CARNIVAL AND WINTER SPORTS
One of the most noteworthy features of the rather spectacular success of the 1934 Carnival was the fact that the winter sports program dominated the entire program. Despite unusually cold weather and pocket book flatter than in pre-depression days the largest Carnival crowd that Hanover has ever known poured into town, the outdoor evening events were more striking than usual, although curtailed a bit, the snow sculpture lighting and brilliance of night effects were far above other years in their magnificance. But for the most important happenings, the winter sports competitions, there was plenty of snow and fast going, there was a larger number of competing teams and more distantly drawn than ever before, and the competition was hotter than at any time since the beginning of Carnival. The almost melodramatic finish at the end of the second day, when Dartmouth coming from far behind leaped into the lead with her flying squadron of expert skiers and jumpers, set up a Carnival so full of thrills that future occasions will have something to shoot at.
The quite telling success of the whole celebration this year has opened up a large field of speculation in regard to the future of this now notable winter festivity. Those who have an opportunity to observe the tremendous amount of elaborate preparation that goes into a Winter Carnival always stop to marvel how a club of professed woodsmen and winter sportsmen can muster the time, ingenuity and labor for such a task. The answer is in part the decentralized organization of the Outing Club which places not only the responsibilities but also the privileges and joys of complete leadership in the hands of more than a dozen different undergraduate directors. The extent of undergraduate control and responsibility make the club unique among campus organizations, and allows such activities as the Carnival to get its mandate and draw its vigor direct from the whole College.
With such machinery set up by and for the Outing Club there can be no limit to the development of this work which has already fathered more than
a hundred similar carnivals in this country and has, according to the noted publicist, Lowell Thomas, introduced all forms of skiing into the United States.
