Opportunity to help community and environment is a 'Climb' for entrepreneur

In providing transportation that serves the residents and businesses of Gold Hill – which sits on a mountain northwest and more than 3,000 feet above Boulder – Phill Carter may have discovered pure gold.

It’s not that the shuttle service will make Phill wealthy, since Gold Hill is home to less than 300 people. Rather, it is quickly becoming priceless to those who use it, allowing them to forego their own twice-daily treks up and down one of the steepest roads in the nation all year long, but especially in the dead of winter.

The Climb is a nonprofit shuttle serving Ward, Gold Hill and Boulder – and a variety of stops in between – providing three trips daily with one in the morning and two in the evening.

Phill, president and managing director of the service, founded it in February 2009 with the backing of Gold Hill residents Karel and Alice Starek, among others, who found it difficult to travel to and from town every day using their own transportation. Yet, with children attending private school and college in Boulder, they didn’t have a choice since no bus service was available to their community.

“There were other kids in the same predicament,” Phill says.

When he heard about their problem, the former owner of a “green” truck shipping and rental business put together a plan of action and, with the Stareks’ assistance, found the necessary backers to make it happen.

Now the 15-passenger shuttle bus that provides the aptly named “The Climb” ride is nearly full during every trip, and hauls visitors as well as several bikes passengers use to get around once their reach their destination.

It also provides rides to Boulder children attending Gold Hill Elementary School but who do not live on Gold Hill, allowing the school to maintain enrollment and keep its doors open, as well as transports students who live on Gold Hill but attend school in the valley. Gold Hill Elementary students and their parents, grateful for the service, have raised $1,200 to help fund the bus.

“Right now it’s just one bus and a spare, which we occasionally have to use,” Phill says, noting that The Climb has a reputation of being on time and dependable, even in inclement weather. “We’ve missed very few days.”

Not only is he pleased with having made life easier for the residents, businesses and school of Gold Hill, Phill is happy that he is able to do so while doing less damage to the environment than a traditional bus service would: The Climb is able to use 100 percent vegetable oil and biodiesel during the summer months, and 50 percent in the winter months.

“We take at least 11 to 20 cars off the road per day, so we’re also saving wear and tear on those vehicles,” Phill says. “I think I’m the only regularly scheduled bus service that runs on 100 percent vegetable oil and biodiesel. We’ll get six months in of 100 percent (this year).”

Phill says he takes care of his buses to make them more efficient, and a computer chip installed in their engines makes them more powerful to take on the climb to Gold Hill. He obtains his fuel from the Boulder Biodiesel Co-Op and, since he is the primary user of vegetable oil as fuel, he has enlisted the help of college students to collect and process it.

It costs $3 per trip to ride The Climb, but members of the community who use it on a regular basis can pay between $120 and $500 or more for an annual pass depending on what they can afford. Phill has accepted as little as $40 for the annual pass because “we just want people to ride it.”

With a bachelor's degree in environmental biology from Applachian State University, a master’s in business administration from East Carolina University and experience working for oil pipeline services, Phill was ready to drive his career down a different, more environment-friendly road.

“I wanted to do anything that made oil irrelevant after that,” he says.

He moved from Boone, North Carolina, to Boulder three years ago on the advice of a friend who called the community a “green-tech wonderland.” Phill started a green trucking company, Green Truck Roadway, and logged 240,000 miles without the use of petroleum, giving him the experience he needed when he saw the opportunity to start up The Climb.

With the access to engage in his hobbies - mountain biking and snowboarding - so near and the many successful green start-ups in the area, “Boulder fits me like a glove,” Phill says. “I'm amazed at how friendly and supportive and positive people are. The community is the biggest support.”

Phill says he is putting his hobbies on hold for now while he focuses on running The Climb and getting married this winter to Caitlin Lepper.

For more information about The Climb, visit http://www.the-climb.com/.