Harvard Outing Club

About the Club

Wondering what’s up with the HOC and how you can get involved? Well you’ve come to the right place! If you have any additional questions feel free to contact one of the club’s officers. (find our addresses here)

Nathan Oalican ’21 hangs out on a ledge

Trips

We run trips throughout the school year. They’re announced over our email list, so the best way to get involved is to join the list and keep an eye out for signups.

Absolutely no experience is necessary, so even if you’ve never hiked before, come on a trip! Leaders will include the experience/fitness level necessary for a particular trip in their announcement. We do everything from easy day hikes to weekend-long adventures, and we even run a 5-day winter cabin trip over J-Term! There’s something for everyone.

Trip costs include things like car rentals and cabin fees, and we do our best to keep them at a minimum. Financial aid is also available – just ask your trip’s leaders when you sign up.

Henrietta Riley (Treasurer ’20), Justin Kaashoek ’21, Ben Krutek ’19 and Nathan Oalican ’21 pause while charging Moosilauke mid-winter

Who We Are and What We Do

Founded in 1939, the HOC exists purely to help the Harvard community get outside and have fun in the outdoors. So whether we’re hiking, backpacking, camping, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or biking, we want you to come along! We both run trips and loan gear (as well as lots of fun on-campus events like square dances and movie screenings). You’ll want to get on our email list to find out about and sign up for our trips – don’t worry, it’s low traffic! We also have a super awesome cabin in the White Mountains that our members can pay a small fee to use. So read on to find out more about the club. Hope to see you on some trips soon, feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions, and happy trails!

Membership

Any Harvard affiliate is welcome to join. Membership is $20.00 per semester, which allows you access to all of our gear. You can pay dues any time, including when you come to the office to borrow gear.

Morgan Whitten ’21 and Rob Walker ’22 peep a map on their way up Kearsarge North

Gear and Office Hours

In addition to official trips, the HOC also maintains the largest outdoor gear cooperative at Harvard, accessible free of charge for all dues-paid members. For only $20 a semester, you can have constant borrowing rights to everything from tents to sleeping bags to skis to tents and more! Gear can be taken out and returned at office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, but subject to change as announced over the email list.

Be sure to check out the Gear & Office Hours page for more info.

It would be no small advantage if every college were thus located at the base of a mountain, as good at least as one well-endowed professorship. It were as well to be educated in the shadow of a mountain as in more classical shades. Some will remember, no doubt, not only that they went to the college, but that they went to the mountain.

Henry David Thoreau

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