The American Alpine Journal

John Harlin III

By coincidence both the Himalayan Journal (60^th volume) and the American Alpine Journal (75^th year) celebrate landmarks in publishing this year. Harish thought it might be interesting for readers of the Himalayan Journal to know a bit more about the AAJ and where it’s been during these shared three-score and 15. So, with anniversary greetings to the Himalayan Club from the president and the directors of the American Alpine Club, and from me, the editor of the American Alpine Journal, here is a brief look back at the American Alpine Journal’s first three quarters of a century.

I should begin by observing that the Himalayan Club’s great friend Ad Carter, editor of the AAJ for so many years, offered a brief retrospective at the 64-year mark in Volume 50 of the Himalayan Journal (1993). To my knowledge, this personal view of the American Alpine Journal’s history, and the job of editing, is the only thing he ever wrote on the subject. I recommend this to you, but will try not to repeat it word for word here.

In appreciating AAJ history, it is useful to consider how our Clubs relate to one another. We have some things in common. One of these is overlapping membership: many of the American Alpine Club’s top expedition climbers have also been members of the Himalayan Club. Likewise, some of your members have belonged to the American Alpine Club. Both clubs’ journals serve a widely dispersed audience. And of course both organizations have fostered and participated in the exploration and ascent of the greatest mountains on earth, your special range, the incomparable Himalaya.

But there are many contrasts, too. From the AAC’s beginning in 1902, our members have been literally all over the map with their mountain endeavours. (There have even been flatland expeditions: early in the century the Club showed considerable interest in Polar exploration.) Some of our members have been devotees of the Alps. Many, especially in the early years, were drawn to the Canadian Rockies, while others favoured the mountains of Alaska and the Yukon. Keen interest in South America’s great Andes has been a persistent theme. And, of course, many members have found fascination enough with America’s home mountains: the Sierra Nevada of California; the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington; and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, to name only the largest chains. Naturally, these varied interests and activities have been reflected in the pages of the American Alpine Journal.

There is another interesting difference in the histories of the HJ and the AAJ. Unlike the Himalayan Journal, the AAJ didn’t spring to life fully fledged at the time of the Club’s founding. Our gestation period lasted 27 years! During that time Boston’s Appalachian Mountain Club allowed our doings to be published in a section of its journal, Appalachia.

So it was not until 1929 that Volume I, Number 1 of the American Alpine Journal rolled off the press and into the mailboxes of our 193 members. From this time forward the Journal became the Club’s chief production and its largest annual expenditure, perpetually in need of—and receiving—Club subsidies to meet costs. But there was never a doubt about its importance. The new publication fulfilled a part of our charter, which was to “promote and disseminate knowledge” of the high mountains. And it rapidly became a focal point, a place where members shared their enthusiasm and their climbing experiences.

It’s a delight to look at the early issues of the American Alpine Journal. What variety! (Except, perhaps, the very first issue, which confined itself mainly to Canada.) The intelligence and knowledge revealed in the articles, as well as their relaxed frankness—the confiding voices of kindred spirits—all have great charm. So too the crisp black letterpress type on creamy wove paper, the wide margins, the glossy black and white photographs. And though our Club and its journal owed their inspiration to England’s Alpine Club and its Alpine Journal, anyone can see that the AAJ was, from the beginning, American through and through.

Such pleasing results did not come about by accident. The AAJ was fortunate to have been guided in its first four decades by a stellar group of scholar-mountaineers. Allen Carpe, editor of the first issue, Howard Palmer, J. Monroe Thorington, Bob Bates, David Robertson, and Francis Farquhar, to name six of them, applied their considerable talents to the Journal during these years. Their wide-ranging knowledge—of mountains and much else, their discerning taste, and their literate prose, set a very lofty mark indeed. Thorington in particular stands out—not only for his lengthy tenure as editor (1934-1946), but for his catholic interests and delight in all things mountainous, his literary inclinations, and his irrepressible joie de vivre. Under Thorington the Journal brimmed over with fascinating new material on alpinism and worldwide alpine culture.

