Winter Carnival 2013: a bucket list

By Margarette Nelson, The Dartmouth Staff | 2/8/13 4:00am

There’s a lot scheduled, the weather is cold and a lot of people have midterms, which means you need to prioritize. Consider this your definitive bucket list.

Hopefully by the time you are reading this you will have already done the Polar Bear Swim at Occom Pond, and if you are reading this before 12:30 p.m., go! You still have time! The Polar Bear Swim is one of those classic Dartmouth bucket list items, like running around the bonfire. (But don’t worry ’16s, it’s not like hazing this time, upperclassmen do the Polar Bear Swim too).

All day today is 99-cent Ski Day at the Dartmouth Skiway. With no classes — and honestly, I’m confused why we have classes on the other big weekends — there’s no reason not to go. Both the Men’s and Women’s ski teams are competing on Friday and Saturday (there’s even a tailgate on Saturday, I hear there will be free things).

This evening at 8 p.m. is a dance show with dance groups Sheba, Sugarplum, Raaz, Ujima and Street Soul in Sarner Underground, which you should probably go to. Honestly, you’ll never get that kind of variety at an 11 p.m. Wednesday night show at a fraternity.

If Tri-Kap dance parties or playing pong until 4 a.m. on big weekends is your style (or not, you do you), you’ve got plenty of time to sleep tomorrow. The first “official” Carnival event, the human dog sled race on the Green, isn’t scheduled until 2 p.m. on Saturday. Last year’s cancellation due to warm weather means it’s been a little while since everyone has seen this one. Come, dress in flair and cheer on your friends!

Afterwards, head over to Collis Patio for the 2nd Annual Chili Cook-off sponsored by Phi Delta Alpha to sample some delicious chili, and maybe sneak over to the Robinson Hall lawn where they will be serving hot chocolate. Both events run from 3-5 p.m.

Tomorrow afternoon and early evening have a variety of events, athletic and otherwise, that you can attend while you contemplate whether you are going make it out for the third (or fourth) night this week. Women’s hockey plays Yale University at 4 p.m. in Thompson Arena, while Women’s basketball takes on Cornell University at 7 p.m. in Leede Arena. The Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble will also be performing their annual Winter Carnival concert at 8 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium.

So go forth! Drink lots of hot cocoa. Mupload pictures of you and your BFFs in front of the snow sculpture, which hopefully looks better than that cupcake we had last year. Run around in flair. Go to any event that promises you free food. Buy the Winter Carnival poster. Be able to provide concrete answers about Winter Carnival 2013 when next year’s Winter Carnival rolls around. Hopefully your Winter Carnival experience is anything but Grimm (see what I did there?).


Margarette Nelson, The Dartmouth Staff