Psi Upsilon fraternity brothers will lace up their skates, pull on their pads, take a skating start, and risk life and limb as they attempt to leap as many empty beer kegs as possible during the 19th Annual Psi U Keg Jump, Saturday.
Attracting well over 500 spectators to the College's oldest fraternity, the jump is one of the most popular traditions of Winter Carnival weekend.
Participants in the event don more and more layers of padding as the number of kegs increases. There is also a landing area prepared for them with mattresses to cushion the fall to the hard ice.
Psi U president Dan Mahoney '01 explained the reason why so many fraternity members risk an icy death each year, saying, "It's just a fun thing to do with our brothers, and of course we're raising money for charity as well."
Mahoney said he is looking forward to participating this year since the cancellation of Coed Fraternity Sorority events last year in protest of the Student Life Initiative prevented him from taking part.
Describing his participation in the Keg Jump his sophomore year, Marcus Coe '00 called the experience the "most intense adrenaline rush" of his life.
Coe managed to leap 10 kegs before he was disqualified when his skate touched one of the kegs. The record number of kegs jumped is 14, set by Dave Mace '98.
"I don't know if I'm in contention for the record, but I'm not afraid to hurt my body to try," Coe said.
Although some injuries have marred the Keg Jump in the past, none have ever been "career ending," as Coe put it.
Jumping kegs on ice skates is actually a rather recent manifestation of the cabin fever caused by prolonged exposure to a New Hampshire winter.
While Psi U has been turning its front lawn into an ice rink for over sixty years, keg jumping has been taking place only since the early 1980s.
The Keg Jump as it exists today was born in 1984 when Psi U turned the developing tradition into a charity event.
When the event's proceeds first began to go to charity, the money went to a Hanover diabetes clinic, for the patients of which the brothers also held a summer camp.
This year, the $30 entrance fee donated by area sponsors and the proceeds resulting from the sale of Keg Jump t-shirts will go to Outreach House, a facility for senior citizens in the Hanover area.