Swiss Border Stories Intro Harlin 100315

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Border Stories Join John Harlin III on a three-month adventure at the outer edges of Switzerland. With bicycle and paddle, but mostly on foot, he’ll travel the exact borders with France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Italy. He’ll climb every mountain en route while meeting a kaleidoscope of people, learning their history, and witnessing the changing environment at the top of Europe.

Outline of the Journey French Border (north) By bike around Geneva and along the rounded Jura Mountains to Basel. June 21~July 1

German Border Bike and paddle along the Rhine River (with crazy deviations) and Lake Constance.

July 2~July 8

The Heart of the Journey When is a people a nation, a border a boundary? Can I find out by encircling a tiny multilingual country, one footstep at a time? And what about those mountains: Can I possibly climb them all in one summer?

June 21 – September 21+ (estimate) 2010

Liechtenstein & Austrian Borders

Italian Border (east)

Italian Border (west)

French Border (south)

Bike alongside Liechtenstein—and then the mountain fun begins. ~ July 9~21

Serious up and down, with hard climbing until the lakes of Ticino.

July 22~August 3

Europe’s most famous mountains: this should be exciting. August 4~Sept. 1 (or later)

Spectacular peaks lead to lower peaks and Lake Geneva, which I’ll paddle. Sept. 2~21+

chronicled in the IMAX movie, The Alps: Climb of Your Life, and in my book, The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain That Killed My Father.

Emotionally, nothing will top climbing the north face of the Eiger —and out of Dad’s legendary shadow. But I’ve long had another dream also, much bigger and higher: to make a complete circumnavigation of Switzerland, staying exactly on the border and climbing each of the hundreds of summits that divide my former homeland from its neighbors. In the summer of 2010, I will take on the challenge.

“Border Stories” layers a Approximate map distances from start in Geneva. challenging physical adventure Bicycle French border to Basel: 400 km Bike & paddle German & Liechtenstein borders: 400 km over an exploration of the Hike & climb Austrian, Italian, & French borders: 1,100 km history, culture, and environment (Actual three-dimensional distances are much greater.) of one of the most fascinating Learn more and contact John at www.JohnHarlin.net places on earth: Switzerland. I’ve Borderline been enthralled with the country ever since I moved there at the my family moved away. But Switzerland Officially, Switzerland’s borders with age of seven, in 1963. After three years I never left my soul, and I’ve returned year France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, had become nearly Swiss, but then my after year, most notably to climb the Eiger and Italy span 1,858 kilometers (1,150 father died while climbing the Eiger and myself in 2005. That journey was miles). In real life, those two-dimensional john@johnharlin.net

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map distances mean little; the vertical a tribal alliance in 1291 to women’s more or less like his German-speaking relief tremendously increases the actual suffrage in 1971, from fielding mercenary countryman than like an actual Italian on kilometers on the ground as well as the armies to being the world’s icon of the other side of the ridge? What does difficultly of walking them. According to peaceful neutrality, from poverty to this say about each of us—no matter simple map-distances, I’ll which country claims us by cover roughly 800 accident of birth?

All walking is discovery. On foot kilometers by bicycle and Frankly, I don’t know how we take the time to see things whole. kayak and 1,000++ realistic is my time schedule kilometers on foot— Hal Boland for this journey. I think I can including lots of technical do it, but if I can’t finish in climbing over difficult 2010, I’ll return to complete A fine landscape is like a piece of music; mountains (for example, the circuit in 2011. the hardest ridge on the it must be taken at the right tempo.

History is a collection of Matterhorn).

Paul Scott Mowrer stories about people and But the physical adventure places. After three months is merely a personal challenge, good for a riches: Switzerland long has been at the on the borderline in the company of few stories (especially when things go paradoxical heart of Western history. experts and friends, I’ll have a few tales wrong). The real depth of this journey And above all, I will wonder: Why is to recount, including my own. will be its window into the borderlands. THIS Switzerland? With four national From Julius Caesar’s forts on the Rhine to languages, why is the border here and Please join me by following daily video-blog today’s fighter jets hidden in caves, from not there? Is an Italian-speaking Swiss posts online at swissinfo.ch. john@johnharlin.net

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Why Switzerland?

Horizons The bigger the vista, the wider my soul.

Maybe I always felt this way, but the connection came fully alive when I was seven years old and we moved to a mountain village in Switzerland.

