Contents
Annual Report 2004
Directorate Reports
General Manager
2003-2004 has been an excellent year for the Dartmouth Outing Club, packed with trips, adventures, and learning opportunities large and small.
In somewhat chronological order: In the winter of ’03 Joe Hanlon ’05 was elected President, and served excellently throughout spring, fall, and winter. Merrick Johnston ’05 did a great job as President for the summer term. The Lodge opened on time and had a wonderful season under the guidance of Manager Dave Asmussen ’02. Spring Weekend was a great success as usual, with one of our favorite bands at the Lodge, Old School Freight Train. Former President Brad Leneis ’03 graduated, much to his chagrin.
In June of 2003 we finally got the go-ahead from the Forest Service to start building the Moose Mountain Shelter (which had been proposed in 2000). Rory Gawler ’05 spearheaded the effort and with much help from many dedicated volunteers, has made great progress. One of the commitments students have made is to build the shelter entirely by hand so arms and crosscut saws are both getting a good workout.
Kate Huyett ’05 and Michael Liroff ’05 ably managed the job of Sophomore Trips.
We swung into the fall on the terrific energy burst of DOC First-Year Trips, headed by Jon Shea ’03. A cloud on the experience of Trips this year was a raid that went beyond the acceptable. The silver lining to the cloud was that while no one was physically hurt, the fallout from the experience caused us all to look hard at what we were doing with Trips and who the Trips experience was really for. President Joe Hanlon headed a committee of students throughout the fall and early winter who worked on a mission statement for Trips and reflected critically on all parts of the Trips experience. This work was brought to Dan Nelson in the early winter and the result was a comprehensive review and excellent suggestions ready to be implemented by the new Trips Director, Freddi Ghesquiere ’04, who came on the job in January.
Fall Weekend enjoyed glorious weather. The Fifty-Mile Hike, the Moose, trailwork, paddling, climbing, biking and more were all enjoyed by many. The hardworking Lodge crew served up its trademark chili and cornbread to a more-than-full house and everyone danced into the wee hours. Thanks to Kate Huyett, Sarah Mead ’05 and Jen Mygatt ’04 who ran an extremely tight ship, the 50 was actually rather boring this year — I got to sleep in, unlike last year. Brad Marden ’04 managed to make the Moose sound like fun — it gets more popular every year. I recommend it for those who think the 50 might not be challenging enough for them.
The Haunted Forest was coordinated by Eli Diament ’02 and Alex Kehl ’07. The event was enjoyed by all, even the Pine Park Commission and our Occom Pond neighbors. This event was cosponsored by the Native Americans at Dartmouth (NAD). Cosponsorship is an excellent idea; it shares the work and brings students with different interests together. It is recommended that these great working partnerships continue.
The winter was marked by tragedy for all of Dartmouth. Christina Porter ’06 suffered a terrible head injury while skiing at the Dartmouth Skiway, from which she continues to slowly and courageously recover. Luckily for Christina and all of us skiers, the Dartmouth Ski Patrol was on the scene immediately and coordinated Christina’s transport to the hospital. In recognition of its excellent performance, Dartmouth Ski Patrol was presented with the College’s Milton Sims Kramer 1954 Memorial Award for service to the community. My heart goes out to Christina’s family, and I am more proud of the Patrol than I can say.
Winter Weekend Fun was ably coordinated by Alex Kehl ’07. His commentary is contained within and has some excellent feedback for future event chairs.
In the late winter successful elections were held and Jeff Burns Woodward ’06 was elected President, to serve for spring, summer, and winter. Rory Gawler ’05 will serve as President for the fall term.
Four Spring Break trips went out: Cabin and Trail to the Petrified Forest, DMC to Red Rocks, and Ledyard to North Carolina and the Everglades. Details are contained in the club reports following.
A student initiative that is directly funded by the Friends of the DOC is a wonderful one-year old project we like to call the Wolfgang Schlitz Adventure Fund. Students present their original trip proposal to the DOC Board who discusses and votes on whether and how much to support each trip. Students have worked out a pretty clear and efficient system and in the past year we have supported several exciting trips, including an extended ski trip in Norway (Rory Gawler ’05 and Anthony Bramante ’06), an ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Andrew Hoffman ’06, Karla Kingsley ’06, Doug Hanna ’06, Cliff Orvedal ’06, and Ingrid Nelson ’06), a successful bid to finish all New Hampshire four-thousand footers before graduation (Nic Duquette ’04), work on an organic farm in Norway (Jean Polfus ’06), and competitors in the Arctic Circle Race, a Nordic ski race dubbed the hardest race in the world. Emily Chenel ’04 and Jen Mygatt ’04 were the first American college students to ever compete in the race and finished second and third respectively.
I find the Schlitz fund wonderful for a number of reasons:
- Inside some clearly-set risk management parameters, the decisions are entirely based on what students find valuable.
- It encourages and supports student initiative and the planning of ambitious, original and independent expeditions.
- It requires that the recipient “give back” in some way to the DOC — this requirement has been fulfilled by slide shows, presentations, Woodsmoke articles, and full trip writeups. The idea is to build a library of trips to inspire future students. The most exciting part of the whole thing to me is attending a presentation on a completed trip, only to be mobbed by students afterwards asking questions about how they can apply for trips of their own.
Despite a year of painful budget cuts college-wide, the DOC continues to enjoy robust financial health. We enjoy a great deal of support through the generosity of alumni and alumnae who love us and remember the importance of the Dartmouth Outing Club to their undergraduate careers. Please remember this important fact when you graduate – the DOC is able to do and have and be so much directly because of its devoted alumni/ae.
As many of you may have realized, the 100th anniversary of the Dartmouth Outing Club will be upon us before we know it. The official birthday of the Club is December 14, 1909. I expect celebrations to both precede and follow that date in academic year 2009-10 and would relish your ideas and involvement in planning this grand affair. Please write to me with any thoughts you may have.
Crews 2003
Lodge Spring Crew: Dave Asmussen ’03 (Manager), Sean Mann ’05, Saul Kliorys ’05, Tim Grinsell ’05, Helen Wilbur ’05
Lodge Summer Crew: Dave Asmussen ’02 (Manager), Lydia Smith ’04 (Assistant Manager), Evan Skow ’03, Emilie Fetscher ’03, Leah Samberg ’03, George Storm ’04, Anthony Bramante ’06 (who, it is worth noting made his first ascent of Moosilauke at the tender age of twenty-oneÉdays.)