All of which is to say that there are rare gems scattered about these early issues, which have as much potential to charm and educate us now as they did the day they were printed. I happen to be looking at Francis Farquhar’s enthusiastic1956 review of Abode of Snow, the magnum opus of Sir (?) Kenneth Mason, your Club’s co-founder and editor of the Himalayan Journal during its first decade. In the course of the review Farquhar takes the opportunity to pass along this useful titbit to his fellow Club members: “In London last December I asked Professor Mason about the pronunciation of the name Himalaya. ‘Don’t try to conform to someone’s theory of its derivation,’ he said, ‘just use Him-a-lay-a.’” Elsewhere in this same issue, long time HC friend and associate [HC Hon. Member] Dr. Charles Houston offers words to the wise on how to select expedition teams: “Good health is imperative, but over and above these qualities is a sense of humour, strength of character, courage in the face of adversity, ingenuity, and consideration for one’s fellows. ....rock acrobats and entrepreneurs do not belong in the Himalaya.” How much grief might have been spared during the next 40 years if expedition leaders had taken Houston’s advice as gospel!

We come now to the man who, more than anyone else, is identified with the American Alpine Journal, H. Adams Carter, editor for 35 of the 75 years we commemorate. In considering the man and his influence it seems to me that we might easily invoke the term “BC” (Before Carter) to mark time during the early years of our journal! For clearly, the publication Ad Carter took over in 1959 and the one he left us in 1995 are as different as night and day. This multi-lingual, multi-tasking, one-man editing phenomenon took the helm of a robust club annual. At the time of his passing it had evolved to become a journal of record, a place where each year the world’s most significant climbs are officially set down in writing.

One wonders about this evolution. Though it is easy to look at past issues and see changes taking place over the years and decades, it is impossible to detect the moments when decisions were made and new directions charted. Ad did not write prefaces to his issues and so his vision of the AAJ was not shared with readers, at least not in so many words. Possibly there exist minutes of editorial board meetings where these things were discussed, and possibly not. I have found evidence of these decisions only in the issues themselves.

In the year Ad’s first issue was published, 1959, the American Alpine Club had 518 members. The last issue he edited, 1995, was mailed to a membership nearly five times that size (it is now about 7,000). At some point along the way the Club ceased being a club in the usual sense, but a large association, loosely bound by a common interest in climbing. With the 1981 issue, the section called “Club Proceedings” was dropped, the space given to keeping up with climbing activity worldwide—and this no longer necessarily the activity of Club members. Interestingly enough, at the very time the climbing qualification for AAC membership was being relaxed, allowing our ranks to swell, the Club’s journal was beginning to emphasize climbs at the elite end of the spectrum. The day had long since passed when the average member might hope to see his or her climb reported in the “Climbs and Expeditions” section, much less among the main features, which were becoming the preserve of climbing’s rising stars and superstars. Currently the Climbs and Expeditions reports now are all new routes or highly significant repeats (please submit yours! Guidelines are available at www.americanalpineclub.org, click American Alpine Journal).

Ad Carter’s legacy to the American Alpine Club and to the climbing community was a superb mountain journal, reporting the deeds of top climbers from all countries, in all ranges: the only thing of its kind in the world. As he said in his Himalayan Journal article 11 years ago, he did not know what the AAJ would be like after he left it, only that it would be different. In the nine years since Ad’s death it has not become too much different. My predecessor and I have made no radical changes. Though we have sought to adjust the book in various ways, we have not altered the basic formula developed by Ad Carter.

Today we look back at 75 years. Who knows what lies ahead? One may only assume that there will be new climbers—and ever better climbers, if that can be imagined. But who can say where mountain sport will go? One thing is sure, and that is that the Himalaya will always be the world’s great range, the dream mountains for all mountaineers, and it will always nourish the heart and the soul of the American Alpine Journal, just as it does the Himalayan Journal.

Again, my hearty congratulations to the Himalayan Club and to Harish Kapadia on the Himalayan Journal’s first 75 years and 60^th volume. May the good work continue for all to enjoy.

SUMMERY

About the American Alpine Journal, by John Harlin III, who is the current editor of the Journal.

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