With the Outing Club
LED by the enthusiasm and aspirations of a new group of officers, the Outing Club has undertaken a spring program that promises a year of almost unprecedented opportunity for the campus to participate in Dartmouth outdoor life. The new constitution has imbued the Club with a new sense of purpose, and the three divisions, Cabin and Trail, Carnival, and Winter Sports, have each taken the first steps of a notable progress.
The Trips Department has made an honest endeavor to carry out one of the original functions of the D. O. C., and bring together more faculty and students in the type of informal contact almost unique to Outing Club trips. The faculty have signified their desires in regard to a number of suggested trips, and there is every evidence to believe that these will fill a gap that has existed for several years. The first steps in the program have been strawberry shortcake suppers at Moose Cabin, attended by more than two dozen students and an equal number of faculty.
The Harvard-Dartmouth slalom in Tuckerman's on April 18 officially closed the ski season, but now, a month later, cars are still leaving Robinson Hall for persistent snowfields on Mt. Washington. Skiing is well on the way to becoming a yearround sport, as evidenced by the summer migration of Dartmouth skiers to the other side of the Equator. Dick Durrance '39, with ski captain Dave Bradley '38 and his brother Stephen '39, plan to spend the summer skiing in New Zealand and Australia, while five other varsity men, the Chivers brothers, Ted Hunter, Ed Wells, and John Litchfield have been invited to spend the summer with an American ski team in Chile.
The Winter Sports Council approved the decision to have a freshman ski team for the first time next year, with '41 numerals awarded to those who fulfill certain pre-determined qualifications. Previously, freshmen awards have been conducted on the same basis as those of the varsity, and the number of numerals given out each year was an unduly small proportion of the number of yearling skiers. The freshman team will be instructed by the regular ski coach.
John R. McLane Jr. '38 has organized his Carnival Committee, set the date of the winter week-end for February 11 and 12, and has held frequent meetings to discuss matters of Carnival policy. One of the most healthy steps to be taken in regard to Carnival was the recent meeting of a Palaeopitus committee when representatives of the Outing Club, the Administration, the Interfraternity and Interdormitory Councils, and The Dartmouth met to examine the problems caused by the crowds that flock to Hanover. The most acute problem is that of housing, with that of controlling essentially irresponsible visitors at fraternity dances a close second. The rapid growth of Carnival has created an acute situation which can only be checked by cooperation of the various campus bodies. One of the most important results of the meeting should be an increased coordination between the Outing Club and the other groups represented.
ALUMNI WEEK PLANNED
The D. O. C. was well represented at the recent conference of the Intercollegiate Outing Club Association. Will Brown was appointed secretary to keep the graduates of the classes of '36 and '37 informed as to I. O. C. A. activities, and an alumni College Week on Katahdin next September was planned. The I. O. C. A. is an association of eastern college outing clubs which was formed on Moosilauke in 1932. One of its greatest values is making it possible for college graduates to keep up active outing club affiliations.
While the Ledyard Canoe Club has sent repeated trips to nearby rivers, including the White, the Pompanoosuc, the Mascoma and the Ammonoosuc, an organization which is rapidly furthering another major outdoor interest, the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club, has been active on the rocks around Hanover.
The Mountaineering Club, founded last year by Jack Durrance '39, brought several well-known speakers to Hanover, including Fritz Weissner, probably the foremost mountaineer in America, Walter Howe, chairman of the A. M. C. rockclimbing division, and Adams Carter. Carter came to Hanover in April after spending a winter skiing with the American F. I. S. team in Europe, and talked on the British-American Nanda Devi expedition, of which he was a member. Movies and slides of climbing in the western Himalayas entertained a large crowd in Silsby.
ACCEPTED AS REC SPORT
The spring rock-climbing program received its greatest stimulus when it was accepted as a suitable recreational activity for freshmen and sophomores. Three afternoons a week Durrance has coached a squad of freshmen in the rudiments of rock-work, taking advantage of the fact that a medium sized boulder may offer many of the technical problems of a major climb. Low cliffs across the river in Vermont have supplied excellent training grounds, and one official trip has gone down to Joe English Hill, which offers a two-hundred-foot cliff in southern New Hampshire.
The Outing Club's summer program is again centering around Moosilauke, with prospects of a four-man crew on top to take care of an estimated increase in the number of climbers. Hutmaster Walter Averill '38 has spent the spring ordering food and making plans for a rapid occupancy of the 67-year-old hotel immediately after exams.
The Summit Crew is making some effort to contact alumni for gifts to the Camp, particularly phonograph records. After supper music while the sun sets over the Green Mountains has come to be one of the most distinctive features of a summer on Moosilauke.
Work will be done on Hell's Highway, and the By-Way, the newly cut section around the too-steep Rock Garden, so that it will be in excellent condition before another winter. Other trails on the mountain will be improved, while an undergraduate crew will spend part of the summer repairing the cabin chain.
