Education
Harlin graduated from Sequoia High School and Stanford University.
Harlin graduated from Sequoia High School and Stanford University.
Having established himself as a top-rank mountaineer with the first American ascent of the Eiger North Face"s Original Route in 1962 and the American Direct on the Dru, he conceived of climbing the Eiger by the direttissima (Italian for "most direct") route. Two thousand feet from the summit his rope broke and he fell to his death. The Scottish mountaineer Dougal Haston, who had been climbing with Harlin, reached the summit with a German party which joined forces to follow the same route, afterwards named the "Harlin route" in his honor.
The story of the climb was recounted in the book Direttissima: The Eiger Assault by British author (and ground team member) Peter Gillman and Dougal Haston.
In 1965 Harlin had founded the "International School of Modern Mountaineering" in Leysin, Switzerland (the word "Modern" was later dropped from the title) Harlin had previously worked as sports director at the Leysin American School. Harlin"s son, John Harlin III, who was nine at the time of his father"s death, is also a mountaineer and editor-in-chief of the American Alpine Club"s American Alpine Journal.
He has written a book about his experience entitled The Eiger Obsession. 1965 American Direttissima, Aiguille du Dru, Mont Blanc Range, France.
With Royal Robbins.