The Outing Club at 75

It's no mean feat for either a man or an institution to reach the age of 75. But this year, as the Dartmouth Outing Club celebrates the diamond anniversary of its birth, the surprising fact is not that it is that old, but that it is only that old. You'd think, given the ambiance of New Hampshire, that someone would have founded an outing club here at least 200 years ago.

The undergraduates of the 18th and 19th centuries, however, were apparently more inclined toward the indoors than the outdoors. Most of their ancient references to the wilderness around Hanover are preceded by the adjective "howling"; when they turned their feet toward a fire, they wanted a solid wall behind them and a tight roof above.

It remained for a young Dartmouth junior, Fred Harris '11, to come up with the idea of forming a club to take advantage of the College's unique geographical situation. In December of 1909, he wrote a letter to The Dartmouth proposing a ski and snowshoe club. Though greeted with sardonic humor by a great number of students, it was clearly an idea whose time had come. Each meeting of the infant organization attracted greater participation than the last, and by the fall of 1910, when a large number of enthusiastic faculty members turned out for the year's first meeting, the DOC was on its way.

The early years, before the First World War, were years of building literally. With strong alumni support, the Outing Club began to clear an extensive trail system and erected several cabins. The Winter Carnival was its central event of the year, becoming an intercollegiate competition in 1915. But most important, the Club in those early years established the tradition of enthusiasm and excitement that has continued to this day, Ever since that early time, each deed of derring-do and every feat of organization has had a can- you-top-this air about it that inspires new efforts and keeps the DOC thriving, healthy, and at the core of the Dartmouth experience.

This spirit of one-upmanship led in the late teens to the infamous Mileage Contests. In May of 1920, Sherman Adams '20 and William Fowler '21 hiked the 83 miles of trails from the DOC's Skyline Farm north of Littleton all the way to Hanover in 24 hours. Two years later, Warren Daniell '22 hiked the 86 miles to the Massachusetts border in the same time limit. The main reason for these pedestrian aberrations, Adams has said, was the lack of women and student cars on campus. Whatever the motivation, none of the men seemed to suffer permanent damage from the tremendous physical abuse they handed themselves. Adams, still active, operates the Loon Mountain Ski Area. And Daniell, who took up road running in Hanover at the age of 74, trains about 20 miles a week, with a race once or twice a month to help him keep sharp.

The twenties were the Age of the Ski at Dartmouth pronounced "schki." Europe was far ahead of the United States in skiing technology, so the College imported its first coaches direct from the Alps. Their influence, coupled with the DOC's great energy, produced an Olympic competitor, Charlie Proctor '28, who skied in the 1928 Olympics and was the first man to ski the Headwall at Tuckerman's Ravine. The Carriage Road on Mount Moosilauke became a downhill racing trail in the wintertime, the Vale of Tempe was crowned with a new 40-meter jump, and Winter Carnival began to attract national attention.

This was also the period of growing diversification in the Outing Club. The leadership of the Club, as its activities proliferated, was unable to keep up with its organizational needs. Thus were born three affiliated clubs - Ledyard Canoe Club, Bait and Bullet, and Boots and Saddles. The main club was divided into three sections Cabin and Trail, Winter Sports, and Winter Carnival. In 1938, another affiliate, the Mountaineering Club, was added.

In 1935 the first Moosilauke Ravine Camp burned. Since Moosilauke had by then become "Dartmouth's Mountain," it was important that the camp be replaced as soon as possible. Once begun, the job was completed in record time, in spite of the interference of the Hurricane of '3B; the new Ravine Lodge opened just after New Year's of 1939. The construction boss on the job, unknown to anyone at the time, was to become one of the greatest influences on the Club in its entire history.

Those who heard Ross McKenney give one of his famous Jean Baptiste lectures, heard him recite "When You Walk Through the Woods," or tapped his encyclopedic knowledge of the outdoors, will never forget him or outgrow the effects of what he taught. "He influenced me as much as anyone ever did," says Gordy Dewitt '60, now Director of Facilities Planning at the College. "He could sit on a log in the woods and see more in five minutes than I'd see in five years." McKenney taught students everything from woodsplitting to' fly-tying, how to handle a canoe and muscle a log with a peavey. Eric Sailer '60 and Jack Prescott '61, would-be log cabin builders, first constructed a miniature cabin under Ross's tutelage in the side yard of his home on the River Road. The fruits of the instruction were Peaks Camp, Hinman Cabin, and Merrill Brook Cabin. "The DOC and Ross McKenney," says Sailer now, "weren't just the core of my Dartmouth experience. They were my Dartmouth experience!"

McKenney, College Naturalist Doug Wade, and General Manager Tom Dent provided the professional leadership necessary to the Club's phenomenal growth during the forties and fifties. The ski team, with Walter Prager as coach, ranked as a national power. The Skiway opened in 1956. The College Grant came into its own as a recreational facility. Woodsman's Weekend was born. And how many college outing clubs could muster - as the DOC did in 1959 after the Miller-Quinn plane crash several hundred members (and several hundred pairs of snowshoes!) to beat the woods for weeks in search of a downed plane?

