DARTMOUTH'S OLYMPIC SKIERS
Five Members of Green Teams Compete at Garmiseh
No BAND PLAYED as the four members of the Dartmouth ski team left for Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The student body did not collect on the campus to fill the hills of Hanover with echoes of congratulatory shouts and well wishes for successful participation on the United States Winter Olympics team.
For Dartmouth was never given the opportunity of venting its enthusiasm and solid support for the Indian skiers. Dick Durrance '38 was on the high seas bound for Europe during the summer months and has trained on the Olympic site since that time. Incidentally, to Dartmouth's Dick Durrance went the honor of being the first American to leave for the Olympic games. His ticket was number 1. Ted Hunter '37 and Line Washburn '35 slipped away quietly. Warren Chivers '37, last of the quartet to leave, was still in Hanover when the College called time out for Christmas rest period. When studies were resumed, he, too, had gone.
Behind them the Big Green skiers left records and trails of conquests that will bear repeating over and over again. In 1934 Durrance won the Eastern Downhill Championship crown. In 1935 his record in the slalom was as follows: first in the College Week meet at Lake Placid; first in the Toronto International meet; first in the Hochgebirge Invitation meet; first in the Intercollegiate Championships, and first in the Olympic Tryouts at Mount Rainier.
In Durrance's other specialty, the downhill, his achievements were equally impressive. First in the Massachusetts Championships; first in the Toronto Internationals; first in the Hochgebirge Invitation meet; first in the Olympic Tryouts and first at the Dartmouth Carnival. In the combined downhill and slalom Durrance won top honors in the Toronto Internationals, Hochgebirge Invitation meet, and the Olympic Tryouts. His outstanding feats in the other events were first places in jumping in the Intercollegiate Championships, first in the Langlauf at the Dartmouth Carnival, and first in the combined jumping and Langlauf, again at the Dartmouth Carnival.
In 1935 Warren Chi vers received the Marshall Foch Trophy at Lake Placid. In the Langlauf, Chivers' best event, he placed ahead of the field in the Dartmouth-Lebanon meet; first in the Nansen Carnival, defeating Ole Hegge, famed Langlauf competitor; first in the Washington Sno Fest against an expert field; fourth in the Olympic Tryouts, and fourth in the Intercollegiate Championships. In the slalom, Chivers placed first in the Mount Washington Sno Fest; second in the Mount Rainier National Park Slalom race, and second in the Hochgebirge Invitation. The high spot of his downhill activities was reached in the Washington UniversityDartmouth meet in which he placed second. In jumping, as well as in all the events, he compiled a long list of first, second, third and fourth places.
Ted Hunter, the third member of the Dartmouth skiers, walked away from competition to win the 1935 Intercollegiate Downhill Championship. Last year at Carnival, Hunter defeated his own teammate, Dick Durrance, in the slalom. He also placed second in the slalom in the Mount Ranier National Park Championships; fourth in the Washington-Dartmouth meet, and fifth in the Olympic Tryouts. In the downhill, Hunter again defeated Durrance in the Intercollegiate Championships, placed seventh in the Olympic Tryouts and added these accomplishments to the many first, second, and other places he has won since 1934.
Line Washburn has likewise established a record that stands up with those of his fellow Dartmouth skiers. The really great achievement of his long list of victories and places was his second place score in the downhill Olympic Tryouts at Mount Rainier. In the same Olympic trials he was fourth in the combined downhill and slalom, and fifteenth in the slalom. In the National Championships he came in third in the downhill and fifth in the combined downhill and slalom. As was the case with the other members of the team, his record of placing in the first ten in many meets makes the list too long to complete. Thus stands the pages written in the ski book of the past.
OTTO SCHNIEBS has himself edited a ski book in the last six years, with an unmistakable genius that few, if any, have equalled. Hunter, Chivers, and Washburn owe everything to Master Schniebs. Durrance, who entered Dartmouth as an outstanding skier, has improved tremendously under Otto's tutelage. Not only has Coach Schniebs developed a few great skiers, he has developed a squad of skiers that are tops in intercollegiate circles. This was brought home when Dartmouth, minus the service of its Olympic team members, won the College Week meet at Lake Placid this winter for the fourth consecutive year. Even the uninitiated layman, who ordinarily fails to be interested in skiing, raised his eyebrows in amazement at the unlimited supply of ski material at Dartmouth. Otto Schniebs, the Knute Rockne of ski teams, is responsible. Captain Bern Woods this year leads a strong squad. Next winter three of the Olympic skiers will return for competition. Several comp'etent skiers are headed for Hanover in 1937' That is, those who don't already live in Hanover, for in the past Hanover has given the Dartmouth ski team much of its man power. Warren Chivers, Ted Hunter, Line Washburn, Bern Woods, and many others first developed their ability on the Golf Course Hill, Balch Hill and in local snow fields.