Few outsiders have any idea just how strange and complex is this tiny country of barely 7 million residents, some 20-percent of whom aren’t even Swiss. And yet in this weird stew is a reflection of the world—and a model worth serious study. Despite the scars in its history and warts on its present—many of which I’ll see in the borderlands—Switzerland famously works, and its citizens actually like their own government. How common is that?

My family lived in a chalet on a steep pasture

• Switzerland fights in no wars; instead it serves as the voice for various nations view from our porch was out of this world. who won’t speak to some others (inThe ground plunged 1,000 meters to valleys of cluding my own). with a ski lift 30 meters behind the house. The

cloud (“the Sea of Fog” it was called), and ringing this sea were spectacular mountains.

To the west at the edge of France was the Dents du Midi (“Teeth of Noon”), on which Dad climbed new routes. Visible far to the south rose the peaks above Chamonix, also in France, where we once lived in a campground while Dad climbed the mountains above. To the south and east marched a progression of ragged summits with Celtic and French names meaning “tooth,” “abode of devils,” and “tower.”

The horizon was my soul’s domain, and I feel it still whenever I return. What I didn’t know then was that eventually I would hike back to Leysin near the end of a three-month journey around all of Switzerland’s borders—a nation’s political horizon, encompassing the

• It is the very symbol of citizen democracy (with democratic roots to its founding in 1291); international peace (its neutrality has been recognized since 1815); global cooperation (it hosts the United Nations among other international organizations); and clean growth (it was named the greenest economy in the world in 2008).

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A Few of My Favorite Themes The day-to-day adventure of traversing all those kilometers and climbing hundreds of summits will provide plenty of personal excitement. As a lifelong climber, backpacker, kayaker, mountain biker, and wilderness enthusiast, I am tremendously excited about the upcoming adventure. I can’t imagine anything I’d rather do.

The physical challenges and psychological rewards of traversing all those kilometers should be clear. But it’s the people I’ll meet and the stories I’ll learn that I most look forward to sharing.

Below are a few of the themes I know will be interesting. Of course they’re merely a tease, as there are so many more, most of which will surprise me en route.

The Borderline

Because I’m sticking to the borders, it’s the frontier country that I’ll discover—or at least the current border as established in • Though a very small country, Switzer1860. But I’ll find a lot more than a line on a land has had stable borders with all five map. Borders evolve for a reason, and in neighbors since 1860—a record among Switzerland’s case, very few territories reEuropean nations. sulted from conquest. Most were added as diverse peoIt is the hydrologic source of three ma• ples asked to jor river drainages that flow through a dozen countries with diverse languages be merged into the everto reach three different seas. growing Swiss • With few natural resources of its own Confederaand mountain-sized barriers to comtion, founded merce, Switzerin 1291.

land harnessed international trade and prudent land management to lift itself from poverty to wealth in half a century.

They joined despite conflicting languages, religions, and cultures. Some were accepted into the union, others rejected. If there’s one underlying theme to this project, it’s “Why is this territory Switzerland instead of pieces of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy?” Not just to understand Switzerland for its own sake, but also to better know Europe at large.

soul of a people. john@johnharlin.net

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Trans-boundary Conservation As the world grows ever more crowded and developed, it becomes increasingly obvious that environmental problems can’t be resolved within national borders—they need regional and even global solutions. Wildlife migrates across borders, water flows across borders, pollution blows across borders, climate warms across borders. The 21st century will have to solve its environmental challenges cooperatively between neighbors.

A huge part of my mission will be to watch countries coordinate their conservation, whether it’s on migration corridors for wildlife, trans-boundary parks, or developing ecological networks that span the entire Alpine Arc and beyond. I’d like to bring attention to these projects so that people who live in other mountain chains might learn from the Swiss and their neighbors.

Swiss Military The Swiss military never fails to entertain outsiders. First there’s our surprise that the world’s very symbol of neutrality can be so obsessed with defense.

Then there’s the obsession itself: Until recently, all bridges were rigged to explode; large populations could barricade themselves into valleys; vast hospitals and barracks were carved into mountain tunnels; every male citizen was drafted and continued to train annually with his unit well into middle age; by law every male citizen kept his military guns and equipment inside his own house; grassy knolls in flat-bottomed valleys hid fighter jets between training sorties (Swiss pilots were famed for shooting down Nazi planes that strayed into Switzerland during WWII). Many of these are still true, others are finally relaxing.

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I’ll see anti-tank barriers, mountaintop pillboxes, and learn how the defense network is intended to work. But I’ll also see what an anachronism it is in a modern Western Europe without military conflict (or even border checkpoints), and how defenses are evolving.

