for the fellow hikers who would visit her husband. She was able to have a truce when Butchart kept to schedule and made it home for bridge games and other activities Roma needed. Butchart had to slow down as h

Harvey would approve...

Grand Obsession explores the full life of Harvey Butchart. Assessments on the whole seem prudent. A riveting, yet educational masterpiece presented well by Butler and Myers. Given a soul the reader will experience all emotions. I found myself laughing out loud, crying inside and obsessed to read the next chapter. Lucky you, the authors are the exact opposite of the subject at hand. Virtually any question you may have about Harvey is answered. It's everything you need to know presenting intense facts along the way. Symbolic childhood moments decipher the psyche. Fun adventures to those that turned sour are interweaved with mini profiles of those that affected his life most. Personal and sometimes appalling tidbits make it real. Never before nor will I ever likely read another book this size, I just wish this one was bigger!

Far more than a biography of Harvey Butchart

Grand Obsessions is page turner for anyone who's hiked the Grand Canyon or plans to hike it. Not only do the authors bring Butchart back to life, they do a great job of descibing the influnce of other Grand Canyon backcountry explorers on him, and in return, his influence on them, including other authors such as Colin Fletcher (The Man Who Walked Through Time). I highly recommend sharing this book with your hiking friends.