Lodge Fall Crew: Dave Asmussen ’02 (Manager) Evan Skow ’03 (Assistant Manager), Julia Post ’03, Lindsay Reardon ’03, Bill Carty ’03, Emily Wroe ’03
Volunteer Trails Coordinator: John Karl ’04
Alpine Steward: Jeff Burns Woodward ’06
Cabin/Trail Crew: Anne O’Hagen ’06, Amy Higgins ’06, Jean Polfus ’06
Yours in the out of doors,
Julie Clemons, General Manager
Winter Weekend Fun 2004
In my opinion, Winter Weekend Fun was a success this year (although I have no actual basis for comparison, so take that for what it’s worth); the DOC offered free beginner lessons for skiers, snowboarders, and telemark skiers (110 students all together), 25 XC-skiers, 20 snowshoers, and an ice climbing trip for 6 people (not including trip leaders). In addition, about 75 students came to ice skate at Occom Pond during the day. All of the volunteer instructors worked hard and did a wonderful job, and as far as I know all of the activities ran smoothly.
For next year, I would consider:
- booking Thompson Arena EARLY (i.e., end of fall term) so that we can have an evening event, hopefully with a band
- double-checking ALL prices and arrangements with the Dartmouth Skiway before the event; the skiway was very generous this year in providing free lift tickets, hot chocolate, and return vouchers for participants (with reduced lift/rental prices), but there was some miscommunication over the initial price-per-student.
Costs: To pay for the event, the DOC received $2,550 from the Programming Board, and agreed to contribute up to $800 of its own money. The costs were: $1,100 for Skiway Rentals, $450 for Skiway bus, $215 for food, about $200 for posters/advertising/vouchers (printing), $150 for Omer and Bob’s gift certificates, $70 in supplies (radio, hot chocolate, etc), about $40 for a van rental from the DOC, and an indeterminate amount of money for the DOR expenses (xc, snowshoe, and skate rentals) which will probably come to around $800; I am still waiting to hear from Mike Silverman about this.
Alex Kehl ’07
Club Reports
Bait and Bullet
The Bait & Bullet Club continued its recent surge in popularity over the past year, cementing the progress made after its reemergence from relative inactivity/obscurity just three years ago. Back on its regular election cycle, the Club elected Harry Camp ’04 to replace outgoing president Ryan Gorsche ’04 during Winter Term 2003. Bob Bruce ’05 became vice president. Brandon Morris ’05 filled in as the club’s leader during the Sophomore Summer. The Club’s swelling ranks even led to the addition of a Treasurer’s position to facilitate preparation of budget proposals and stewardship of the endowment for the coming year. Last term, B&B held elections for the 2004-2005 term. Eben Sargent ’05 will serve as president, Chris Polashenski ’07 as vice president, and Bob Koven ’06 as treasurer. They are anxious to further Bait & Bullet’s efforts to bring fishing and hunting opportunities to Dartmouth students, and equally as important, to provide a forum for those who enjoy such pursuits. Below, is a catalogue of some of the many varied activities the Club has pursued over the past year.
Officially, Bait & Bullet used its bi-weekly meetings to plan several excursions and classes. In addition, the Club budgeted funds to augment its physical equipment accordingly to complement these programs.
Don Cutter ’73 once again offered his very successful skeet-shooting class at the Grafton County Gun Club last spring. Undergraduates were afforded the opportunity to learn from an excellent marksman and earn P.E. credit at the same time! An added treat for student shooters this year was the addition of two brand-new shotguns (and a small-bore rifle) to the B&B firearms arsenal, which was made possible in part by the generosity of Mr. Ted Rowe at Ruger Firearms.
In September, a small B&B group — that included Harry Camp ’04, Bob Bruce ’05, and Don Cutter ’73 — traveled to the Green River to fish a portion of this famous trout stream in the northeastern corner of Utah. The trip marked an important moment in B&B’s recent evolution, because it was the first club-sponsored trip that ventured outside New England in over a decade.
The party spent their nights at the homey Spring Creek Ranch situated amidst the picturesque landscape of Minnie’s Gap, Wyoming. Host Lona Brost kept them well-fed every morning with her “ranch hand breakfast” and bottomless mugs of coffee. Bruce had high praise for the accommodations: “The view from our room was breathtaking, and on a few evening excursions we caught sight of a herd of antelope as well as one stubborn turkey that refused to budge to allow the van to pass.”
As for the fishing, the group caught all four local species during its four days on the water: cutthroat, rainbows, cutbows, and the highly sought after browns. Bruce recalled, “We spent four full days matching our wits and flies against some of the most beautiful brown trout and rainbows on the North American continent.” The first day was spent with two guides who took the group on a float trip. “Standing in the boat and looking thirty feet down into the emerald waters, we could see literally hundreds of browns laying on the river bottom.” It was a good way to become acquainted with the river. The next three days found the group wading along the shore and trying its luck in the deeper pools and riffles. Though wading for browns is certainly a more difficult venture than fishing from a boat, they all managed to catch a number of beautiful browns. In addition, walking along the shore gave the group an excellent opportunity to explore the magnificence of the canyon. On the last morning, they came across a group of six young carefree otter swimming together alongside the trail. Bruce concluded, “The combination of Utah’s incredible natural beauty combined with the world’s greatest pastime (fly fishing) made for an unforgettable trip!”
About a dozen members enthusiastically embraced duck and goose season this fall. “I saw many species of ducks that I have rarely, if ever, seen before”, said Chris Polashenski ’07. He further mused, “There is nothing quite like the thrill of paddling around a corner in the cattails and flushing a pair of pintails, or being on the water on a misty morning when a flock of teal materializes out of the mist, wings locked as they torpedo in among your decoys.” In order to facilitate this newfound interest, Bait and Bullet purchased a canoe from Ledyard through the generosity of an alumni donor who wishes to remain anonymous. The canoe will be a great asset to the club for both duck hunting in the fall and fishing in the spring and summer.
Many members also joined one of several deer hunting drives on Oak Hill, organized through B&B this fall. Most who attended at least saw a whitetail, and Brad Marden ’04 was lucky enough to bag a beautiful five point buck.
Even winter’s frozen grip did not deter B&B from enjoying nature’s abundance. Club members Marden, Polashenski, and Sargent along with club advisor Cutter spent a Saturday in January rabbit hunting in the hills around Warren, New Hampshire, with dogs provided by Aaron and George Petcher. “Overcast skies, a dusting of fresh snow, and temperatures in the twenties held the scent well — and after a slow start the dogs were able to keep the rabbits moving”, said Sargent. The group also enjoyed the company of their guides, though Marden admitted, “We had to endure a little good-natured ribbing from George and Aaron about our Ivy League background, but the two fell oddly silent once the shooting started.” The group had good luck indeed, bagging seven rabbits before quitting early in a self-imposed effort to preserve local populations. Cutter prepared the hares for the Club’s fall feed.
