Another man in a hat: Fedora Issue

Peter Lev is a big time rock and ice climber as well as a noted avalanche forecaster. He calls the later skill a black art, one that’s more a crap shoot than a precise science. Like our dear friend George Hurley, Peter got his first taste of vertical rock while a student at the University of Colorado in the late fifties. That passion morphed into an ownership stake in famed Exum Mountain Guides in Moose, Wyoming which is the oldest climbing school in the United States.

Now a resident of Lead, North Dakota, pronounced lead as in leader not lead as in led, Peter continues to climb the famed Needles in Custer State Park, a state park that rivals many a National Park for shear grandeur. This candid photograph happened over adult beverages in the town of Hot Springs during a climbing trip. Matter of fact, George was in attendance, too.

The man has a great mug but he winced about this depiction. Said it made him look older than his years. I feel his pain.