BEFORE THE Dartmouth skiers lies the thrill of Olympic competition; likewise, the enjoyment of the winter in Garmisch. On what Garmisch has to offer the Dartmouth team, Albert S. Carlson of the faculty said, following a visit to the town:
"Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a picturesque health andwinter sports resort in the Werdenfels District of theBavarian Alps in Southern Germany. The two townsare situated about two hours ride by electric railwayfrom Munich and Kempton, Germany, and Innsbruck,Austria. They lie three miles apart in a wide, level valley with rock walls rising precipitously above foothillsreminiscent of New Hampshire. Beautiful narrowgorges cutting through the foothills provide access tothe alps. These meadows, lying below the glacier-cutcrags and permanent snowfields of the WettersteinRange, look down upon the quaint homes of the Bavarians clustered about the churches, and are surrounded by green meadows dotted with low, log haybarns.
"The homes in the village are of the chalet type withthe overhanging roofs above white walls enlivened withpaintings of saints and fairies. The rugged Bavarianmen in leather shorts and embroidered coats, andbuxom women in native dress of apron, full gatheredskirt and tight bodice, mingle with the tourists in thewinding streets and souvenir shops.
"These native villages, alive with customs and costumes of other days, have become the winter sports center of Germany, and aptly enough, the site of the 1936Olympiad. The hotels and natives are well equippedand experienced to accommodate the competitors andspectators. The ski jumps, ski runs and ice palaces haveexcellent locations and are most acceptable in the wayof construction. These tested by world famous skiers inthe 1934 German Winter Sports Championships
"The climate of the Wetterstein Range-Loisach Valley region is dominated by a high pressure area duringthe winter that results in many sunny days excellent forskiing. The average temperature for January is 26° F.and for February is 290 F. on the floor of the valley atPartenkirchen (elevation 2359'). The correspondingtemperatures for Zugspitze (elevation 6774') are 12° F.and ll° F. These temperature conditions and thenorthivard exposure of the ski slope permit the skicourses to be laid out in areas where there is shade mostof the day. In this way the difficulties of wet snow arecut to a minimum, and powder snow remains on theground for several days. It is unlikely that the performances of the skiers will be hampered by extremecold, as is the case in New Hampshire frequently, butthere is some possibility of fog causing trouble on thelower slopes of the valley."
IN THE ACTUAL participation during the Games, Dick Durrance will compete in the slalom and downhill as America's ace representative. Against Durrance the world's finest skiers will match their skill. The course is in the Kreuzeck district where the trail has been laid out long in advance. The difference in level on the run is 3180'. This difficult course traverses through sparse forest, sloping meadows, steep hillocks and wide open stretches of level ground, to test the world's foremost skiers to their utmost. Should unfavorable weather prevent the race being held in the valley, the slalom and downhill can be transferred to the Hochalm (5560') where good snow conditions are a certainty.
Warren Chivers will compete on the U. S. team in the Langlauf. The Skiing Stadium on the Gudiberg will be the starting and finishing point of this event. But not until the day previous to the race will the committee map out the course, itself, with snow conditions being the deciding factor. The events that Ted Hunter and Line Washburn will enter have not been fully decided at this time.
Dartmouth will eagerly watch the reports during the days of the Winter Olympiad, February 6-16. There is a particular interest in the U. S. hockey team, too, with Frank Spain, captain of the championship '34 team as center on the first line of the American sextet. Dick Durrance, Ted Hunter, Line Washburn and Warren Chivers are still the Dartmouth ski team. For although they wear the shield of the United States over their hearts, they carry the Dartmouth Green in their hearts.