During the fifties, the DOC had a friend in "the president's office in both Hanover and Washington, D.C. "It was a boom time for the Club," recalls Clark Griffiths '57, DOC president his senior year. "Prager and McKenney were at their peak, the Mountaineering Club was turning out the men who were on Everest in 1963, and we put up some beautiful new cabins. Holt's Ledge and the Moosilauke Summit Shelter were built then." Winter Carnival, by now featuring the Hollywood version of itself in Webster Hall each year, continued to grow. The Kingston Trio had popularized folk-singing, and the Club responded with dozens of new songs and The Carcajou Songbook. Virtually all the tunes were stolen, and some of the ditties, like "No Falls at All," had shady origins, but all of them enjoyed tremendous popularity, and old chubbers can still sing them from memory 30 years later.

New Year's Week was celebrated with a marathon party at the Ravine Lodge, chaperoned by alumni members of the Outing Club and featuring skiing, square dancing, and winter ascents of Moosilauke. This budding tradition was nipped by an administrative freeze, however, around 1962, when the Ravine Lodge was isolated for four days by a blizzard. Everyone at the Lodge was delighted, but College officials back in Hanover became nervous about the litigious possibilities inherent in such a situation, and decided to risk no more week-long wingdings at the Lodge.

With McKenney's retirement in the early sixties, the Club entered a phase of relative quiescence, marked by few new developments. (One exception was the invention by Jim Schwedland '48 of his famous snowshoe frame steamer, connected to the College heating system in the basement of Robinson Hall.) The social revolutions afoot in the nation seemed to distract undergraduate attention from the innocent pleasures of "chubbing." When at the end of the sixties Dartmouth inaugurated a new president (who had not been an Outing Clubber), it also reorganized the Club's administration and began the process leading to the admission of women. The stage was set for another act.

The computer terminal in the DOC office, and the bulletin board full of classic quotations a few feet away, are good expressions of the DOC of the eighties: well organized (an arguable point) and still vivacious, but far more diversified than in the past. Earl Jette, the present executive director, tries to do most of the work once handled by three men. Though working with students is his first love, administration takes up much of his time. "We'd have even more participation if we had more leadership," he says. "But as it is, I can't do much more than just react. I get lots of requests for help with making snowshoes, for example, but I can only handle a few." Luckily, student leaders have emerged to help fill the gaps. The circuits, however, remain overloaded.

Coeducation has had a profound and salutary effect. The Freshman Trip song leader these days is likely to be a woman, as is the person who helps you struggle into a heavy pack. But the spirit is much the same though, as one old chubber from the Class of '55 told me, "These kids don't smell as bad as we used to." Another arguable point.

In recognition of its 75th birthday, the Club has planned commemorative events throughout the year. Some of the standouts include a February re-enactment of the epic 1917 DOC ski tour from Bretton Woods to Glencliff, and a June trip by the Bike Club from Dartmouth to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The Canoe Club will begin its annual Ledyard downriver trip at the Canadian border and paddle the entire length of the Connecticut.

And on the Fourth of July, all DOC alumni, wherever they may be in the world, are asked to climb a nearby hill or mountain and then send a postcard to the Club recording the ascent. In this way, the Outing Club will demonstrate not only that its alumni members have scattered all over the globe, but that its spirit is alive, well, and as enthusiastic as ever.

President McLaughlin '54 has written, "The Outing Club is an articulate statement of why Dartmouth is unique. From the Freshman Trip to the last glorious Senior Spring, the DOC provides a marvelous opportunity to experience the New England out-of-doors."

The DOC is unique, all right. You've no doubt heard of the great Bicentennial Mount Washington Canoe Portage. To celebrate Dartmouth's 200 th birthday in 1969, Club members portaged a canoe up Mount Washington, paddled it across Lake-of-the-Clouds, and continued on to the summit with it. Any outfit that can muster the imagination and energy to accomplish that ought to be good for at least another 75 years.

Ross McKenney, above left, wasguardian angel to generations ofChubbers. At right, McKenneytimes senior Put Blodgett '53 at thebucksaw.

The Outing Club active and passive: Skiing at Moosilauke Ravine Lodge in 1939, above, and basking atSuicide Six in 1964, below left. Below right, Club members polish up their Salty Dog Rag moves in preparation for the 1982 freshman trips at Moosilauke Lodge.

This wooden marker, set across theGreen on the East Wheelock St. dividerin front of what was then Bissell Hall,gives ample direction to both the Appalachian Trail and the DOC offices in Robinson Hall.

Most of the ancient references to the wildernessaround Hanover are preceded by the adjective"howling."

"Ross McKenney couldsit on a log in the woodsand see more in fiveminutes than Yd see infive years."

On the Fourth of July, allDOC alumni, whereverthey may be in theworld, are asked to climba nearby hill and recordthe ascent.

Will Lange, a former director of theDartmouth Outward Bound Center, isa newspaper columnist and freelancewriter living in Etna, N.H. An accomplished outdoors man and carpenter,Lange was also founder of the Collegeof Wooster (Ohio) Outing Club.