Mountaineering Club Aids National Defense Effort

Harvard's Mountaineering Club, ready to launch a full program of fall climbing, has a definite martial tinge in its activities. Last June, for example, in the Selkirk expedition, the Club tested special rations for the Air Corps. During the summer, special equipment was tested for the mountain troops and new types of field rations were studied under rigorous conditions.

Said Andrew Kauffman '43, president of the club: "Our main purpose in time of war is to develop men who, through experience gained with the H. M. C., may ultimately provide officer material for the mountain units of the United States Army.

"Even for us, this is difficult, for though we can train men to become technically proficient on ice and rock, we cannot train expert mountaineers in the relatively easy mountain ranges of the East. And to be a good leader, a man must be an expert climber with at least one full season's experience in high mountain areas."

One of the more adventurous trips of the summer was last Sunday's ascent of the Whitney-Gilman route on Cannon Mountain by several members of the club. First pioneered by a Harvard Math professor and member of the club back in 1930, the seven-hundred foot vertical buttress is usually considered the finest rock-climb in New England.