John Harlin

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John Harlin, Tom Frost, Gary Hemming, and Stewart Fulton at the L’Envers des Aiguille Hut in 1963.

John Elvis Harlin II (June 30, 1935 – March 22, 1966) was an American alpinist and US Air Force pilot who was killed while making an ascent of the north face of the Eiger at age 30.[1]

Biography

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Harlin graduated from Sequoia High School and Stanford University.[2][3]

Having established himself as a leading alpine climber with the first American ascent in 1962 of the 1938 Heckmair Route on the north face of the Eiger, and the first ascent of the American Direct route on Les Dru, he conceived of climbing the Eiger by a direttissima (Italian for "most direct") route. Two thousand feet from the summit, his rope broke and he fell to his death in 1966. The Scottish mountaineer Dougal Haston, who had been climbing with Harlin, reached the summit with a German party which joined forces to follow the same route, afterward named the Harlin route in his honor. The story of the climb was recounted in the book Eiger Direct by the British author (and ground team member) Peter Gillman and Dougal Haston.[2]

In 1965, Harlin founded the "International School of Modern Mountaineering" in Leysin, Switzerland (the word "Modern" was later dropped from the title.) Harlin had previously worked as sports director at the Leysin American School.[4]

Harlin's son, John Harlin III, who was nine at the time of his father's death, is also a mountaineer and was the editor-in-chief of the American Alpine Club's American Alpine Journal. Harlin III, himself a climber and author of five books, recently climbed the Eiger by the original Heckmair route. He has written a book about his experience, The Eiger Obsession. A film of the son's climb to exorcise the ghosts left by his father's death came out in May 2007: The Alps, an Imax with footage of the north face of the Eiger as well as other Alpine peaks.[5]

First ascents

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North face of the Eiger: The original 1938 Heckmair Route (blue-line #2), contrasts with the 1966 Harlin Direttissima (pink-line #3), and the 1969 Japanese Direttissima (pink-line #6). Not shown is the 2006 Russian Direttissima which is an almost straight vertical line between the Harlin and Japanese routes.

Further reading

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  • Fenoli, Marc. « Leysin, le roc des sixties », in Montagnes Magazine, no 158, April 1993 : illustrated dossier on the International school of modern mountaineering in Leysin, Switzerland, and the ascent of the Eiger in 1966 by John Harlin, Dougal Haston, Don Williams.
  • Harlin, John. The Eiger Obsession: Facing the mountain that killed my father, Simon & Schuster, 2007; Lyons Press 2009[9]
  • Salter, James. Solo Faces, Collins, 1980
  • Ullman, James Ramsay. Straight Up: The Life and Death of John Harlin, Doubleday, 1968

References

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  1. ^ Chesworth, Arthur (23 March 1966). "Scot sees death fall". Daily Express. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  2. ^ a b Gillman, Peter; Haston, Dougal (1966). Eiger direct. Collins. p. 20. Retrieved 21 November 2025.
  3. ^ Ullman, James Ramsey (1967). "John Elvis Harlin, II, 1935-1966". American Alpine Journal. #15. ISSN 0065-6925. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  4. ^ Harlin, Marilyn (2014). Making Waves. FriesenPress. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-4602-3364-1. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  5. ^ Judson, Stephen (2007). "The Alps 2007". MNTNFilm. Retrieved 21 November 2025.
  6. ^ Chaîne franco-suisse "Du col des Montets au lac Léman", Ruedi Meier, 2003
  7. ^ "Climbing Record; Bonington.com". www.bonington.com.
  8. ^ Harlin, John (1966). "Petit Dru, West Face Direttissima" (PDF). American Alpine Journal. 1966. New York City, New York, USA: The American Alpine Club: 81–89. ISSN 0065-6925. Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2025.
  9. ^ Harlin, John (2007). The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain That Killed My Father. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780099525141. Retrieved 21 November 2025.
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