With this year's return to the elaborate frame technique of building snow sculptures, the 1995 Winter Carnival promises to restore vitality and renown to this famous College tradition.
The sculpture -- a wolf perched on a rock howling at the moon -- is a product of a building technique used more than 20 years ago, which involves packing snow around a frame made of wood and chicken wire.
The snow sculpture, the physical embodiment of Carnival, became a College tradition when students built a gateway of blocks on Alumni Field in 1925. Four years later the center of the Green became its permanent location.
The frame technique allowed greater flexibility to build more complicated structures with outstretched appendages and features, Outdoor Programs Director Earl Jette said.
Rumors that the College abandoned the use of the frame structure in the beginning of the 1980s for safety reasons are untrue, according to Patricia Bankowski '95, who headed the effort to construct the sculpture. She said the tier method students employed ever since resulted in a more blocky appearance.
"Since the early '80s, the snow sculpture has been built by packing down snow and building tiers," Bankowski told The Dartmouth last month.
Last year's sculpture of an abominable snow man reaching out and breaking away from a pile of books was seen as unaesthetic and was mysteriously decapitated. The sculpture embodied the theme "When Hanover Freezes Over ... All Carnival Breaks Loose."
In 1993, students criticized the small stature of a sculpture of a penguin reclining on his back, which stood a mere 12 feet high. The penguin embodied the theme of "Carnival in a Tropical ParadICE."
Yet despite its aesthetic difficulties of implementing the tier technique, some bright spots emerged.
Students built a 40-foot tall Pegasus in 1983 and a 26-foot tall Grinch (of Dr. Seuss fame) in 1992.
The most impressive sculpture in recent years was for the "Mardi Gras in Bourbon Street" in 1987. The Guiness Book of World Records lists the 47.5-foot snow man playing a saxophone as the tallest snow man ever built.
The Winter Carnival Council selected this year's "Call of the Wild" theme after becoming inspired by the idea of the wolf sculpture, Council Co-Chair Timothy Chow '96 said.
Sculptures of years past have embodied the various themes of Winter Carnival on an often grand and memorable scale.
In 1969, an enormous dragon sculpture warmed up the night when a butane tank in its mouth enabled it to breathe fire.
The spirit of piracy surrounded the 1971 Winter Carnival when a large clipper ship with masts and sails braved the stormy Green. The next year, an ornate and grand snow castle called the "City of Oz" featured steps and ice slides to play upon.
Politics have also played a role in the sculpture's history. In 1991, students calling for a cancellation of Winter Carnival and protesting the ongoing Persian Gulf War spray-painted the 20-foot sculpture of King Neptune in his Dolphin-drawn chariot.
The 1992 sculpture of the Grinch sitting on a beer keg was partially a student protest against the College's alcohol policy.
In 1943, World War II caused a cancellation of the Carnival festivities, but students still built a sculpture of a Native American in a coffin bearing the inscription "Here Lies Winter Carnival For Victory."
The first Carnival after the war ended, the sculpture depicted a triumphant Native American in an army jeep returning victoriously.
This year's unseasonably warm weather threatened the construction of the sculpture. The Winter Carnival sculpture began importing snow, but prayers were answered by a snowstorm last Saturday which left several feet of snow on the Green.
But such a situation is not without precedent. In 1980 due to a lack of snow, snow machines were brought to the Green to make enough snow to build a ski jump sculpture commemorating the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
In the past few years, snow has been imported from Occum Pond to compensate for the lack of snow on the Green.
Despite a paucity of snow in recent years, with the return to the old system of building snow sculptures, it appears Dartmouth may be able to recreate some of the grandeur and spectacle of Carnivals past, and perhaps even build sculptures that rival the best from the past.
