Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon [Paperback]

Elias Butler (Author), Tom Myers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Winner of a 2008 National Outdoor Book Award, a 2008 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY), and named a Book of the Year by the Pima County Library, "Grand Obsession" continues to gather recognition for its striking portrayal of a man who felt compelled to do what no one had dared attempt in modern times: explore the deepest, most inhospitable reaches of the Grand Canyon, crown jewel of America's national parks - something which took decades to achieve and exacted a great personal cost.

Writers Elias Butler and Thomas M. Myers (co-author of the book "Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon") poured 15 years of research into this book. 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. He became the first man to walk across Grand Canyon National Park, doing so in 1963 just ahead of writer Colin Fletcher, who famously described Butchart in his classic adventure book "The Man Who Walked Through Time."

Here for the first time is Harvey's life story: his early years as a fatherless child in a mystical, rugged mountain range in 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. Butchart's accomplishments found favor with the public, but also led to the death of his favorite hiking partner and took a decades-long toll on his marriage.

The authors retrace Harvey's footsteps on dangerous cliff edges while chronicling his thrilling exploits, heart-breaking tragedies, and lasting triumphs. Part biography, part modern-day adventure, "Grand Obsession" will take you deeper into the soul of this fascinating man - and Grand Canyon - than you have ever been before.

Contains over 170 photographs, many never-before-published, and Harvey Butchart's hand-stenciled maps showing his treks in Grand Canyon. The paperback edition contains black-and-white maps, the hardback edition contains color maps.

Butchart's feats continue to receive recognition, most recently by the Arizona State Board of Names, which in 2008 designated a rocky summit "Butchart Butte" within Grand Canyon National Park.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Butler and Myers do wonders with this book, taking what seems at first glance a prosaic subject, and fashioning it into a fascinating portrait of a man hopelessly addicted to a place." -- 2008 National Outdoor Book Awards, which named Grand Obsession a winner in the History/Biography category.

"Of all the Grand Canyon books out there, this one stands alone as a classic work showcasing man and nature at their best." -- Lynn Arave, The Deseret Morning News

"Through Butchart's experiences, readers get a feel for how impressive, humbling, unforgiving and fascinating this place is. Read it." -- Amy Maesta, Inside/Outside Southwest

"There's a special word for finding your own way around the Grand Canyon without following established trails: "butcharting," an homage to Harvey Butchart." -- Susan Spano, The Los Angeles Times

"Written by two other Canyon explorers, with personal accounts of their efforts to follow in Butchart's footsteps, this story of a remarkable life transcends biography and becomes gripping adventure." -- Pima County Library and Arizona Historical Society, which named "Grand Obsession" a 2007 Southwest Book of the Year.

"The book is well written and the story of Harvey's life is extremely interesting. I highly recommend this book!" -- Denise Traver, former NPS ranger and author of hitthetrail, a Grand Canyon website.

"Harvey Butchart, the man who has walked over more of the Grand Canyon than any other alive or dead..." --Edward Abbey, writing in his journal at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1969 --Ed Abbey

"Nobody knew the Grand Canyon better than Harvey Butchart did. Now comes our chance to better know Butchart, the enigmatic hiker-explorer who is regarded as the father of American desert canyoneering. "Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon," by Elias Butler and Tom Myers, tells the story of this mild-mannered math professor who turned tenacious below the canyon's rims - logging 12,000 miles on foot, blazing dozens of new routes from rim to river and notching 28 first recorded ascents of buttes and other formidable formations in the canyon's torrid interior. He wrote three famously cryptic backcountry guidebooks that helped cement his status among canyon aficionados as part Superman, part Yoda." --Joe Hudson, The Denver Post

"Harvey Butchart was the legendary hiker and canyoneer who explored more of the Grand Canyon than any other person. He was largely known through his sparse and somewhat cryptic hiking guidebooks. But even more cryptic was Butchart himself. Who was this man, and why did his interest in the canyon become an obsession that consumed his life? You'll find out in this uncommonly well researched, well-structured and well-written biography." --2008 2008 National Outdoor Book Awards web site

About the Author

Elias Butler is a writer and photographer living in Flagstaff, Arizona. Butler has written for Backpacker, National Geographic Adventure, The Fretboard Journal, the Las Vegas-Review Journal and the Arizona Daily Sun. Butler's photography has been published in USA Today, Reader's Digest, Arizona Highways, and Backpacker . This is his first book.

At age 19, Tom Myers began celebrating the dawning of each new year by hiking in the Grand Canyon. It is a tradition he and his wife continue to share with their three children. He has co-authored two previous Canyon books, Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon (with Michael Ghiglieri) and Fateful Journey (with Larry Stevens and Chris Becker).

Product Details

• Paperback: 457 pages
• Publisher: Puma Press; 1st edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970097344
• ISBN-13: 978-0970097347
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Far more than a biography of Harvey Butchart, September 3, 2007

By 

Pete Winn (Grand Junction, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon (Hardcover)

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.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Grand Book for a Truly Grand Obsession, October 25, 2007

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon (Hardcover)

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 he aged, although the slowing was very long in coming. After he had done his last hikes, there was a reconnection and delight in his relationship with Roma, and after she died in 2002, he was heartbroken and followed her just a couple of months later.

Butchart's fame is assured, not because he had so many firsts in climbing and hiking the canyon (although these are considerable), but because of the three volumes of _Grand Canyon Treks_ he produced, going from the logbook notes he made after a hike and turning them into trail guides for others to follow. Butler and Myers are devoted to the books and use them often (even on a hike to Wotan's Throne, a butte that was a particular favorite of Butchart, to put his and Roma's ashes there). "Although a casual hiker could use _Treks_ to negotiate the beaten paths, Harvey presents the trails as mere frames upon which to drape the more exciting information, his routes that lead into the wild. _Treks_ thus introduced the sport of canyoneering to a generation of eager practitioners." Butchart was not unappreciative of the beauty of the canyon, but his guidebooks reflect his priorities, getting out there, getting to a goal, and getting there in time, rather than pointing out the sights. What he thought was important about his life is in those books. _Grand Obsession_ contains wonderful pictures of the canyon and Butchart at work in it, and is engagingly written even for people that don't have anything like a devotion to hiking. It is a full and admiring portrait of a remarkable, flawed man who blazed a trail, thousands of trails.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harvey would approve..., September 9, 2007

By 

Joe Bartels "Author/Photographer HikeArizona.COM" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon (Hardcover)

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!