Marden also led the first ever ice-fishing PE class, and even more impressive: it filled up immediately. Thus, what began as an experiment became another great success. The New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife’s “Let’s Go Fishing” program made the class possible, and its popularity led the Club to purchase an ice auger. “An inter-DOC Ôlsquo;Fish-Off’ was a highlight,” said Marden.
The Bait & Bullet Club is in the best position it has been in for years. Its hard-working members deserve much of the credit. B&B especially thanks Don Cutter ’73 for his invaluable expertise and steadfast guidance, as well as Guido Rahr ’51 for his support of our endowment. The new Bait & Bullet leaders already have an exciting Spring Term laid out. We hope to see you at our next meeting or wild game feed!
Harry Camp ’04
Biathlon Club
The Biathlon Club was restarted this fall by Carolyn Treacy ’01. During the fall the Biathlon Club made two shooting/dryfiring outings to outdoor ranges using the metal targets that had been used by the club many years ago. Setting up the range was quite difficult and time-consuming, but both trips were successful and well-liked. Clarissa Werre ’01, a former U.S. National Team biathlete, guest-instructed the first outing, and Stu Trembly Th’83, a former member of the Dartmouth Biathlon Club and now an engineering professor, helped instruct at the second.
During the winter term it actually became harder to shoot outside even though biathlon is a winter sport. There was no feasible place to make a biathlon range near ski trails. The club did shoot indoors at the range in West Lebanon. Don Plummer, class of 1954 and a Distinguished Shooter in the Marines, was the guest instructor for this outing.
There was a waiting list for each of these outings, and those who did get to participate had positive experiences. John Morton, a former coach of the Dartmouth Cross Country Ski Team, Olympic Team member, nordic course director at the Salt Lake Olympics, and author of the book Don’t Look Back, has offered to be a guest instructor when his schedule allows.
The goal of the biathlon club was to get students outside experiencing a new sport (as biathlon is not extremely popular in the U.S., most students had not done biathlon before), and the club was successful at this. There are sixty names on the blitzlist, and there is room to do more advertising for the club.
Trips
Shooting at Oak Hill
Clarissa Werre (a former international competitor and class of ’01) was the guest instructor.
Shooting at Oak Hill
We arrived at Oak Hill to find many young children running around for a school activity, so we did not shoot live rounds. We just practiced basic shooting technique positions. Stu Trembly (engineering professor who was in the biathlon club when he was a student) was the guest instructor.
Shooting at the indoor range in Lebanon
This trip was particularly interesting because Don Plummer ’54 was the guest instructor. He was a Distinguished Shooter in the Marines, as well as a champion over 1,000 Marines.
There was a waiting list for each of these trips, ten people came on each trip.
There was very little equipment purchased: rope for the outdoor targets and paper biathlon targets were photocopied. Setting up the outdoor range is very arduous and takes quite a bit of time. It is difficult to get the targets to stand straight and to reset. Having springs attached to the levers on the targets would help this.
Carolyn Treacy ’01
Cabin and Trail
Welcome to Cabin and Trail! Please stand and state your name and constituency, starting with you!
Monday nights at 10pm in the basement of Robinson Hall regularly find fifty to eighty Chubbers eager to learn of the next week’s trips, share stories of their recent adventures, and to revel in outdoor camaraderie. The past year was full of creative, exciting trips and enthusiastic participation on all levels, from main event to dinertoure to trailwork. Highlights of ’03 Spring were the requisite Grant Trip, Spring Weekend, a Forestry meet at Colby, and many Heeler Overnights. CnT also fielded a team of Bird-a-thoners, who raised over $100 for the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. The summer was truly Camp Dartmouth. Fall welcomed an enthusiastic gaggle of ’07s, lots of work on Moose Mountain Shelter, a Thanksgiving trip to Billings Cabin, and a Cabin Hopping trip. The Intramural volleyball team took second place, the highest in Chubber IM sports history. Winter was so cold! We did our best to bundle up, and still enjoyed the termly Grant Trip, many cross country skiing and snowshoeing trips as well as indoor skills training. Because of exceptionally bitter weather, Council started a discussion about improving the winter leader training. The CnT Spring Break trekked through the scenic Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Feeds, overnights, trailwork, and hikes throughout the Whites, Greens, and the Grant rounded out each term, with many trips going out each week.
Matt Kemp ’04 and Eleanor Alexander ’04, Co-Chairs, Spring ’03
Chelsea Lane-Miller ’04 and Matt Kemp ’04, Co-Chairs, Fall ’03
Eleanor Alexander ’04, Chair, Winter ’04
Heelers
Spring
A crew of freshman ascended this spring: Jeff Wooward ’06, Anthony Bramante ’06, Sarah Hackney ’06, Norah Lake ’06. Their epic Heeler Overnights, involving multi-day forays and fabulous food will not be soon forgotten. Heeler seminars such as tool sharpening, sign making, and trail maintenance were stressed.
Summer
Richard Trierweiler ’05 and I were the heeler directors this summer. It was an important term in this respect, because, after much discussion, we decided to hold ascensions for the first summer in a while. This decision was made in the first few weeks of the term primarily by summer council (which did include more members than just the ’05s) with input from council members who were off. Richard and I worked hard to put together a good instructional heeler event every week. One that was particularly successful was the “Heeler Party” at Oak Hill. A large group of council members and heelers went out for an evening and split up into smaller groups to learn skills, make spoons, sing around the campfire, etc. It was a great evening and worked really well without too much planning. Caroline Engel ’05 was the only person who ascended and she did a great job. We also had several other heelers who were quite active over the course of the summer and two of them, Laura Yasaitis ’05 and Ariel Churnin ’05, co-led trips.
Fall
An excited group of Heelers ascended, after many Heeler seminars, successful co-leads and eventful Heeler overnights. Jeff Wagner ’06, Jonah Kolb ’06, Vicki Allen ’06, Jean Polfus ’06, Haley Peckett ’05, and Libby Hadzima ’06 became the newest council members. One memorable Heeler seminar, the Aluminum Chef Competition, was held on the Collis porch, in which seven teams cooked on Trangia stoves in a timed event for taste and style awards. The Outdoor Programs staff judged the event.
