From Tom Kelleher, in answer to a question posed to the OHA several years ago.
The Appalachian Mountain Club huts in the New Hampshire White Mountains are managed by the hut crews. These are full service mountain lodges, serving 2 meals a day, to 34-90 overnight guests. So 2 times a week, each crew person has to pack 60-80 lbs of food up 3-6 miles of trail to the hut. Even when you’re in shape, this is exhausting. So you plan on taking several rest stops on the trail, usually in the exact same places, on every pack run.
Each rest stop is a ‘crump’. That’s a made up word that is a combination of crumple (as in crumple to the ground) and crap (because these rest stops are usually where you’d take a potty break). The word actually dates back to the 1920’s.
Crump is both a verb (‘It was so hot packing today, I had to take 5 crumps’) and a noun (‘My favorite crump is the boulder at the end of the 3rd switchback’).
So if crump is the word, then crumpus is the fake Latin version.
‘Solvitur’ is a real Latin word that is part of an obscure Latin quote ‘Solvitur ambulando’, which means ‘It is solved by walking’. So if you substitute crumpus for ambulando, you have the final meaning of ‘solvitur crumpus’, which is ‘It is solved by crumping’.
All this was invented by one of our members in the 20’s and has been our motto ever since.
Tom’s input is spot on. I should know because I came up with the slogan.
I made up the faux latin word Crumpus because I remembered crumping many times on Lake’s pack trips to get a load off my back and my mind.
The Steering Committee and I considered several alternatives.
Jamais Altitudinus, Always Higher, was another recommendation but the Solvitur Crumpus won out.
By the way this was in the 2020s not the 1920s.
Doug Hotchkiss
Mizpah Construction ’64 Lakes ’65
“Jamais” = “always” ???