Most Dartmouth students start their association with the College through the largest student organization on campus -- the Dartmouth Outing Club.
Freshmen who signed up for the DOC Trips will begin their Dartmouth life as a "trippee" and enjoy their first glimpse of Dartmouth while getting to know one another in the wilderness of New Hampshire.
The club of clubs
The DOC was founded in 1909 by a small group of students determined to turn the cold winter months in snowy Hanover into a period of enjoyment in the outdoors. Today the DOC has grown to encompass a wide range of outdoor activities.
The DOC has almost one-third of the Dartmouth student body as members, according to DOC Freshman Trips Director Chris Carbone '97. Undergraduate membership is around 1,200 with more than 300 active members.
Different departments of the DOC include Bait and Bullet, Biathlon Club, Boots and Saddles, Cabin and Trail, Environmental Studies Division, Dartmouth Mountaineering Club, Ledyard Canoe Club, Ski Patrol, Snowboarding Club, Winter Sports Club and Women in the Wilderness.
Bait and Bullet is involved with hunting and fly fishing or ice fishing depending on the season. The club also runs seminars on fly tying and hunter safety.
Active year-round, the Biathlon Club is the first collegiate biathlon club in the United States. It has permanent outdoor and indoor ranges.
Boots and Saddles is a club for people who like to ride horseback. It is closely associated with the College equestrian team and is based at Morton Farm, the College riding center. The club sponsors trail rides, volunteer work at local horse shows and evening programs.
Cabin and Trail is responsible for the maintenance of 70 miles of Appalachian Trail, 50 miles of side trails, nine cabins and nine shelters. It sponsors year-round trips ranging from hiking to back country skiing.
The Environmental Studies Division assembles trips, lectures and projects related to modern environmental issues.
The Dartmouth Mountaineering Club sponsors rock climbing and ice climbing around Hanover and the world. The DMC plans trips to take advantage of New England's peaks and cliffs as well as Dartmouth's own indoor climbing gym, the Jonathan Belden Daniels Memorial Climbing Gym, located in the basement of Maxwell residence hall.
The Ledyard Canoe Club offers canoeing and kayaking instruction, rents equipment and leads trips throughout the Northeast and Canada for all levels of paddlers. The club also runs a student program in whitewater and flatwater competition. The club owns a large, well-equipped dock on the Connecticut River near Ledyard bridge.
The Ski Patrol provides courses to certify patrollers and is responsible for the winter patrols on the Dartmouth Skiway.
The Snowboarding Club promotes recreational and competitive snowboarding and organizes trips to local mountains and clinics at the Dartmouth Skiway.
The historical foundation of the entire DOC, the Winter Sports Club is for people who like winter sports -- especially skiing. This branch of the DOC used to have a large part in planning and arranging the Dartmouth Winter Carnival.
Women in the Wilderness, one of the newest programs within the DOC, was started several years ago to encourage participation and leadership by women in the club through activities in the outdoors.
Roughing it
Almost 1,000 members of the Class of 2000 will leave their hometowns behind in early September to experience New Hampshire's wilderness while meeting other students.
A detailed list of required items for the wilderness is sent home with each freshman. Freshman Trips Assistant Director Elizabeth Gerber '98 has another recommendation: pack sparingly -- and warmly.
"Bring good shoes," she said. "And come in with an open mind. The DOC trips have to be one of the best all-inclusive organizations on the campus."
The DOC has been working all summer preparing for the arrival of the '00's, Gerber said.
"They will have the best time of their Dartmouth careers in the first week," she said.
The DOC offers eight different trip alternatives and nine sections of trips starting Sept. 5 and ending Sept. 18, Carbone said.
This year the new members of the Dartmouth community can choose between canoeing, climbing, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, kayaking, mountain biking, and an all new trip: organic farming.
"Organic farming is a new trip added this year," Gerber said. "They will be going to the Dartmouth Organic Farm and doing organic farming. This is a more relaxed alternative trip added so that more people may participate."
The DOC will be working hard for the next few weeks matching incoming freshmen with their trip choices and sections, Gerber said.
"We are using a computer this year so that makes it easier," she said.
No experience is necessary for any of the trips. Some students who do not choose to hike will be placed in the hiking sections due to the lesser availability of other trips.
Within the hiking sections, there are five different levels of difficulty to accommodate participants' varying abilities. Students can select between leisurely trips which consist of day-hikes and nighttime rest in cabins. The moderate section is the most popular although the tougher and more adventurous may choose the advanced trip sections.
Trips range in size from five to 15 freshmen and are led by one or two upperclassmen trip leaders.
A group of 180 leaders have been undergoing trip training throughout the Spring and Summer terms, Gerber said.
"We have two workshops during [Spring] term," she said. "One covers 'hard' skills and one covers 'soft' skills."
The hard skills workshop is entitled Leader Training Risk Assessment and the soft skills workshop is Leader Training Group Dynamics.
"Students come in with preconceived notions about Dartmouth," Gerber said. "They meet [the trip leaders] and think [the leaders] are representative of Dartmouth. You have to know how to reasonably deal with these things."
All trip leaders are CPR certified and have taken courses in basic first aid, Gerber said.
"They are going to be excellent, without a doubt," she said. "All the people working here are superb people with a lot of energy and excitement to share with the 'naughts coming up."
Freshmen will arrive on campus the night before their trips begin to be greeted by their trip leaders and led on a brief tour of the campus.
Social activities will begin in the grassy Bema area, then the trip leaders will escort their trippees to Alumni Gymnasium. At the gym, most freshmen will complete the first graduation requirement of their Dartmouth careers, the mandatory 50-yard swim test.
After some more bonding, a night's rest and a quick breakfast, the trips will begin early the next morning. Civilization and life at home will quickly fade into the mist as trippees are enveloped in the scenic wonders of the outdoors.
Depending on the trip, students will sleep either in DOC-owned cabins or under the stars. Campfires, storytelling, the singing of the Alma Mater, and the massaging of weary trip-worn bones become commonplace by the end of the trip.
After two nights and three days of the outdoors, all of the different trips in the same sections will meet at the College-owned Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, located at the base of 4,800-foot Mt. Moosilauke, 42 miles northeast of Dartmouth.
The events at the Lodge are a well-kept secret from incoming freshmen here at Dartmouth -- even this paper shall not divulge too much information about the night at the Lodge -- but an experience well-worth enjoying.
