Students found themselves working until 1 a.m. Wednesday in order to finish this year's snow sculpture in time for last night's opening ceremonies.
The sculpture, designed by Rael Salley '01, features a giant dog sitting contentedly in the middle of the Green and is based on the theme "Going to the Dogs."
This year's Winter Carnival organizers decided to compress the usual month long construction into a little more than a week. The faster construction time was intended to encourage student involvement.
"We're doing it in a shorter time period so that students will become more involved in the construction," Carnival co-chair Andy Louis '00 said. "I think students have been more willing to help."
The actual process of building the sculpture didn't change because of the shorter time frame, but it did mean that there wasn't enough time to build the sculpture's infrastructure, meant to normally prevent the sculpture's collapse if the weather warms up.
But the weather this year has been cooperative with sunny days and cold nights, despite the lack of natural snow. The cold nights allowed the builders to spray the snow pile with water that would freeze each night.
Four truckloads of snow were brought in from Occom Pond to supplement the snow from the Green.
Many student organizations and several class councils got involved in the construction, helping a strong core group of builders.
A barbecue was co-sponsored by the 2001 and 2002 class councils and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Lured by the offer of free food and music, a crowd of about 100 student came out to help the sculpture effort, with 30 or so building for an hour or more.
"When everyone was there it turned it into more of a party atmosphere," said Paul Biggs, co-chair of the 2001 Class Council activities committee. "We just let everyone go crazy and since everyone was having a good time, they didn't mind the work."
Some people stayed out building for as long as six hours, resulting in a substantial addition to the exiting snow pile.
"With them out here we got off to a really good start," Louis said.
Members of the men's and women's nordic ski teams joined the building over the weekend and Monday afternoon. WDCR volunteered Tuesday afternoon as well as providing music and food for builders on Wednesday.
Member of Dartmouth Steel, a steel drum band, entertained on the Green by the sculpture Wednesday afternoon.
People working on the sculpture were mostly upperclassmen, with a few freshmen joining them.
Pat Leslie '01 said he worked on the sculpture for the first time this year.
"I think it's a really cool tradition," Leslie said. "I felt like I couldn't complain about how it came out if I didn't help out."
However, student support wasn't strong enough to avoid the last minute rush.
"It'll be done before opening ceremonies," Tony Luckett '01, who designed the original infrastructure, said. "I just think more people should have come out to help."
Carving didn't get under way until Wednesday afternoon. Salley and Luckett oversaw the transformation from blocks of snow to dog using axes and shovels.
Warm weather is anticipated for the weekend, but Luckett said it is unlikely the sculpture will collapse.
