With the D.O.G.
COMING CARNIVAL KEEPS ALL HANDS BUSY; SKI TEAM OPENS ITS SEASON
OLE MAN WINTER procrastinated but when he came to Hanover he came with a vengeance and now has subsided into a finicky sort of disposition. Members of the ski team and those with less skill but equal enthusiasm were identified on campus through November and December by their long faces. As the mercury dove to 10-20 below there was hardly a sprinkle of snow until the night before vacation when the steaks, gluhwein, songs and stories of the D.O.C. Christmas Party at Moose Mountain were climaxed by a two- or three-inch fall. A couple of days after Christmas the "big snow" came, 21 inches in two days. The skiing was good but several days later it rained and then froze. This phenomenon produced a half-inch of clear ice on top. This low blow by Mother Nature is and promises to be a major threat to New Hampshire's winter recreation industry. Tows are inoperative and most New England slopes are classified as poor if not closed. The crash ward at Dick's House is full of brave skiers with lacerated scalps and twisted ankles. The ancient sport of snowshoeing has been given some impetus by the difficulty of ski travel in the woods.
During the vacation the ski team, minus Captain Phil Puchner '44, finished fourth in a closely contested meet at Lake Placid. Going into the last event (the jump) Dartmouth, Middlebury, and New Hampshire were tied for second place behind St. Lawrence, which came out on top at the close of the meet. Malcolm McLane, who was favored to win the cross-country, had his skis taken by another competitor by mistake, and on borrowed skis he finished well down the list—a blow to Green hopes. A few days after the Lake Placid meet, Sandy Treat '46, jump and cross-country hope, broke his ankle on a practice jump at Middlebury. The weekend of January 11 saw the D.O.C. team beat Lebanon Outing Club in a 4-event meet at Lebanon, Dartmouth clinching all events except the jump.
The big talk in the Robinson Hall offices of the D.O.C. right now, of course, is the Carnival and its super ski meet. The Carnival Committee includes only three men who have ever seen a Carnival, but they are nevertheless doing a fine job under the leadership of Chairman Barry Marks '47. The problems (where to get water for the ice outdoor evening set with a low reservoir; where to get 2400 feet of wire, etc.) seem pretty big but the total headache is probably not much bigger than past ones.
Besides a gala Outdoor Evening replete with fancy skaters, pretty gals, at al, the Carnival features a four-event ski meet, with Middlebury, Vermont, New Hampshire, Harvard, McGill, and West Point accepting at this date. A revived skating team hopes to have some intercollegiate competition for the weekend.
The center of campus snow sculpture is somewhat of a departure from the past and therefore has been received with both loud acclaim and some dissent. The statue is an abstraction of a downhill skier designed and executed in clay by Steve Flemer and Steve Johnson, both freshmen. Construction will begin sometime in the next couple of weeks.
The following paragraphs are excerpted from the Jan. 14 Trail Blazer, a weekly publication of the D.0.C., which we will be glad to mail to interested alumni upon request. Address Alan Hall, Editor, TrailBlazer, 22 Robinson Hall.
D.M.C. GOES ICE-CLIMBING
"The Dartmouth Monutaineering Club is planning a combination ski-ice climbing trip to Mount Washington this weekend. Leaving Hanover, Saturday noon, the group will head for Pinkham Notch. On Sunday they will climb the Sherburne Trail and if conditions permit will climb in Huntington or Tuckerman Ravine. This is the first of several winter trips by the D.MC., and although the number of men on each trip is necessarily restricted, it is hoped than as many students as possible will have an opportunity to work with crampons and ice axes this winter."
SNOWSHOES BREAK TRAIL TO HAPPY HILL
"The icy conditions held the skiers up during the latter part of vacation, but barely hampered the snowshoers. Happy Hill was buried under three feet of snow, the tall spruces and pines drooping under heavy loads of snow and sleet. As the four of us came over the trail late in the afternoon, the sleet-covered twigs in the old orchard picked up the yellow-orange rays of the sunset.
"The woodfolk, Moosejaw Vierick's friends, had been doing an awful lot of exploring, and 'Trapper' had a field day figuring out what each one had been up to. After supper, which included pumpkin pie, someone glanced out and noticed a brilliant full moon. Nothing would do but a little moonlight snowshoeing! From the top of the hill to the north of the cabin we could see Hanover, with Baker Tower a pin-point in the center. We could even hear the trains switching in the White River yards.
"More or less by accident we found that snowshoes make a fair sled on the crust, if a hill is steep enough and the spirit sufficiently rash. A couple of hours of this, interrupted by listening to the yapping of foxes, and we headed back for a long session with the harmonicas around the fire.
"The D.O.C. cabins are far from being closed up for the winter. In fact, at this season they are often at their most enjoyable and certainly most picturesque state. If you want to get a new kick out of skiing, and a taste of another phase of Dartmouth, visit one of the D.O.C. cabins in winter."
