The 84-year-old man who died at Devil's Lake was a legendary figure in Midwest rock climbing

Peter Cleveland, 84, died Oct. 5 while climbing at Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo. He lived less than a mile away and went climbing every weekend the weather permitted, his son said.

It's unlikely that anyone had rock climbed at Devil's Lake State Park more times than Peter Cleveland.

The 84-year-old climber, considered somewhat of a legend in the Midwest climbing community, lived a mile from the state park for around 50 years, and went climbing nearly every Saturday and Sunday when the weather cooperated, his son Dan Cleveland said. He was regularly recognized by strangers at the park, his son said.

After news of Cleveland's passing, members of the rock climbing community shared an outpouring of memories online. Pete was a legend, some said, and a mentor to many. Cleveland was instrumental in developing climbing routes at Devil's Lake, where he began climbing in the 1960s, but also made waves in climbing outside the Midwest; he was perhaps most widely known for his 1967 solo climb of Superpin, a cone-shaped rock in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

"It's like a 100-foot spire, and the top of it's about as big as a basketball," Cleveland's longtime friend Dave Groth said. "He climbed it with essentially no protection. It was like a free solo."

Peter Cleveland was an accomplished academic, a medical doctor and a talented woodworker

Aside from climbing, Cleveland was an accomplished academic, a medical doctor and a talented woodworker. Humble about his accomplishments and a little camera shy, Cleveland did not typically like the limelight, Groth said. He was, however, known to talk the ear off anyone he ran into.

Cleveland was born in the Boston suburb of Arlington, Massachusetts, on Aug. 3, 1941. Despite moving to Wisconsin as a young adult, Cleveland retained his strong Boston accent his entire life, Groth said. He attended undergrad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He then earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from Iowa State University, and his MD at Rush Medical College.

"He was a brilliant guy," Groth said.

Cleveland fell in love with bouldering at a young age, at a quarry near his hometown, his daughter, Amy Cullins, said. After moving to the Midwest for his studies, Cleveland got involved in mountaineering clubs in Iowa and Chicago — primarily with the Chicago Mountaineering Club.

Cleveland was on the 'cutting edge' of climbing at Devil's Lake, friends said

It was around this time that Cleveland began regularly climbing at Devil's Lake. At that time, in the '60s and early '70s, the park had not yet become the climbing destination it is today. Cleveland was instrumental in establishing many of the climbing routes at the park, Groth said.

When a rock climber completes a route — which is defined by the corners and cracks they use to ascend the face of the rock — for the first time, it's referred to as a "first ascent," and they can document the route they took in a guidebook. Though the guidebooks were once physical books, they are now primarily available online, like through the website Mountain Project, Groth said.

Groth said Cleveland was on the "cutting edge" of climbing at Devil's Lake, and had dozens of first ascents at the park. Among them is the climbing route Bagatelle, a route that Groth said was "probably the hardest rock climb in North America" at the time Cleveland made the ascent, and remains a popular route for advanced climbers.

Around the early 1970s, Cleveland moved to a cottage about a mile from the state park. He renovated it and turned it into the family home, where he raised his two kids as a single father. He worked as a family practitioner in Baraboo, then later as a doctor with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Cleveland's children said, and retired from medicine around age 45.

Later in life, Cleveland continued to stay busy, keeping both his body and mind active. In the winters, when he could not get out and climb, Cleveland was known to read science and medical magazines, work on projects and play video games — he was particularly talented at Dr. Mario on the original Nintendo, Cullins said.

Even later in life, Cleveland remained very active and was a creature of habit, family said

A few years ago, Cleveland had been dealing with some health issues and stayed for a stretch of time with Cullins and her family at their home in Colorado. While he was there, Cullins said, her family took a trip with him to South Dakota, where Cleveland met up with some climbers in the area, reminiscing on their experiences, like Cleveland's famed Superpin climb.

Cleveland's health issues limited his leg mobility at the time, but the visit motivated him to work on his recovery and decide he wasn't yet done with his favorite hobby.

"It was amazing to us that he was able to still continue to haul firewood, do all the woodwork, and still go rock climbing in the years that followed," Cullins said.

Cleveland's life was primarily dedicated to climbing, academics, and his children, Groth said. Cleveland was a creature of habit, rarely outwardly emotional, and had a similar routine throughout his life that Dan Cleveland said made his father "an unchanging entity in the world."

A photo provided by family depicts Peter Cleveland climbing Son of Great Chimney at Devil's Lake in 1966.

He was also a steady figure for the Devil's Lake climbing community.

"I always remember people just stopping by the house and wanting to talk to my dad," Cullins said. "It was always just an open door, welcome to anybody, you could come by and sit for a while and chat."

Cleveland often hosted "happy hours" at the house after climbing trips, Cullins said, serving refreshments like crackers, cheese and beers. In honor of Cleveland, his loved ones are holding a celebration of life at Devil's Lake on Oct. 11, for a similar gathering, in the place Cleveland loved so dearly.

"He had quite an impact on the climbing community of Wisconsin — and just in North America," Groth said.

Peter Cleveland, an avid Wisconsin rock climber, died Oct. 5 in a climbing accident at Devil's Lake State Park.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The 84-year-old man who died at Devil's Lake was a legendary figure in Midwest rock climbing