It is not a coincidence that so many people experience a childhood urge to climb -- to grip and follow the rough bark of a tree that guides one gracefully off the ground. John Joline '70, climbing gym manager, instructor and climbing partner to any interested student at Dartmouth, still holds that connection to nature so often lost in the concrete groundings of our world. The grace he shows in vertical motion reminds one of video clips of chimpanzees riding up trunks and branches -- a natural poise accounted for in evolutionary traits that, as Joline said, could be "deeply embedded in the central nervous system, therefore probably resonates with some very deep instinctual drives."
When one spots Joline at a premier New England outdoor climbing site like Rumney, in the middle of a climb, his precise technique and form prove his experience in the action of climbing. Yet despite an early penchant for scuttling up maples, his first introduction to rock climbing didn't come until his college years. As a lightweight rower for Dartmouth, however, he did not get out much, only "buildering" now and then on Bartlett Tower and making a few trips with a hallmate to nearby Norwich Cliffs, an area used to train the 10th Mountain Division during World War II.
Joline graduated with a major in studio art and continued his studies at graduate school in Philadelphia. It was during his time in Philadelphia, around 1975, that he started climbing in earnest. After a housing situation in Boston didn't work out, he came back to in Hanover in the beginning of '87 to complete an extensive art history, research and writing project. He planned on staying for approximately six months. That was 15 years ago.
Now Joline is not only the climbing gym manager for Dartmouth's indoor gym built in '94, but also teaches climbing physical education classes through the Outdoor Programs Office and facilitates a women's climbing group on Monday afternoons. Joline is always willing to offer advice and company to students in the gym or outside at climbing areas like Rumney in New Hampshire or the Gunks in New York State.
"John Joline is quite simply an amazing human being. He's a testament to the dedication of Dartmouth alumni and an inspiration to any member of the DMC. To watch him climb is to see motion that has been perfected over 30-odd years. In fact, he seems more at home on the rock than on flat ground. If anything can be added to John's character, its his abundant knowledge of climbing in New England and beyond: if it's Cannon or the Winslow Cliffs, John can tell the story behind the cliff as well as good climbs that are doable," said Ephraim Taylor '05, a student and friend of Joline's.
Along with senior members of the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club in 1994, John was primarily responsible for the realization and creation of Dartmouth's original indoor climbing gym. Prior to '94, students climbed indoors in the Fairchild atrium, hanging ropes and setting up bouldering problems on the surrounding walls. According to Joline, "If you look close, you might still see scuff marks. It was thronging with climbers at least once a week."
These days students no longer enter Fairchild to find themselves face to face with a rappelling classmate -- the original and new climbing gyms combined form one of the best indoor collegiate gyms in the country. The process of securing a spot for the original gym, however, was neither a brief nor easy process. Months stretched into years as Joline and others struggled with permission and donation problems. Finally a site was approved -- one of two racquetball courts in the basement of the Maxwell dorms.
"It's one of only two really powerful deja vu experiences I've had in my life," Joline said of his first encounter with the eventual site of the gym. "It wasn't the sensation of, 'This would be a nice place,' but rather, 'This is going to be the place.'"
The new half of the climbing gym was completed just this fall and dedicated to Josh Hane '89 and Chuck Drake '90, friends and fellow climbers of Joline who were killed in an Alaskan avalanche. Joline was again active in the gym's completion as well as its design, although the final product was a result of the collaborative efforts of many students, college employees, architects and builders.
According to Joline, there has recently been a tendency to think of climbing in terms of the athleticism of the sport, although he still personally stresses the importance of other highly valuable and rewarding aspects of climbing, such as a more meditative approach and the sheer harmonious interaction with nature. "All my life, even since childhood, I've found the visible world to be astonishingly beautiful and amazing, especially the world of nature," Joline said.
"I have sort of a whimsical hypothesis about climbing," Joline said. "It's almost as if the cliffs are leading us through a yogic discipline. The cliffs have formed themselves in order to lead us through a delightful yogic discipline. At some level I think there could be something to this highly unorthodox idea."
He stresses this to both his students and friends. "I soon learned that competitiveness is not what John Joline is about; while he encourages and helps everyone, of all levels, to push their physical and mental limits, he never talks about one person being better than another," Page Kyle '02 explained. "When teaching, he instills a humble attitude in his pupils that catalyzes personal development and confidence-building, which are so often lost in competitiveness, and the 'macho' punk attitude that young climbers like to assume."
Kyle went on to mention the respect Joline shows to everyone and everything, and the effect that attitude has on students.
"We do a little dance after every class, and he leaves us with a parting message, made up on the spot, always a little different than the last time. Some have included: be courteous to other people at the crags, be thankful for the creative forces -- whatever you believe them to be -- that make the rock and appreciate the work that people have done to make the cliffs accessible to us. And whatever you do, don't laugh at the weather gods, Earl and Valerie, for they will make it rain on you."
What most students don't realize about Joline is that his life is brimming with interests both related and separate from his dedication to students and climbing at Dartmouth.
"Around Dartmouth my public personae is 'John the climber guy,' but there are other parts of my life that I've spent much time on as well," Joline said.
Joline is an artist and currently teaches art and architecture classes at the Alliance for Visual Arts gallery in Lebanon. He has also been working on a climbing manual for "a while back" that focuses more heavily on the philosophical aspects of climbing than traditional guides. Spirituality is central to his life as well, and pays close attention to a number of spiritual teachers both eastern and western, including Sri Aurobindo, Krishnamurti and Franklin Merrell-Wolff.
The past several years, Joline has also been involved in activism in public education and lobbying on the subject of public lands policy as part of the "Forest Fee" issue and privatization of access to pubic land. The issue itself involves charging American citizens for the use of public land.
According to Joline, the process of making a profit off public lands through charging a fee for their use is an issue of fairness as well as social and environmental equity. Under such a policy as forest fees, lower income Americans who already pay for their right to use public land in a miniscule amount of taxes each year could be forced to pay a flat fee just to hike on public land they, as citizens, actually own.
"A forest service funded study recently published showed that forest fees already have had significant exclusionary impact on low income people in Vermont and New Hampshire," Joline said.
So far it seems that Joline has been successful in his lobbying efforts. Just a few weeks ago the New Hampshire State Legislation passed a strong-worded resolution calling for the abolition of forest fees nationwide. The effort, however, is an ongoing process, as Joline is the New England coordinator of the "National Day of Action" against the policy of forest fees on June 15th. Always looking for help, he urges anyone interested in issues of environmental integrity and social well-being to contact him for further information.
