50 Years of Climbing

September 1 of this year was the day of a very special occasion for Penn Haile '24. On that day—which turned out to be a perfect one for a mountain climb—there was a celebration at Moosilauke to mark the fiftieth year since he had first gone up that mountain. In May of 1921, as a freshman, he went with two friends up the Beaver Brook Trail not knowing that there would be knee-deep snow under the high scrub near the summit. But he found out and it was perhaps a wonder that he ever climbed there again.

However, he did so many times—well over a hundred. In the early 1930's, as an instructor at Dartmouth, Penn was up almost once a week to stay overnight at the old Summit House where friends were always on the summer crew that operated the place for the benefit of camps and climbers.

Then, much later, after he had come to live in Norwich, Penn was up at Moosilauke one day in 1959 with Bob Monahan '29 and went through the woods on the east side recently cut over by the Franconia Paper Company. It seemed a good time to attempt to buy a large acreage in order to preserve that side of the mountain as well as the west side which had long been in the hands of the White Mountain National Forest and the summit which had belonged to Dartmouth since 1920.

It took six years to complete the deal but in September of 1965 papers confirming the sale were exchanged at the Inn in Lincoln, N. H. One year later the plaque put up by the College for Penn was "activated" on the South Peak. That was on September 9. 1966, and on the same day another plaque was visited, the one set up on the summit for the Woodworth brothers of Concord who had given the summit and Summit House to the College.

The date of September 9, 1966 on Penn's plaque has given rise to frequent reports of his death. But the climb this year should end those. Ten friends went along, inspected the plaque, ate lunch in the shelter of trees along the carriage road—the wind was cold under a cloudless sky—and then went over the summit and down to the Lodge. There they were joined by fifteen more—either non-climbers or people who could not take the day off—for a champagne supper. It was a fine occasion and a toast was drunk to another climb to mark the 60th year. Penn and his friends hope it will be possible!