Winter
Libby Hadzima ’06, Jeff Wagner ’06 and I were the heeler directors this winter. We continued to make sure that there was at least one heeler event/seminar each week. We attempted to have a “Heeler Party” similar to the one this summer, but we didn’t have as much time and were confined to working on skills indoors so it was not nearly as successful. We had Julie Clemons teach both Risk Management and Group Dynamics seminars and got a very good turnout for each, including some new faces. Most importantly, Libby, Jeff and I spent a great deal of time this winter meeting with Julie Clemons, Brian Kunz, and Eleanor Alexander ’04 (CnT Chair) to revise the heeler process. We began with discussions of whether we are actually training heelers to be able to lead the trips that they will be leading and also considering exactly what the expectations of a council member are or should be. The result has been a new heeler sheet with a few new requirements and a lot of new reorganization and additional explanations. We have also been discussing with council how rethinking these requirements will help keep us accountable and stressing the importance of working to make co-leads really valuable learning experiences and giving constructive feedback to heelers. This winter Anne Raymond ’06, Ruth Jones ’06, and Laura Yasaitis ’05 ascended and several other heelers were very active including many of the ’07s.
Helen Wilbur ’05
Feeds and Fun - Summer
We had quite a few successful feeds this summer. They were well attended, and eating outside on the porch was wonderful. Perhaps the most memorable feed was our Iron Chef competition against Ledyard. Each club cooked a meal and Ledyard brought theirs over to the Rock for a great dinner and some interclub socializing. I think this would be a great idea to expand on in the future: throw down a challenge and it will usually be answered. We also held one feed where we invited Julie Clemons and J.T. Horn, who joined us at the Rock for dinner and then stayed for a discussion on our responsibilities regarding AT maintenance. It was great to have them over, and we should think about doing that more, either with or without the business meetings.
Helen Wilbur ’05
Moose Mountain Shelter
The Moose Mountain Shelter project finally got underway. We got approval from the Forest Service in June to start and proceeded to fell, peel, and haul logs all summer. During DOC Trips, two trailwork trips were led by Rory Gawler ’05 and Ben Honig ’05 to the site. One began to dig the trail, the other to construct the privy. David Hooke ’84 assisted with the finalization of the foundation and then the setting of the cornerposts and sills, then, during weekends of fall term, trips went out to put up the walls. At this writing, we have two or three more days worth of work on the actual physical shelter and then we clean up the site and are done.
Rory Gawler 05
Forestry Team
The spring ’03 meet was held at Colby College. Meet highlights include second places by Heather Lapin ’04 and Matt Kemp ’04 in the chain throw, and an outstanding first place in doubles canoeing by Kim Iwamoto ’03 and Vicki Allen ’06, giving Kim her fourth canoeing title in as many years.
This has been a busy year for the forestry team. On a beautiful day during the fall of ’03 we attended a meet at UNH. Ben Honig ’05, John McCall-Taylor ’03, Rory Gawler ’05, Scott Andrews ’07, Will Raynolds ’04, and Eric Benson ’04 competed for the men’s team, while Victoria Allen ’06, Anne Raymond ’06, Eleanor Alexander ’04, Heather Lapin ’04, Nicole Mansfield ’05 and Mellisa Lynch ’06 competed for the women. The men’s team made a strong showing by winning the team relay while Gawler won splitting.
During the winter of ’04, the team attended a meet at McGill University in Montreal. Ben Honig ’05, Rory Gawler ’05, Scott Andrews ’07, Richard Trierweiler ’05, George Storm ’04, and Eric Benson ’04 competed for the men’s team while Laura Yasaitis ’05, Cici Cruz-Uribe ’06, Victoria Allen ’06, Kiva Wilson ’04, Eleanor Alexander ’04 (who placed second in the axe throw), and Melissa Lynch ’06 competed for the women’s team. A great effort was shown by all.
This spring, the Forestry Team will host the 58th annual Woodsmen’s Weekend on April 23 and 24. With the help of alumni James “Porkroll” Taylor ’74 and David Hooke ’84 preparations for the meet are going extremely well.
Eric Benson ’04
Trails and Shelters
This Spring and Fall, in addition to the great number of trips to work on the Moose Mountain Shelter, we managed to run an average of three trailwork trips per week until the ground began to freeze. Included in that was a weekly Trailwork PE class, where we welcomed J.T. Horn of the New England ATC for a few of our trips. We focused mainly on much of the backlog of routine trail maintenance and smaller projects. Notably, we worked on some of the drainage problems between Dorchester Road and the Smarts Mountain Trailhead, the decrepit drawbridge crapper at Ore Hill, and our “new” rediscovered trail up Smarts Mountain, the Daniel Doan Trail. At the very beginning of the summer, Rory Gawler ’05, frustrated with the WMNF’s failure to approve the Moose Mountain project, managed to visit and complete routine maintenance on all of our shelters in the matter of a few days.
Twenty-two people volunteered and helped with trailwork trips during Spring Weekend of 2003. For Fall Weekend, that number rose to almost forty. We covered standard brushing, blowdowns, and drainage work on all of the Moosilauke trails on both weekends. Much of the trails used for winter travel had become quite overgrown, and nearly impassable in winter. Much of the Ridge Trail and Al Merrill Ski Loop spruce and fir were aggressively brushed back to improve this situation. There is still some remaining serious brushing that is needed on highest extent of the Al Merill Loop, especially the mile south of the 10th Mountain Division View Point.
Anthony Bramante ’06
Welcoming Director
In 04W, CnT decided to have a Welcoming Director after discussion in the fall about people not feeling welcome, or not knowing what’s going on, or other things that turn people off from feeling welcome and getting involved.
Jeff Woodward ’06 and I took on this directorship. Though he and I did not coordinate anything in particular it is useful to note that this endeavor occurred and a few things that I myself did in holding this new directorship.
Names
The best (but perhaps most awkward) thing to do. “Hi, sorry, I missed your name during introductions. I’m …” works well. You can only do a couple of these on either end of the meeting, so it’s important to get a few every Monday night (as well as on campus, during the week, etc!) — then get them on heeler lists and raiding lists and other things that really include them.
Sit in the back
It makes others sit in front, you experience how hard it is to hear what’s going on up front, and you meet/make a connection to “the random people in the back”.
Recommend/Encour-age/Ask
Suggest a trip to someone, point out how cool it’s going to be, or how much fun the leader is, etc. Make them feel welcome, invited, etc. It’s in the smaller groups on trips that people get to know each other and often feel most welcome.
