During the summer of 2010, I will circumnavigate Switzerland by bike, paddle, and mostly by boot and crampon along the exact political borders of this small country with five neighbors.

    The journey begins in my old home town of Leysin on June 22. From there I will walk to the French border on the shore of Lake Geneva and then strike south across the high peaks of the French and then Italian borders (including crossing the Matterhorn). By late July I’ll be descending to the lakes of Ticino before climbing back up on my way to Austria. At Liechtenstein I’ll reach the Rhine River and will kayak all the way to Basel, with hiking detours around Schaffhausen. From Basel I’ll either hike or bike to Geneva, and then paddle Lake Geneva and hike back up to Leysin at the end of September. This should be about 100 days of continuous muscle-powered movement. 

    You’ll find lots more information and photos under Swiss Border Stories. Starting in late June, you can follow my daily reports on swissinfo.ch.

In 2007 I published a memoir, The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain That Killed My Father. The book is a portrait of our family’s life in Europe—and in particular in the Swiss village of Leysin—and the abrupt changes that came in 1966 when Dad died on the Eiger. Mom moved the family to a new life in America, but Dad and the Eiger cast shadows over me until finally I climbed the mountain for myself in 2005.

    The Eiger Obsession was published in English in 2007 and in German, French, and Italian during the following two years. You’ll find links to each publisher at the bottom of Harlin Bio.

My day job is to edit the American Alpine Journal in collaboration with an amazing set of colleagues and new-route climbers from around the world. This annual book of the world’s new mountain routes (except, ironically, in the Alps) has been published by the American Alpine Club since 1929. The world’s permanent record of mountain exploration—as reported by new-route climbers in their own words—is now more accessible than ever thanks to our new website, www.aaj.AmericanAlpineClub.org.

    You’ll find more info about me at my bio page. You can reach me at john at johnharlin dot net. I try to be good at responding, but if you’ve not heard back from me after a while, please write again.

Cheers,

John