Changing Landscapes While much of the world worries about humans crowdingout nature, many Swiss are concerned about nature’s return. Today families are moving out of small mountain villages for greater opportunities in cities below. Meanwhile, farmers are giving up on their pastures because maintaining them is just too much work.

After a while, classic alpine meadows sprout shrubs and then trees, while postcard-views grow shaggy and wild, as if weeds had invaded a Japanese garden.

The landscape is changing in other ways, too, with an ever-growing network of ski lifts spiderwebbing steel cables wherever you look. Not everyone likes this human intrusion, and there are movements against it.

And then there are the fast-shrinking Swiss glaciers, which are as essential to the Alpine image as they are valuable for water storage.

They’ve shrunk by kilometers already, but as the earth warms they’re predicted to melt nearly into oblivion by the end of this century. Only the uppermost reaches will remain cold enough for snow to compress into ice.

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The Great Passes of History For most of European history, mountains were barriers: barriers to trade, barriers to war, barriers to mixing with people from other cultures.

The mountains that are now Switzerland were some of the most impenetrable of all. And yet a few alpine passes always allowed difficult passage for traders and conquering armies.

Many colorful stories have taken place on Swiss passes, including Hannibal and his elephants on their way toward an invasion of Rome. Much later came Napoleon and his army en route to Italy and Austria, after which he squashed and then reinvented Switzerland.

Today new history is being made as the world’s longest tunnel soon will whisk trains right under the Alps, cutting travel time to a fraction and saving countless barrels of oil and tons of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Ironically, for me during my journey, I’ll drop down to the passes—often for a good night’s sleep and a meal—before climbing up the next day to follow the border.

And So Much More...

Four languages with dozens of dialects, direct democracy with rotating presidencies, rival guides with bad attitudes, chocolates and cheese. There’s no end of good stories.

john@johnharlin.net

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swissinfo.ch & after

John Harlin III Bio

swissinfo.ch—an enterprise of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation that serves Swiss citizens living abroad and raises awareness of Switzerland in other countries—will carry multimedia blog reports that I’ll file daily during the entire journey, with a feature presentation every two weeks.

My early years were spent in the hills of Germany and the mountains of Switzerland, where my father founded the International School of Mountaineering and my mother taught biology at the Leysin American School. After Dad’s death in 1966, the family moved to the U.S., where my mother became a botany professor.

These will be highlighted on the front page of swissinfo’s English, German, French, and Italian websites.

While swissinfo is the exclusive live-online portal to my journey, these reports will become the foundation for a book on the journey, tentatively titled Border Stories.

We may compile the videography into a film, but in any case I will do an extensive multimedia lecture tour worldwide when the book comes out. There will also be magazine articles in various countries and languages.

During my teenage years I spent as much time as possible in the wilderness, including several month-long hiking and kayaking trips to the North Slope of Alaska. Following my graduation from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in Environmental Biology, I married my college sweetheart, Adele Hammond, and explored mountain ranges throughout North and South America. During that time I wrote a three-volume, 1,200-page series of guidebooks, The Climber’s Guide to North America. I also worked as a climbing guide in Colorado and launched a backcountry guiding business, Skiing Unlimited.

Backpacker and Summit Magazines In 1987 I took on the first of several editorial positions at Backpacker magazine and later became a guest host on their PBS program, Anyplace Wild. I also edited Summit: The Mountain Journal for five years as well as the quarterly magazine Elements, from the Timberland Company, and a book, Lost Lhasa: Heinrich Harrer’s Tibet.

john@johnharlin.net

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Currently I’m the editor of the American Alpine Journal (from the American Alpine Club since 1929) and a contributing editor to Backpacker magazine.

The Alps & The Eiger Obsession Forty years after Dad fell 1,000 meters down the Eiger., I finally climbed its north face myself. An IMAX movie, The Alps, was made of the ascent; the film also featured Adele and our then-nine-year-old daughter, Siena, as we explored various regions in Switzerland, including Ticino.

I’ve presented The Alps to IMAX-theater audiences in seven countries, as well as to many special events on behalf of Switzerland Tourism. At Switzerland’s only IMAX theater (in Lucerne), The Alps played for over a year and was their biggest hit, ever.

My book The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007, Random House UK in 2008, and Lyons Press in 2009. In Germany it was published by Malik/Piper; in France by Guérin; and in Italy by Vivalda.

Adele, Siena, and I live in Oaxaca, Mexico and Hood River, Oregon.

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