Be on their side
This includes explaining things (where Kathy’s office is, signing up on Monday night isn’t writing your name in stone), feigning ignorance (tell us, what’s a heeler?), and commenting on the absurdity of council members when weird/inside-joke things happen at meeting.
Vicki Allen ’06
Cycling Club
The Cycling Club is a loose organization, but it serves a vital role on campus for introducing people to the joys of cycling. For the winter, the club goes into hibernation for the most part. The club attempted to prepare people for riding in the spring by offering cycling-related movie showings and daily spinning sessions. The spinning sessions were particularly popular, especially during the cold month of January when it was difficult to get outside for some exercise.
Currently, the club is in need of a qualified and dedicated leader to get beginners on their bikes. There are only a couple DOC leaders among the club’s membership, not enough to consistently lead trips. Therefore, there is a need to train the members to become DOC leaders so that more people can get excited about the club.
Tim Clement ’05, Chair, Fall ’03and Linden Klein ’05, Chair, Winter ’04
Dartmouth Mountaineering Club
This year the DMC was up to the same old mischief, namely climbing, climbing, climbing. The 2003 spring breakers, led by Dan Cross-Call ’05, headed out to the sunny desert of Red Rocks on a trip described by all enthusiastically as topping the list of things they have done at Dartmouth. Climbers piled into vans and made the drive across the U.S. for ten days of sport and trad climbing, a little bit of bouldering, and a whole lot of bonding. Even alumni showed up to participate in the climbing and festivities.
During spring term, Sara Hellmuth ’05 chaired the club and organized trips out to Cathedral and to Rumney. John Joline ’70 continued to lead the women’s climbing group, which took weekly trips to Rumney during days of nice weather and to The Wall in Queeche during days of unpleasant weather, a group that continued to function through the entire year. Since the women’s climbing group is low-pressure and open to everyone, it has served as an effective means by which beginner women climbers start getting into the sport and meeting new climbers of different levels.
During the summer, the sophomores, led by the fearless Will Morrison ’05 and Dan Cross-Call ’05, spent lots of time at Rumney. They ran sophomore trips at the Skiway, which were fun and successful despite the “eagle-sized mosquitoes” as Will described them. Will, James Joslin ’05, David Quaid ’06 and Sara Hellmuth ’05 took an advanced trip to the Adirondacks, where they climbed at the Beer Wall and the Spider’s Web. One climb of note was “Catharsis” (9 pitches of 5.6 slab) during which they grazed on blueberries and finished just as the clouds began to dump rain.
The new freshman made a strong showing this fall term. They are an adventurous, dedicated, and super-active group of climbers who have already contributed much to the club in terms of their fun presence and participation in trips, feeds, and club activities. During the fall Alana Hanks ’05 and Christine Balaz ’04 chaired, and took trips to Rumney and Pawtuckaway.
The winter, during which Robin Batha ’06 and Bree Inglis ’06 chaired, was a time of many beginner trips. Many freshman went on their first ice climbing trips to Holts, Ascutney, and the Flume. Of particular note was that an overwhelming majority of the participants were girls, who all came back raving about their trips (as did the boys), and many of them started going out ice climbing on their own. Dartmouth hosted its annual competition for Dartmouth undergrads, where nearly a hundred routes were put up by dedicated graduate students for the undergrads to climb. It was a success, with James Joslin ’05 and Christine Balaz ’04 winning the gym rat categories. Those routes, in addition to some put up later by the undergrads, were used for the Dartmouth intercollegiate comp, which too was a success. Unfortunately the weather was not conducive to driving, so the turnout was not as great as in some previous years, but the routes were good and all participants raved about the comp. Dartmouth climbers went to most of the other intercollegiate comps, making a particularly strong showing at the Middlebury comp, where we dominated and maintained possession of the coveted pink chalk bag given to the winner of the comp each year.
DMCers were also active outside of Dartmouth. During a three week trip to the Cordillera Blanca of the Peruvian Andes, Barry Hashimoto ’06 and Page Kyle ’02 climbed the Ferrari Route Alpamayo (5947m), and the Direct Southwest Face of Artesonraju (6025m). Barry also soloed the Northwest Ridge of Tocclaraju (6034m) and climbed the Southwest Ridge of Chopicalqui (6345m). They gave a great slideshow upon their return, which was a great way to show less experienced aspiring mountaineers what a trip like that entails. Victor Tristan and Ben Graham ’04 packed into Cirque of the Towers and climbed Wolf’s Head in the Wind River Range in Wyoming over the summer. Nira Salant ’03, Gabriel Martinez ’99, Mike Pirozzi ’00 and Cheryl Shannon ’00 journeyed to Bishop over winter break for some good bouldering, as did Melina Marmarelis ’07 and Robin Batha ’06 on trips of their own.
Since it caters to so many different interests and ability levels and has such killer climbing, this year’s spring trip will again journey to Red Rocks.
Environmental Studies Division
Background
The club’s activity waned during the spring and summer terms of 2003, but under the new leadership of Jessica Doyle ’05, Sarah Uhl ’07, and Ritchie King ’06, momentum picked up rapidly during the fall and winter, with a new group of members and new ideas for the future of the club. Getting started was challenging for the new leaders, none of whom had prior leadership experience within the DOC, but the future is looking bright with over twenty people on the club-sponsored Earth Week Committee and many fresh ideas for next year.
Ecostews
The theme chosen for winter term was energy, and specifically its use in the Upper Valley. ESD planned on visiting plants, dams, farms where different types of energy production were taking place in order to get a better understanding of the benefits and disadvantages of each type. In the last week of January a trip was made to the Dartmouth power plant where members followed a tour around the plant and learned how it works. In order to be prepared to ask questions on these tours, ESD planned Ecostews with professors or knowledgeable people who could inform us about the good, the bad, and the ugly of each type of energy production.
We had two Ecostews during fall term. The first was with Bo Peterson who works for Dartmouth FO&M and spoke to us about the Dartmouth power plant a week before our tour. He explained to present members how the cogeneration works, how old the plant and its parts are, and what types of fuel are necessary to sustain this plant. The second Ecostew was with professor Frank Magilligan who gave us a lively and interesting explanation of the effects that hydropower dams have on the environment, especially Wilder Dam.
We are currently planning a trip to Wilder Dam for spring term to follow this up. We are also planning a trip to the wind farm in Searsburg, Vermont to learn about the benefits of wind energy. While on this trip we are also planning to meet with a local community member to hear about the disadvantages of wind power in our quest to hear the whole truth about different energy sources in use in the Upper Valley.
