Passion for mountain climbing took Prairie Wind couple to more than 45 countries

From Colorado to Montana, Canada to Switzerland: when asked why he climbed mountains, Harry replies, “There’s a plaque on the wall of the school of mountaineering in the Grand Tetons that reads, “Only he or she who stood on the summit knows the exhilaration of the mountaineer.” 

Harry’s passion for climbing began as a teenager when his family visited Colorado. Harry says, “I saw Pikes Peak and I told myself I was going to be on top of that one day.”  

Soon after Harry and his wife Carol began teaching, they attended summer school in Colorado. They did a lot of backpacking, camping and climbed without the use of technical gear (called walkups). Over the years, Harry attended several climbing schools and his climbs became more technical and vertical.

With a local mountaineering group, they joined several lengthy expeditions. Harry climbed the San Juans of Colorado, Montana's Beartooth Mountains, and the Lake of the Hanging Glaciers in Canada, to name a few. 

“I always wanted to climb the Matterhorn. It was a precipitous mountain,” says Harry. With the help of a guide, it took a full day to get to the Hornli Hut at the foot of the Matterhorn. We went to bed, got up at midnight and started out in the dark with headlamps and reached the summit at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon.” 

“Mountaineering is risky,” says Harry. Once, they got caught in a blizzard on Grand Teton. As the rock became slick and visibility decreased, they decided to take a short cut in their descent and did a 300 foot repel in the blowing snow, shortening their descent by five hours.

Although it was an achievement, for Harry mountaineering wasn’t about proving himself. What he liked most was looking out and seeing the scenery from the summit.

Carol and Harry traveled most places together. Carol says, “While he was climbing the Matterhorn, I was sitting in Zermatt drinking hot chocolate and shopping for cuckoo clocks.”

Carol says, “We’ve had a lucky life. We came to UNI for college and got jobs in Monticello for 33 years. We made good use of our summers traveling.”

Harry shows the route taken to the summit of the Matterhorn.