As the 11 ski teams of the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association make their way around the Northeast for the league's annual races, several member colleges of the EISA will also celebrate the season by holding winter carnivals similar to Dartmouth's.
Dartmouth held its first carnival, centered around skiing competitions, in 1910, and fellow New England colleges followed suit soon after. The races were formalized in 1954 when skiing became an NCAA sport. Today, the members of the EISA compete in ski races at six annual carnival events to determine which individuals qualify for the national championship.
Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine, is home to the country's oldest coeducational winter carnival, according to members of the Bates Outing Club. Bates held its first carnival in 1920, the same year the school's outing club was founded.
This year's festivities at Bates, which began Jan. 23, included long-standing traditions such as the torch run, first started in 1958. Every year, between 20 and 30 students drive to Augusta, Maine, where the state governor lights a torch, according to the outing club's web site. The group then runs back to the Lewiston campus, 33 miles from the state capital, carrying the flame.
At the end of the torch run, the students traditionally perform the Puddle Jump. Bates students cut a hole in the ice of Lake Andrews, known by students as "the puddle." In a tradition similar to Dartmouth's polar bear swim, about 500 students watch as their fellow classmates jump into the frigid water.
The first winter carnival at the University of New Hampshire was held in 1922 by the forestry club and featured ski jumping competitions. Their Outing Club took over the carnival in 1924, continuing the ski races while adding a snow sculpture competition and a school-wide dance, which continue today.
After the conclusion of the EISA races on Feb. 7 at the University of Vermont, students and other spectators were invited to the Stoweflake Reception, named after the popular Stoweflake Mountain Resort that plays host to the event. Guests enjoyed sleigh rides and a winter bonfire, according to event organizers.
Middlebury College will hold its winter carnival one week after Dartmouth's event. Middlebury's carnival weekend lays claim to the title of "oldest and largest student-run" carnival, as well as the only one that is carbon-neutral, according to a Middlebury press release. The event will feature fireworks, singing by campus performance groups and a "Fire and Ice" -themed performance by the Middlebury Figure Skating Club.
The carnival season concludes the following weekend with the Colby College Carnival, which also doubles as the Eastern Championships for this year. Although the weekend features yearly ski races, non-athletic activities have ceased in recent years. According to Patrick Boland, Colby student government president, student groups and campus organizations are working to revamp the carnival this year.
Although EISA members St. Lawrence University and Williams College both hold extravagant celebrations alongside skiing competitions, their winter bashes are not officially part of the race circuit. St. Lawrence held its first week-long carnival in 1934. In 1937, the St. Lawrence Outing Club took control of the event and held the first "Snowbowl Extravaganza," a race at the school's skiway. In 2003, the group added a "Milk Blister" competition, in which contestants attempt to drink a gallon of milk in one hour, according to a timeline on the outing club's web site.
Williams's carnival is also sponsored by the school's outing club. While snow sculpture competitions have become rare at the festival in recent years, according to the college's web site, students have scheduled broomball tournaments, tricycle races, banana-eating contests and a fireworks display for this year's celebration.
Other Ivy League schools also hold winter events, though none on the scale of Dartmouth's Carnival. Cornell University students enjoy the snow by sledding on the campus's Libe Slope, while Harvard University's "Arctic Klub" holds an annual polar bear swim and a human Iditarod race, according to the universities' web sites.
The University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University both held "winter carnivals" as early as 1894, according to The New York Times. These carnivals were essentially track and field meets and, over time, the student bodies at these schools have developed less formal ways of celebrating the season, including dances and game conventions.