Earth Week
The Earth Week Committee has been meeting weekly to organize events from April 16-22. The theme for the Week is “Reinventing Earth Week”, and events are centered around how the role of the national holiday has changed since its inception over thirty years ago. Three panel discussions are planned, two which will explore issues of sustainability, the first focusing on sustainability issues here at Dartmouth and the second focusing on sustainability from a global perspective. The third panel is entitled “Cultural Relationships to Nature and the Environment”, and we hope that it will serve to delve into our changing, culture-dependant definitions of “what is nature?” and “who is an environmentalist?”.
Other events for the week range from a scavenger hunt to search for environmental information hidden around campus, the Big Green Environmental Festival in Collis Common Ground (at which environmental groups on campus will have displays about their club or important issues), and films on environmental topics shown each night of the week.
Victoria Solbert ’07 and Ritchie King ’06 are in charge of publicity for the event, Jessica Doyle ’05 is managing funding, Inga Caldwell ’07 is organizing the panel discussions, Sue Dubois ’05 is in charge of the “teletalk” with Bill McDonough, Jacob Aguiar ’07 is organizing the scavenger hunt and outreach to local schools, and Sarah Uhl ’07 is the chair of the committee. Many thanks to Megan Boyar ’03 for her endless wise words of advice and her willingness to help us make important contacts with professors, students and members of the community. Look forward to Earth Week 2004!
Freshman Trips
ESD is looking forward to lending a hand in the effort to add an environmental component to Freshman Trips. Some ideas we have put forth include: adding a nature component to the leader training; creating hand-outs for trip leaders and/or trippees related to the New Hampshire environment; purchasing or making light-weight keys for identifying trees and having a contest to see which trip can identify the most different species on their trip; purchasing more food for trips from local producers; inventorying the resources used to make trips successful and publicizing the good things that trips does from an environmental point of view and also thinking about ways where resources could potentially be saved in the future; adding a small, optional fee to the cost of trips to cover future expenses related to making them more environmentally-oriented.
Sustainability Coordinator
Once again, the issue of lack of communication between environmental groups on campus has surfaced. This time, exciting progress is being made. Many groups, including ESD, have come together to form the Environmental Roundtable, a group comprised of representatives from every environmental group on campus, as well as representatives from any other student organizations, faculty members or individual students interested in bringing their interests to the table.
The proposal for a full-time Sustainability Coordinator, put forth this time by Scott Stokoe, (manager of the Dartmouth Organic Farm), has been accepted. Scott also attends Roundtable meetings and it is our hope that with his help we will be able to gain increased recognition from the college and attain meeting space and funding.
Looking Ahead
ESD has done a lot of organizational work during the past two terms, and the coming year will see the fruits of these labors. 2004-2005 will be an exciting time to be affiliated with the club and its events. Our meetings on Thursday nights at 9pm in Robinson 14-15 are open to everyone and we welcome new ideas for activities, trips and themes as we watch the club grow and head in new directions.
Ledyard Canoe Club
In 2003-2004, the Ledyard Canoe Club went boating. A lot. Ledyard paddlers showed their love for whitewater at the local playspots, all up and down the East Coast from Quebec to the Deep South, in the tropics of Costa Rica, and as far away as New Zealand. Despite our significant time commitment to whitewater kayaking, we managed to have a great business year and also to take steps to guarantee a good future for the club.
The year began as always with our flagship Spring Trip to Asheville, North Carolina, where we stayed for ten days of great paddling. The leadership of Eileen Carey ’04 made the trip a success for the twenty-one students and the handful of alumni who joined us. Meanwhile, a second, flatwater spring trip led by Scott Cushman ’03 and Miguel Licona ’03 explored the Florida Everglades.
When we returned to Hanover, there was still plenty of snow on the ground: we hadn’t missed run-off. Having kicked off the season in the sunny south, Ledyard’s advanced paddlers were all warmed up to meet the challenges of Spring creeking in the Asquamchumaukee and Connecticut valleys, and at the New Haven and Mettawee Rivers. We spent plenty of time at our spiritual home, the Wells River, which Jamie Salem ’02 immortalized in a short film available for viewing at the club. Our intermediates were ready to step up to bigger rivers like the Ashuelot, Contoocook and East Branch of the Pemigewasset. Of course, we also took our regular giant day trips to the Dryway and Zoar Gap sections of the Deerfield River, giving our PE students a chance to paddle outside of the Hanover area. Evelyn Mervine ’06 organized an epic Mascoma Slalom, which continued the forty-year tradition of meeting the athletic and logistical challenges of racing in freezing weather in a river with three feet of snow on its banks.
Kim Iwamoto ’03 and Miguel Licona ’03 led a dozen students down the Connecticut on the traditional pilgrimage of Trip to the Sea. Said Licona of the trip, “It was totally rockin’. You missed out big time.”
Over Sophomore Summer ’03, the ’05s proved over and over again that they are a class that loves to kayak. The lack of summer flows in Hanover challenges the creativity of paddlers: the sophomores responded by teaching PE and surfing at Hartlands all week, and then taking off for long distance trips almost every weekend. Mike Holliday ’05, Nate Monnig ’05, Laura Jorgensen ’05, Molly Malone ’05, Nicole Mansfield ’05, Nell Campbell ’05 and others visited the Ottawa River in Ontario twice, the Expo 67 wave in Montreal, the Rapid River in Maine, and the Hole Brothers and Route 3 Wave playspots on the Black River in upstate New York. They were rewarded for their willingness to drive for their water all summer with a huge rainstorm in August, which allowed for rare no-drytop runs of the South Branch of the Asquamchumaukee and the Downtown section of the Mascoma River.
The class of 2005 also garnered some notoriety for their non-whitewater activities, including a memorable Sophomores from the Source trip led by Eben Sargent ’05. A rumor persists — though it is unsubstantiated — that the sophomores this summer may also have raged harder than is currently acceptable at Dartmouth College. Leave it for the historians to debate. The Instruction and Rental programs flourished over the summer. We continued to offer four beginner whitewater kayaking classes, one intermediate class, and a whitewater canoeing class. Thebusiness soared under the guiding hand of David Quaid.
Ledyard proudly fulfilled its traditional duties during DOC Trips, offering whitewater and flatwater canoeing and kayaking trips to incoming Freshmen. Allison Forbes ’04, Andy Hunter ’04, Molly Malone ’05 and Eileen Carey ’04 provided Grant Croo’s unique brand of hospitality to ’07s lucky enough to stay in the Second College Grant.