IN REPRESENTING the United States in the 1936 Olympic winter sports games, these five Dartmouth men are continuing, in bigger and better fashion than ever before, the "tradition" that the College has never failed to provide members for the Olympic winter sports teams from this country. John Carleton '22 was a member of the first American ski team to compete in the famous international games, his jumping ability winning him a place on the 1924 team. In the Olympic Games of 1928, Charlie Proctor '2B was a member of the United States ski team, and in the Games of 1932, Doug Everett '26 was a member of the United States hockey team, Jack Shea '34 brought two world speed-skating championships to America, and Bob Minton '26 was the braker on the two-man bobsled team which won third honors. Five representatives is the largest delegation that Dartmouth has ever sent into Olympic competition, the record number this year attesting to the tremendous growth of winter sports in Hanover.
Professor Charles A. Proctor '00, who is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dartmouth Outing Club, has been intimately associated with the United States Olympic winter sports teams as a member of the Ski Committee. In the 1932 Olympic Games, at Lake Placid, he was chairman of the United States Olympic Ski Games Committee and acted as official manager of the American ski team. This year he is a member of a similar Olympic committee. Professor Proctor is one of the foremost ski officials in this country, and has been hailed by many as "the father of skiing in the United States." Through him, Dartmouth has contributed not only to Olympic skiing but to the development of the sport throughout the nation.
Up to now, Jack Shea has been Dartmouth's most famous representative in the Olympic Winter Games. The youthful intercollegiate and North American speed-skating champion of 1931 swept to first place in both the 500-meter and 1500-meter races at Lake Placid, sharing individual honors with Irving Jaffee who won the other speed-skating events for the United States. As a native of Lake Placid, the site of the Games, as a typical American youth, and as an outstanding amateur athlete, Jack Shea was chosen to take the Olympic oath for the American winter sports team.
In the same year, Doug Everett was an outstanding member of the United States hockey team which was runner-up to Canada in the Olympic play-offs. As regular wing, he scored America's lone goal in the first game with Canada, lost by a 2-1 score, and in the final against the same team, he and Palmer of Yale scored the two goals which gave the United States a 2-2 tie with the Canadians. Everett was captain of the Dartmouth hockey team in 1925, and after graduation played with the Concord Hockey Club.
Dartmouth's third representative in the 1932 Olympic Winter Games was Bob Minton '26. A broker by profession, he went in for bobsledding as a sport, and acted as brakeman on the two-man team which Jack Heaton piloted to third place in the Olympics. First honors went to the Stevens brothers of the United States, with the Swiss team finishing second.
In the Olympics of 1928, Charlie Proctor, now one of America's foremost ski authors and instructors, finished 14th in the international jumping at St. Moritz. He was captain of the Dartmouth winter sports team, as well as intercollegiate and Canadian amateur ski champion, and still holds the distance record for the Dartmouth jump—130 feet.
John Carleton, Dartmouth's first representative in the Olympic Winter Games, was likewise captain of the Dartmouth winter sports team. At Chamonix in 1924 he competed in both the international jumping and cross country events, and at the time of his selection for the American team was captain of the ski team at Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He was intercollegiate jumping and cross-country champion in 1919, and 1921, and U. S. Eastern amateur jumping champion in 1922. His most spectacular act was somersaulting off the big jump, a trick which he performed singly, doubly with Dick Bowler '23, or triply with Dick Bowler and Fred Harris '11.
The Dartmouth Ski Squad at Olympic Try outs on Mt. Rainier Last Winter Landon G. Rockwell '35, team manager and this year graduate manager of the Dartmouth Outing Club Council, Prof. N.L., Goodrich, librarian of the College, Albert Lindoln Washburn '35- Edgar H. Hunter Jr. '37, Richard Durrance '38, Henry S. Woods '36, captain of this years varsity, Warren Olivers. 37, Coach Otto Schmebs. Four of the group, Washburn, Hunter, Durrance, and Chivers, are members of the United States Olympic Winter Sports Team.
The Great Olympic Jump At Garmisch-Partenkirchen where competitors in the jumping events February 6-16 are expected to leap distances of from 250 to 275 feet.
The Twin Towns'of Garmisch-Partenkirchen Showing the valley settlements in the foreground, surrounded by peaks of which the famous Zugspitze is the highest. The two Olympic jumps are located on the precipitous slopes at the left center of the picture. Above the jumps, either on the lower or higher slopes of the Alpspitze, depending on snow conditions, are courses for slalom and downhill races in which Dartmouth representatives will have their best scoring chances.
Olympic Skating Champion Jack Shea '34, who won both the 500-meter and 1500-meter speed-skating events in the 1932 Olympics, is shown with part of his amazing collection of trophies.
