With the Outing Club
Second Woodsman's Weekend Features Spring Program
THE HEAVY COVER of snow which had seemed destined to afford good skiing conditions well into April and May was quickly dissipated by a warm spell late in March. Forty unclassified and Class C skiers sang the swan song to spring skiing on Moosilauke at the first annual Collegiate Giant Slalom held on the little Dipper on March 29. With that the spring-skiing enthusiasts turned their boards toward Mt. Washington and Tuckerman's Ravine, finding good skiing on most weekends and pointing toward the Annual Harvard-Dartmouth Slalom held on April 17-18. In this event the Dartmouth team composed of ten ski team members, ten alumni and ten undergraduates, again finished second to Harvard despite the fact that Dartmouth placed six men in the first nine to cross the finish line. Defeat was again spelled out by a dearth of skiers willing to race in this classic informal get-together.
With skiing confined to Tuckerman's, the usual spring white-water canoeing, trail clearing, cabin repair, duck hawking and rock climbing began to take shape around Hanover. In addition, the entirely new spring activity of practicing for the Second Annual Woodsman's Weekend kept twenty aspirants for the final team of six busy three afternoons a week under the expert tutelage of Woodcraft Advisor Ross McKenney. Major projects in the Cabins Department included fixing the roof on Oak Hill feed cabin and the razing of Bull Moose Cabin, declared unsafe because of rotting timbers. Several recent exploration trips in the Moose Mt. area have inspired new interest in this very accessible region and illustrated the importance of a replacement for Moose Cabin as a link in the now broken chain. The Trails Department in several "all out" weekends covered all the DOC trail and now reports "clear sailing."
The re-exploration of Jobildunk at Moosilauke both before and after the snow disappeared revealed a substantial stand of virgin spruce and the still-standing remains of old Jobildunk cabin. Now that lumbering operations have ceased in the Ravine there is increasing interest in making it an integral part of the Dartmouth-at-Moosilauke set-up. A nature trail and a system of ski touring trails in the Ravine are being planned.
Playing host to the annual lOCA conference at the Ravine Camp and "spring" mountaineering on the Franconia Range in three feet of snow occupied two of the weekends prior to May 8-9, the dates of the Woodsman's Weekend. This year, with practiced, six-man teams from University of Maine, McGill, Williams, Kimball Union Academy and Dartmouth, the class of competition reached a new high point. However, the spirit of good fellowship prevailed with numerous songfests and genuine good sportsmanship. The Dartmouth team finished first by dint of hard practice and expert coaching by Ross McKenney over a period of several months. Genuine approval was registered by all contestants, both for the social aspects of the Weekend and the experience of becoming skilled in the use of axe, fly rod, canoe and saw. Just for the record, some of the events were: Felling, twitching, sawing, chopping, fire building, canoe racing, fly and plug casting, and pack board racing.
Spring, with its usual flurry of "goodbyes until next fall," has evoked the customary number of banquets and feeds. Sixty winter sports men and ski team members attended the annual banquet held at the Outing Club house and were later treated to Coach Walter Prager's first-hand movies of the 1948 Olympics as well as a few words from the guest of honor, Walt Prager himself. Cabin and Trail staged the customary C & T—Faculty feed at Oak Hill and played host to 25 faculty members.
D.O.C. elections in late March and early April resulted in Richard P. Nickelsen '47 replacing retiring President Roger Brown '45. Dean S. Worth '49, winter sports direc- tor for the past year, took over the duties of Chairman of Cabin & Trail while Hugh M. Chapin '48 was elected Carnival Chairman, replacing Harlan B. Brumsted '46. The Winter Sports Department elected John R. Zillmer '48 as its head, and the choice for captain of the ski team was Wilbur I. Bull Jr. '46. Henry W. Smith Jr. '46 was appointed Freshman Trip Leader and is now preparing information to be sent out to the Class of '52.
In the business and planning branches of the Outing Club, the Constitution and By-laws are in the process of being revised in an effort to drop obsolete sections and make the written constitution more in accord with the procedure now actually fol- lowed. The publication of the 1947-1948 Dartmouth Out-of-Doors is being handled capably by Harlan Brumsted '46. After thorough consideration it was decided to revert to the report form of magazine used up until 1937. Getting a decided jump on the seasons, the 1949 Carnival Committee has already held its first meet- ing, during which it discussed budget prob- lems and elected Dean Stearns Morse as faculty adviser.
Looking ahead to summer activities we find the center of interest at the Ravine Camp where Roger Brown '45, new hutmaster, will play host to increasing numbers of guests. In addition, cabins in the DOC chain will again be available by reservation at the DOC office in Hanover for stays of no longer than three continuous days. Continuing through part of the summer the Cabins Crew under the supervision of Jim Schwedland '48 will carry out necessary repairs missed in the Spring clean-up. While some of our members are content to spend the summer in New Hampshire we find a large number heading far afield to Alaska and points west. The DOC will be represented in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Wind River Range, Wyoming, again this summer.
WOOD PULP THROWING: This was one of the contests at the DOC's second annual Woodsman's Weekend. The object of each team is to have all 36 throws land on the line between the two stakes.
PRESIDENT