Even though they were thoroughly exhausted from Trips, Ledyard boaters rarely waste the opportunity to boat presented by a week off from class: between Trips and Fall Term, seven paddlers went on an ambitious Fall Trip to the world famous Gauley River Festival in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Jeff Beardsley ’04, Andy Hunter ’04, George Storm ’04, Allison Forbes ’04, Nikita Dubrovsky ’04, Mike Holliday ’05 and Nicole Mansfield ’05 piled into a van the afternoon of the day Trips ended, and drove all night to Fayetteville. After the usual road trip hijinks involving boat tie-downs and negotiating the trailer through gas station obstacle courses, they made camp in a Wal-Mart parking lot down the street from the festival grounds. The boaters got their rewards. They enjoyed five days of big water classics, like the New River Gorge, and the Upper, Lower and Middle Gauley, and of rubbing elbows with / playing putt-putt against / getting hit on by / extorting free stuff from paddling “royalty”.
During Fall Term, God, pleased with the return of Jolyon Rivoir-Pruszinski ’00 to the Upper Valley, blessed us with plenty of rain, allowing for a fall boating season on par with the spring. There was plenty of water for a strong group of intermediate paddlers to get in enough paddling to carry them through the winter to Spring Trip. There were even enough days of good water to allow for some normally spring-only paddling days, like the vaunted Asquam Valley Triple Crown of Pond Brook, the Upper Asquam and the South Branch of the Asquam, and the low-flow, high-gradient classic, Cold Brook. Other great fall days included a one-day Moose Trip, not for the uncommitted paddler, and speed creeking laps on Pond Brook.
To cap off these three great paddling terms, Mike Holliday ’05 took advantage of the new computer in the office to put together a retrospective movie of Ledyard boating, entitled “Low Life ’03”. Check it out on DVD down at the club and in quality video stores everywhere. Having finished and premiered the movie, Mike fled the country, heading for Costa Rica with Nate Monnig ’05, care of the Davis Kirby Adventure Fund, which continues to provide the spark for adventure that makes Ledyard special. They were joined after four weeks by Allison Forbes ’04, Shannon McCarthy ’04 and Nicole Mansfield ’05, for three more weeks of tropical big water. Meanwhile DKAF also provided the spark to allow three students to include some paddling on academic and work-related trips to New Zealand: Diede Van Lamoen ’05, Molly Malone ’05 and Sadie Marden ’06, as it had done earlier for Shannon McCarthy ’04.
The Board of Directors decided that this year was the year to begin spending the interest on one of our endowments, dog-eared for club improvement, on Ledyard’s physical plant. We began electing a new officer, the Hausmeister, to be in charge of spending each year’s interest on improvements to the club, and to be in charge of general maintenance and cleanliness. This year, Hausmeisters Kelley Connolly ’05, Laura Jorgensen ’05 and Sarah Hughes ’07 presided over renovations of the kitchen and bathrooms, the replacement of furniture in the living room, and the weather-proofing of the front door. We hope this new initiative will give future Ledyardites the resources they need to give our club the care it deserves.
The boating year finished off with ill-advised but spirited efforts to boat in all the calendar months, including a December trip to Quechee Gorge and a January trip to Downtown. After that the Frozen Chickens retreated to the hockey rink and the pool, to fine tune their rolls and flatwater moves in anticipation of another Spring Trip and another great year for Ledyard paddling. May their efforts be rewarded with high water and no 2As that they can’t get out of.
Cohaereamus,
Jeff Beardsley ’04
Dartmouth Ski Patrol
The 2003-2004 Dartmouth Ski Patrol Board of Directors began last spring by questioning ourselves and everyone else about how we could make our club a fundamentally better organization. The skill and commitment level of student patrollers had skyrocketed in the two or three years previous to our assuming command, and the structure of the patrol itself did not adequately reflect or take advantage of this increased quality. After much discussion and debate, we identified several areas that we could improve, including improving relations with our non-student volunteer patrollers, improving training overall, and examining our membership selection process, all in the process of becoming a more professional patrol instead of “just” a student club. We viewed our situation as an opportunity rather than a problem, and people responded with enthusiasm and dedication that kept up throughout the year.
Each one of our goals led to an improvement in patrol. To help with the goal of making our apprentice year a better experience, we added the position of Apprentice Liaison, whose job it is to keep track of and act as a resource for our freshmen from the recruiting process during Orientation until they pass the OEC class at the end of the spring. To facilitate better relations with our non-student volunteers, we added the position of Community Patrol Liaison and made a concerted effort to keep them all better informed about our events and ask them for their input and guidance. Mike Rosenzweig ’06 and Dr. Jim Geiling have respectively done incredible jobs filling those positions for the first time. Perhaps the biggest project we undertook, though, was the writing of our handbook. Starting in June, we began determining and writing down what really makes us tick as a patrol. This process of defining ourselves in terms of being both an NSP-registered patrol and a complex organization of students and community members with all different levels of training really helped us further assess where we’ve been, where we are, and where we could possibly be. In the end, we developed a 33-page document of everything anyone could possibly want to know about patrol, put it through an extensive revision process, and had it published just in time for our all-patrol meeting in January. Many thanks go to Phil Andersen ’05, our new Student Director, for leading the effort, and to the DOC and the Skiway for funding the project. We are treating it as a working document and an updated and hopefully complete version is planned for next year.
Along with our major changes, we also enjoyed success with our usual activities. Thanks to the incredible instructing prowess of our Director, Matt Fulton ’96, and our Training Officer, Mike Lauria ’05, our ’06 class demonstrates exceptional OEC skills. Fall was a very busy time as we actually implemented everything we had planned in the spring. Recruiting went well and we interviewed roughly seventyfreshmen, from which we selected thirty-four to take part in the ’07 apprentice class. We did the usual round of training, including CPR and First Aid for our freshmen, Blood Borne Pathogens, lift evacuation, and a small fall refresher. We also added a CPR instructor course for DSPers and other members of the DOC, which is something the DSP hopes to hold again in future years. In addition to recruiting for our own ranks, we also recruited some freshmen to be “Terrain Park Rangers”, who worked in conjunction with us to maintain the terrain park at the Skiway and alert the Patrol if any skiers happened to become injured. Hopefully this program can continue to grow and improve as our terrain park does the same.
