With the Outing Club

DARTMOUTH SKIING, forced away from Hanover by the weather, began in earnest the latter part of February, and has continued in full swing as a month of seldomequalled powder snow has kept the mountain trails in almost ideal condition. Experts and novices alike have left Robinson Hall on Saturday noon, or cut classes a day or two earlier, for Moosilauke, Pinkham Notch, and the Green Mountains.

Races on Mt. Mansfield, when Jack Durrance '39 beat his brother Dick and the Swiss skiers, to win the Eastern downhill title on the Nose-Dive, started the DOC ski season. Six or seven dozen Dartmouth skiers were on the mountain. The following week-end was the Intercollegiate Outing Club Association's ski week-end, sponsored by the DOC on Moosilauke.

Hell's Highway, scene of most of the skiing that week-end, was in probably the best condition of its existence, due to The Byway, subsidiary trail around the precipitous Rock Garden, which makes the entire trail a fast, well-built course. Powder snow and clear weather offered nearly a hundred college skiers from a dozen colleges the first real ski week-end of the winter.

Sleeping at Spy Glass Hill Farm, with the overflow crowding into the hayloft of the Libby Farm, and a barn dance at Warren were high points of the week-end. At the same time other Dartmouth skiers radiated to mountains north of Moosilauke and to Mansfield, practicing for the Vermont races.

SENIORS FIND PERFECT SNOW

The Senior Mt. Washington Trip the following week-end again struck perfect snow conditions. Four days at Pinkham Notch, focal point for some of the best skiing in New England, with hard-packed powder on Washington and the Wildcats, gave thirty-two seniors a glorious interlude away from Hanover. Led by Peter McLane '37, C. Barber Moseley '37 and Alec Jones '38, an ascent of Washington was planned for Sunday but was postponed when radio reports told of winds of more than a hundred miles an hour and temperatures of minus 22 degrees on the cone.

Monday weather conditions were less severe, and despite overcast skies a party of eighteen tried for the summit via the old Jackson road, the automobile road, and the Half Way House. Shifting to crampons at tree-line, it was the first example of mountaineering for most of the seniors, who nevertheless reached the warm confines of Camden Cottage in the middle of the afternoon. Fish chowder, supplied steaming hot by the Observatory crew, was a welcome reinforcement before the descent.

As the group left the top snow began to fall, and coupled with relatively warm weather (22 above) gave all the effects of an arctic blizzard without any particular discomfort. At the Half Way House crampons were changed for skis, and Pinkham Notch was reached by supper time.

Stories by Joe Dodge, raconteur and AMC Hutmaster, held even more appeal than stories of Berlin for the seniors, who reclined in that inutterably comfortable state of warm drowsiness, listening to descriptions of the mountains before they were crossed by ski trails and covered by snow-trajn groups in Tyrolean hats.

Tuesday morning, a holiday thanks to the importance of town meeting, burst with all the beauty of four inches of powder snow which had fallen the night before, putting the trails in the best condition of the winter. The wide, sweeping Sherburne Trail, the Gulf of Slides and the fast turns of the Wildcat were covered with Dartmouth seniors, climbing, holding informal races, coming down with all the technique remembered from other and more snowy winters. The rest of the DOC took advantage of Moosilauke, Mansfield, and the Taft Trail that week-end.

On Moosilauke a college downhill race was held, won by C. Whit Miller '40, captain of last year's yearling football squad. First planned as a contest for the SchniebsMcCrillis cup to the best Dartmouth skier, lack of snow this winter and conflicting competitions made it seem wise to await another year before awarding the trophy.

The following week-end good snow conditions again prevailed and the DOC sent out trips to the major New England trails, while the teams competed in the AMC races on the Wildcat, winning the event, despite the absence of the former Olympic stars. At the same time the cream of the Dartmouth ski squad roamed far afield, bringing back victories in competitions in two countries.

Following the clean sweep of the Dartmouth varsity in the Intercollegiate Ski Union meet in Canada, David Bradley '38, Howard Chivers '39 and Coach Walter Prager left with the Swiss skiers for Banff and the Dominion Championships, where Chivers won the langlauf, defeating his team-mate, Bradley, and the Norwegian champion Sverre Kolterud. In the downhill and slalom, Prager, racing for Switzerland, was a close second to Francioli, Swiss veteran who gave the Dartmouth skiers such strong competition in the East. Going down to Sun Valley in Idaho, Prager was joined by Dick and Jack Durrance and Ted Hunter.

The National downhill and slalom championships were shifted from Tuckerman's Ravine to Sun Valley, because of the more representative group of skiers who would be able to compete on the western slopes. Dick Durrance again crashed through, beating his coach and a field that included the best professionals in America, to win the national slalom and downhill titles.

CHIVERS TOPS EXPERT FIELD

The week before, on the Taft trail, Warren Chivers, captain of the Big Green, and national combined jumping and crosscountry champion, showed his versatility by winning the combined slalom and downhill championship in the Hochebirge Invitation Meet, beating a field which included three American Olympic downhill skiers. Meanwhile Turid Jespersen, Norwegian girl skier spending the winter in Hanover, has made creditable showings in New England races, beating veteran local skiers.

The rapid improvement in eastern skiing conditions has caused almost every other Outing Club activity to be subordinated to the sport, although Cabin and Trail elections are about to take place, and work is still being done on the revised constitution.

With snow filling in the bowl of Tuckerman's Ravine prospects seem good for the slalom run by the DOC Competitions Department during vacation, which will probably decide the Eastern slalom championship.

This year the DOC ran the 23rd annual Children's Carnival, with skiing and skating competitions for boys and girls in age groups ranging from eight to fifteen. Almost impossible snow conditions hindered the races on the golf course, but enough events were held to make possible the award of the John E. Johnson Cup for the individual winners.