By Ben Nunnery
Dartmouth will take a leap "Down the Rabbit Hole" at the opening ceremonies of the 97th annual Winter Carnival Thursday at 7 p.m
The ceremonies, which will take place on the Green, will begin with the traditional Winter Carnival rituals, including the unveiling of this year's snow sculpture, and will end with a Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Collis Cafe.
This year's snow sculpture depicts Alice in Wonderland's white rabbit rushing off a ski lift to avoid being late. Concern for the sculpture's completion abated Tuesday when the wooden sides were removed and the snow began to take shape.
Jeff Wiltsey '09, co-chair of the snow sculpture committee, said there was an overwhelming response from sports teams and other groups to work on the sculpture.
"We offered incentives to club sports and other campus groups to help out this year and had a really great response," he said. "We also encouraged people by yelling across the green and were really happy when students would come help for a few minutes."
A new addition that expedited the sculpture's progress was the elevator ramp, the senior thesis project of Dan Schneider '07, another co-chair of the sculpture committee. Wiltsey said the ramp made it much easier to put snow in high places.
Yet even with the ramp, the majority of the work required manpower and an all night sculpting session Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
"We always plan on an all-nighter," he said. "It's definitely not as bad as you think. We bring out hot chocolate and pizza. You get cold and wet but in the end, it's totally worth it."
In addition to the unveiling of the sculpture, the opening ceremonies will include the ski team processional, a performance by the Dartmouth Chords and remarks from College President James Wright, the Winter Carnival chairs, the snow sculpture chairs and the captains of the ski teams.
Lizzie Teague '09, co-chair of winter carnival, said that the committee is trying to retain the ski imagery present throughout older winter carnivals.
"Since this year is the Dartmouth Skiway's 50th anniversary, we wanted to make skiing a big part of this year's carnival," she said. "We tried to do this with the T-shirts, posters and snow sculpture."
A new winter carnival activity will be launched this year: "Mountain Hot-Springs."
The activity will be held on Saturday on the Gold Coast lawn, allowing students to enjoy a 104-degree hot tub that can accommodate 30 to 40 students at once. The activity will serve as alternative to the polar bear swim.
Winter Carnival co-chair Hannah Dreissigacker '09 assures students that the hot tub will be appropriately chlorinated and staffed with lifeguards. Dreissigacker hopes the new event will be a success.
"Mountain Hot Springs is a trial this year to see if people like it," she said. "It could be something we start doing annually. It's something that we can do no matter how much snow we have."
Other events for the weekend include the golf course ski race and human dog sled race Thursday afternoon, the classic winter carnival movie Thursday night, the polar bear swim and the student-alumni Jeopardy game on Friday, and ski races both Friday and Saturday.