The winter began with our second annual three-day candidate training fest, which we improved tremendously from last year. This was followed by our annual on-hill OEC refresher, which went smoothly and got our freshmen excited about the coming season. In order to ensure things went smoothly, we added the responsibility of “Super-Duper Super” to the Student Assistant Director’s job description. Jesse Cameron-Glickenhaus ’04 held biweekly meetings of our shift supervisors to keep track of them, and through them, track the progress of those on their shifts and how they were keeping up with our newly-devised weekly training protocols. Thanks are due to our team of shift supers for keeping the patrol on track to achieving our goals on a daily basis. The end of the season was marked by the usually painful process of OEC selection, when we were forced to whittle down our group of talented freshmen to fifteen overachievers who show great promise. This was followed by some lively elections and the sorely-needed updating of our bylaws to reflect all that had been achieved during the course of the year, and to leave room for future growth and improvements.
The season was marked by a dearth of snow, the deaths of both topshack heaters due to extreme overuse, and the destruction of our new snowmobile by Student Director Emeritus Eli Diament ’02. Despite this, however, our freshmen were all-stars, our candidates were all eager and able to get vested, and for the first time in its three-year history of the event, the DSP won a skiing-related event at the Dartmouth-Middlebury Patrol Olympics. We took on a lot this year, making it a beta-year of sorts. It was quite a ride for the entire board, to whom I am very thankful for their skill, energy, and support: Student Assistant Director Jesse Cameron-Glickenhaus ’04, Training Officer Mike Lauria ’05, Secretary Claire Chandler ’04, Co-Treasurers Adam Corrado ’05 and Andrew Kintner ’05, Equipment Officer Ben Zabar ’04, Apprentice Liaison Mike Rosenzweig ’06, and Community Patrol Liaison Dr. Jim Geiling. I am proud to hand over my throne and my spare blitz account to Phil Andersen ’05, who was tremendously helpful to me over the course of the year. I have complete confidence that he will lead next year’s Board in continuing the DSP’s march of progress.
Respectfully submitted,
Jessie R. “Skimore” Seymour ’04
Club Reports Unavailable
Boots and Saddles
Spring ’03 - Winter ’04: INACTIVE
Snowboarding Club
Spring ’03 - Winter ’04: INACTIVE
Winter Sports Club
Spring ’03 - Winter ’04: INACTIVE
Women in the Wilderness
Spring ’03 - Winter ’04: INACTIVE
OPO Reports
Educational Programs
Educational Programs provides skill training, outdoor adventures and certification courses to Dartmouth students throughout the year. These programs are designed to improve the skills of DOC leaders and instructors and to get more Dartmouth students outdoors. The courses are taught by students, staff and outside professionals. PE credit is often available. Outdoor Programs continues to find creative ways to keep the cost of these courses low for students; in the ideal world students would not have to pay any additional fees to participate in our programs and courses.
This year we made an effort to offer programs to the graduate and professional students on campus. Many of the graduate programs are on a different calendar of breaks and they often miss out on our current term break programs. This winter we provided a two-day ice climbing program to Tuck Business School students. All Dartmouth Medical School first-year students go through the ropes course at the beginning of each school year, and they spend a night at the Ravine Lodge where they participate in initiatives, small group exercises, dinner, speakers, dancing and hiking.
The Charles Drake and Josh Hane Leadership and Training Room continues to be a welcome addition and is used by the PE climbing classes and for leadership and group development sessions with academic classes, sports teams and social organizations. The outdoor climbing classes continue to be very popular, especially the Lead Climbing Class that uses the Gunks!
We continue to offer interesting term break trips including the winter break Winter Mountaineering Skills Course, and the spring break Quebec Mountain Adventure winter camping trip to northern Quebec.
In addition to the ropes course, Outdoor Programs offers whitewater rafting trips for students and alums. We have excellent equipment, wetsuits, booties and jackets to keep everyone warm and comfortable. During every reunion week we offer rafting, climbing, and mountain biking to reunion classes and their families, as well as traditional hiking opportunities at Mount Moosilauke.
Dartmouth Outdoor Rentals now provides telemark skis, plastic boots, and climbing skins to the Dartmouth community. Snowshoes, both traditional with mukluks for powder snow and modern designs for icy conditions, are available for outings. We have all-new plastic mountaineering boots and will have new crampons and ice axes available for next winter. A new fleet of mountain bikes with suspension were purchased last year.
Brian Kunz, DOC Trainer
Dartmouth Organic Farm
The 2003 growing season continued to build on the previous seven successful growing seasons at the Fullington Farm. Many students, faculty and staff were involved in a wide range of activities and programs at the Dartmouth Organic Farm, ranging from class field trips and academic projects to wonderful outdoor social experiences. And somehow, in between, we managed to grow some healthy, organic produce!
The summer was busy and productive. A number of Environmental Studies classes used the farm for their course work. The biggest addition for the summer was a pilot project incorporating sheep in the agricultural landscape. Although the sheep were very interesting and educational, for a variety of reasons, this pilot project was not continued. The farm also hosted two DOC Trips trips to the farm and sent produce to the Ravine Lodge for Trips dinners.
A new opportunity presented itself to the farm, in the fall. One of the Tucker Foundation’s service learning trips has been sending Dartmouth undergraduates to Nicaragua to help out with a variety of work projects in rural communities. A recent focus has been sustainable agriculture, with groups helping to plant crops and create gardens. The Dartmouth Organic Farm was able to help with the preparation and training of the agriculture team. Heading up that team was student-farmer Anna Fleder ’04.
Usually, the wintertime is relatively relaxed with time being spent on crop rotations and seed orders. But this winter, the farm program undertook a major re-organization to create a more “student-led” organizational structure. Committees and chairpersonships were created and students stepped forward to take on greater leadership and responsibility. It is hoped that this will allow students to become more intimately involved with the operation. John Nixon ’04 headed up the maple-sugaring project this winter interim. Due to his hard work and one of New Hampshire’s best sugaring seasons on record, we were able to produce our largest quantity of syrup to date!
This spring season brings a number of new opportunities for the farm. Thanks to a generous gift from the McBride family, we will be installing a brand new blueberry and raspberry plot at the farm. This gift has allowed us to make our first crop expansion since the farm started in 1996 and provide our first perennial agricultural system. The McBride gift was so generous that it will also allow us to purchase and install a “state-of-the-art” drip irrigation system in some of our plots this summer. This installation represents the first step in a larger proposed project to install a solar powered drip irrigation system at the farm.
The most recent news concerning the farm is that a very important initiative, spearheaded by the local agency Vital Communities, in collaboration with Dartmouth College and the Dartmouth Organic Farm, has just received funding for a two year pilot project to help the college begin to buy more of its food from local farmers and producers. We look forward to working with Lisa Johnson of Vital Communities and Dartmouth intern Dan Bailin ’05, ENVS 25 participant, in the exciting and important venture.
Scott Stokoe, Farm Manager
