Winter Carnival
In Dartmouth's calendar February belongs to the Dartmouth Outing Club. Even George Washington runs a poor second to the Outing Club's famous Winter Carnival, which returns this year in all its pre-war magnitude. It was just five years ago, in 1942, that Dartmouth called off Carnival as incompatible with the war effort, and since that time none of the DOC snow festivals has had all the traditional features, such as Outdoor Evening and fraternity parties, which will return this month with the 37th holding of the annual event. The fact that Winter Carnival has come to epitomize Dartmouth to a large part of the general public continues to upset some members of the Dartmouth family, but that has no bearing on the excellence and desirability of Winter Carnival as a natural expression of the outdoor life and interests of the College. The special welcome which the campus is now according to the revival of a full-fledged Carnival indicates something of the unique place which it holds for all undergraduates and for many alumni.
Dartmouth and the Outing Club may have their Winter Carnival restored in full measure, but one wonders whether they will ever again enjoy the dominance of the winter sports field which was theirs before the war. The mushroom growth of skiing interest throughout the nation has converted the spotlight into diffused lighting. No one is happier over this national state of affairs than the Dartmouth Outing Club, which did such a successful pioneering job in the development of winter sports interest and which is still a leading force through its own activities and its former members in top skiing positions throughout the country. It stands to reason, however, that with millions of dollars being poured into skiing developments, especially in the West, and with thousands of addicts joining the winter fraternity every year, winter sports can no longer be synonymous with any one locality or section. Dartmouth was fortunate in having a quarter-century jump on nearly everyone else in experiencing the joys and benefits of winter sports—a jump which served to give the College a unique reputation—but now the country at large is rapidly catching up, and it is to be expected also that in the field of intercollegiate skiing the challenge to Dartmouth's supremacy will become stiffer and stiffer until a situation approximating that in other college sports is gradually reached.
In the winter sports world, which still is of major concern to thousands of alumni, Dartmouth can rest on her historical laurels and become one with the Plymouth Rock or she can make the effort to maintain a leadership that has been an invaluable asset, particularly in attracting a type of student the College is glad to have. The DOC makes no secret of its preference for the latter, and its postwar plans to give greater emphasis to recreational and competitive skiing among all the undergraduates may well be the foundation for something bigger and more solid than any of the Club's already great achievements. There are even those who envisage the Dartmouth Carnival of the future as a giant ski meet in which there will be more Dartmouth participants than spectators. But that is getting ahead of ourselves. For the present we are happy enough to welcome back the old Carnival with all its traditional features and color.
A DECEMBER BLIZZARD GAVE THE OAK HILL KANONEN ALL THE DEEP SNOW THEY COULD HANDLE
