There are few schools where students regularly self-organize a fifty-plus mile hike twice a year, run weekly half-marathons or scale cliffs. Dartmouth, wedged in the White Mountains, is home to several student-organized extreme athletic events.
During the fall and summer terms, groups of four students each hike 53.5 miles between the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and Robinson Hall in Hanover. Dubbed “the Fifty,” the tradition dates back to 1920, when Cabin and Trail founders and Dartmouth Outing Club member and Cabin and Trail co-founder Sherman Adams ’1920 hiked 83 miles his senior year.
Summer Fifty student director Colleen Bailey ’28 helped organize the event and set up support stations for the 32 participating hikers, who were chosen out of hundreds of applicants.
Dartmouth culture is “pretty athletic,” Bailey said in an interview with The Dartmouth. While students understand the difficulty of feats like the Fifty, they often “seem so much more normal in the context of Dartmouth than they would outside of campus.”
Many students enjoy pushing themselves physically and mentally and want to participate in longstanding traditions like the Fifty “to prove to themselves and others that they can accomplish something awesome,” Bailey said.
The hikers are not the only ones spending time on the trails during their journey, which typically takes 25 to 31 hours to complete. Groups of student supporters, blaring music and wearing flair, man five stations along the trail to help ensure hikers are refueled and having fun. Supporters also cook for hikers, provide medical attention, sweep the trail after the hikers have passed through and, most importantly, provide moral support.
According to participant Julia Ebner ’28, the supporters had a great impact on her team’s experience.
“The EMT volunteers were absolutely top notch and have continued to check in after the hike,” she said. “Everyone at the stations had such great energy, was so eager to help and completely got us through the worst parts.”
Motivations to enter the lottery may differ, but tradition, the physical challenge and the desire to engage with and participate in as many College experiences as possible all play a role.
The culture surrounding these events and athletics in general can encourage students to participate in challenges that they would not otherwise. DOC summer vice president Brady McGawn ’28 hiked the Fifty on his own — without student supporters along the trail — earlier this summer. He described the event, even when accomplished informally, as a “social thing” and “rite of passage” for some people.
“I think there is some competitiveness around the Fifty,” McGawn said. “I think I still would have done it, but maybe would have been less inclined to if only three people did it every year, versus when there are 32 people doing it [the Fifty weekend].”
Fifty supporter Alexandra Wingo ’28 said she felt the volunteers’ greatest impact was the friendship and support they provided to all hikers who passed through their station. Hikers didn’t know which of their peers were at each station, Wingo explained.
Hikers’ “friends were coming through and just seeing how happy everybody was for them,” she said. “It was kind of beautiful, very Dartmouth-y.”
Apart from being a physical and mental challenge, the Fifty is all about the “community,” Wingo said. “It forms kind of quickly, it’s very brief, but I think community is definitely the key aspect of [the Fifty].”
Ebner said one of the most special moments during the hike was when her team, which was made up of her housemates, saw their fifth roommate, Campbell Marton ’28, at a support station.
“The four of us were in a really rough spot at the end of Moose Mountain,” Ebner said. “After a full 24 hours of hiking, seeing our best friend in a hot pink wig was exactly what we needed. At the end, so many friends came to cheer us on, hold our hands while our blisters got popped and congratulate us. It was so special and really made me appreciate the Dartmouth community.”
