Dedicated students are already carting snow to the center of the Green to build the centerpiece of this year's Winter Carnival: a pirate ship featuring 52-foot-tall twin masts and an 8-foot slide open to the Dartmouth community. The ship was inspired by this year's Neverland theme.
Dan Schneider '07, the co-chair of the sculpting team, said he was excited about the opportunity to allow students to slide down parts of the sculpture.
"One of the things we pushed for this year is the opening of the sculpture to students," Schneider said.
Eric Clem '08, who worked in a Maine shipyard for five years, designed Captain Hook's ship. The sculpture will measure 50 feet long, 15 feet wide, 12 feet high at deck level and 20 feet high at stern level.
Volunteers will gather 10,000 trash cans of snow over the next 10 to 12 days to fill the sculpture's 470-cubic-foot snow base, roughly a fifth of which will then be sculpted off. When they finish, Victoria Solbert '07, the artist behind last year's Cat and the Hat, will begin directing the sculpting of the structure, which will continue until the start of Winter Carnival.
The sculpting team, chaired by Schneider and Jeff Woodward '06, began planning in the fall and has started construction a week earlier than last year to accommodate the ship's additional size and complexity. They've spent this weekend erecting the sculpture's two masts using a pickup truck and a gin pulley system.
"Last year we started this coming weekend, so we're starting a week earlier. We're only five days ahead, though, because we spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday building the frame," Schneider said.
The team was initially apprehensive over Hanover's lack of snow. With this weekend's snowfall, however, they feel they'll have adequate snow to construct the ship.
"We think we have enough after the snowstorm. We had planned before the snow dump to haul ice from Thompson and Campion ice rinks," Schneider said.
While large compared to recent sculptures, the ship will pale in comparison to the giant sculptures of Winter Carnival's golden age during the 1940s and 1950s. During 1957's "Fire and Ice" themed Carnival, a 50-foot Indian rising from flames adorned the center of the Green.
"It's almost as high as the Eleazar Wheelock sculpture holding the beer mug. But we only have snow up to 20 feet high," Schneider said.
Unseasonably warm weather has presented a serious obstacle to sculptors in the past. In 1995, for example, a wolf balancing on its hind legs melted into an unidentifiable lump in the middle of the Green. Schneider, however, said that given Hanover's recent cold snap, he wasn't concerned.
"The only real worry is if it warms after we start sculpting. After you have the ice pushed in, it takes a lot to melt it" Schneider said.
Schneider acknowledged the help promised by varsity athletic teams and encouraged others to come help out, noting that Greek members could count shoveling against their volunteer hours.
"So far it really hasn't been a volunteer effort. But we'll be looking for volunteers from 1 to 5 [p.m.] on weekdays and all day on weekends starting Monday," Schneider said.
Schneider encouraged volunteers and non-volunteers to make an effort to attend the carnival's opening ceremonies.
"Opening ceremonies should not be missed. A surprise is in store for all," Schneider said.
