What the Outing Club Does For Its Men
If any Dartmouth alumnus has ever had any doubtconcerning the effects of the Outing Club upon the lives ofits members, let him read this article. It is one of the mostpointed articles turned into the magazine in some time. Itshows by a personal study how in one single summer OutingClub men have begun careers for themselves in outdoorwork, and with this have put themselves in touch with themost healthful influences that Hanover gives. In the pastwe knew that the Outing Club brought health to hundreds ofmen through their outdoor programs, but now here isdefinite proof that the Outing Club starts a man on acareer in life.
IT would not be irrational to assume that the more active members of the Dartmouth Outing Club would find themselves sufficiently satiated with the amount of outdoor life undertaken during the college year to welcome a diversion along more staid social lines during the summer. This article is to prove that such an assumption is false, that these students have developed such a love for the out-of-doors through the medium of the Outing Club that they are unwilling to return to some form of idle social life. Those that find it necessary to work during vacation turn to outdoor jobs taking them from one part of the country to the other.
The most active members of the Outing Club are naturally those belonging to Cabin and Trail, the executive body. The nucleus of this group is formed as the result of a long competition in the freshman year from which fifteen men are selected. To this number are added a few from the sophomore and junior classes who have shown continued interest in the D. 0. C., men who have given proof of much ability. It is but reasonable then to use the members of Cabin and Trail as examples for this article.
At present C and T has a membership of 56 undergraduates, 20 seniors, 20 juniors and 16 sophomores. In the senior group a survey has shown that every man was out-of-doors practically all summer. Some of the vocations followed are well worth noticing: at the Moosilauke Summit Camp on the peak of Moosilauke, with which all Dartmouth men are familiar, were two of the students, one as hutmaster, the other, the chairman of the D. 0. C. council, his assistant. A third filled the responsible position of hutmaster at the new Appalachian Mountain Club lodge at Lonesome Lake near Franconia Notch in the White Mountains. For a post of this nature the A. M. C. selects only men of the highest capability which must include both executive efficiency and a complete knowledge of woods lore.
Of a quite different nature was the work done by the son of one of the country's wealthiest families. With the world to choose from for his three month's vacation he elected to serve as a deckhand on the schooner with Dr. Grenfell's expedition in Labrador. With him was another Outing Club man, Ayers Boal ex '29, who has been with the Grenfell party since leaving college.
Another senior together with a sophomore member toured the country by auto working their way from place to place when their money gave out. Much of their time was spent at various jobs in the wheat fields of Kansas and North Dakota. The remainder of the '3O delegation were variously busy outdoors as hiking instructors in camps, packing supplies up mountains, acting as swimming instructors—one even digging ditches near Chicago.
The junior bunch were likewise restless for the open. One, who is majoring in geology, was selected for the task of making a preliminary mineral survey of the whole state of New Hampshire for the New England Power Association. A second took an eight thousand mile auto-camping trip into the west and southwest for the first month, worked in Franconia Notch during August, and then, not having had a sufficient amount of mountain air, hiked from Mount Washington down to Hanover alone, taking ten days and covering 130 miles of trail, to arrive just in time for registration. Several others were counsellors in White Mountain camps; one worked in a nursery; another was a life guard and one was an assistant at the Moosilauke Summit Camp.
In New Hampshire's beautiful Franconia Notch, the so-called Switzerland of America, the state is perfecting a number of improvements for the benefit of the many thousands of tourists who come from all corners of the globe to see such natural wonders the "Old Man of the Mountain" made memorable by Hawthorne. In the Notch itself the state operates two wayside curio shops. The managership of these was given to two Dartmouth men this summer, one a C and T man of last year's graduating class, and among their assistants were three junior and two sophomore members.
The '32 Cabin and Trail men seemed determined to keep outside under any pretext. Summer found them scattered to the four winds, from camping in Canada to laying a gas pipe line in the Ozark Mountains, from protecting gentle tourists from the bears in Yellowstone National Park as a ranger, to selling Fuller brushes in Connecticut, from serving as a gob on a South American freighter, to swinging a pick on an lowa railroad construction gang. One guided visitors through the hidden passages of Lost River near Franconia Notch; another was on the trails crew together with two senior members. (It is the work of the trails crew during the summer recess to go over all the Outing Club trails and cabins leaving them in the best possible condition for fall use.)
Referring to actual statistics of this past summer it is found that of the fifty-six members of Cabin and Trail only five were employed at inside positions for the entire vacation; four were out-of-doors but were not working, and the rest were all working outside.
It is interesting, too, to note what some of the '29 members were doing, a few of whom the author happened to meet or hear about. Robert S. Monahan, who is one of the most enthusiastic supporters the club has ever known, entered the Yale School of Forestry in preparation for future forestry service. Monahan is easily one of the best authorities on hiking in the White Mountains. William D. Dodge packed all summer for the A. M. C. in Pinkham and Franconia Notches. Harold H. Leich, last winter's carnival director, successfully made the ascent of Mount Blanc as part of a hiking program in Europe.
In the constant everlasting change of things faces like this appear in stone relief, and for a time hold their contours. Some Outing Club men stumbled upon this creation in the White Mountains, and R. S. Monahan '29 took a photograph of it. It was lucky that he did for the next year frost had seeped into the cleft below the
nose and in the spring the whole nose crumbled away.
APPROACHING THE SUMMIT OF MT. WASHINGTON The Summer party is now on the Crawford Path above the Lake of the Clouds. In the group are, left to right, Bob Monahan '29, Arch Clarke 'SO, Sam Allen '30, Gordon Shattuck '3O, and Blair Wood '3O.
NATURE'S ETCHING—"THE SEEKEK" On-Southwest Buttress of Monroe
