Many students said that the snow enhanced their weekend, especially since the last-minute blanket was critical to success of events, including the human dog sled race on Saturday afternoon and sledding events on the Hanover Country Club golf course, Carnival co-chair Michael Perlstein '14 said.
The race drew large crowds of student participants and observers, as well as spectators from the Hanover community. In total, 45 teams competed.
"People got really into the flair and the competition and seemed to be having a good time," Perlstein said.
Some snow-related events scheduled for Thursday afternoon, including the Carni Classic, a three-kilometer cross-country ski race on the golf course, and the student snow sculpture building contest, were still canceled, because the snow did not arrive soon enough for them to take place.
The Winter Carnival council was unable to reschedule events for later in the weekend because of other scheduled events and an inability to properly advertise the change, co-chair Mandy Bowers '14 said.
"Planning is always a risk we have to take when we're relying on the weather gods to deliver us," Bowers said.
The weekend's snowfall contributed to a quiet weekend, with four Good Samaritan calls and two cases of alleged assault, according to Safety and Security director Harry Kinne. These numbers were much lower than previous Carnivals and other big weekends like Homecoming and Green Key, he said. Most reports directed to Safety and Security were related to lost jackets and ice-related falls.
The first call regarding assault involved a confrontation between an undergraduate male student and a male alumnus in the basement of Sigma Delta sorority early in the morning on Feb. 9, Kinne said. Safety and Security was able to locate the individual who had started the fight walking on South Main Street and Hanover Police Department helped respond. The second call relating to assault resulted from a "pushing match" between two female students that occurred in Sarner Underground during the afternoon on Feb. 9, Kinne said. Kinne said he did not believe either incident resulted in arrest.
Minami Hayashi '16, an exchange student from Japan, said she especially enjoyed the 99-cent ski day on Feb. 1,
"The snow during Winter Carnival will probably remain as one of the highlights of my Dartmouth experience," she said.
Chi Shing Chan '13, however, said he was disappointed that there were no fireworks at the Carnival's opening ceremony on Thursday evening and that the Baker-Library Tower tours scheduled for Saturday and Sunday were canceled.
Seo Yeon Song 13 said she typically does not participate in official Carnival events, but was pleased by the snowfall nonetheless.
"For me, Winter Carnival is mostly a time of relaxing with friends, so I didn't mind events being canceled," she said. "But I was rather glad that the snow came when it did so that I could go skating and skiing."
Some popular events not contingent upon snow, such as the Polar Bear Swim and indoor activities like the Sock Hand Puppet workshop and the Carnival Ball, had high turnout rates. The snow helped to balance the number of events that took place outside and inside.
Perlstein said he was especially pleased with the community's participation in the arts and crafts activities.
Many students planning to visit campus for Carnival weekend were unable to make the trip because of flight and Dartmouth Coach cancellations. The coach suspended all services after 11 a.m. on Friday and all day Saturday, said Krystal Caney, a ticket agent at Dartmouth Coach in Hanover.
Athletic events for the weekend were canceled as well, including a men's and women's track meet scheduled for Friday and Saturday. The meet was the last scheduled meet before the Ivy League Heptagonals Championship on Feb. 23 and 24.
In order to compete, the team scheduled inter-squad races at Leverone Field House instead, Kaitlin McCallum '16 said.
The snow arrived too late to augment the annual snow sculpture, which was supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf facing each other in the center of the Green. "It's not very good packing snow for sculpture building anyway," said Bowers.
With past years' Carnivals characterized by high temperatures and no snowfall, this year's weather was a welcome change.
The snow "really helped bring more of the winter out of Winter Carnival," Kevin Xiao '13 said.
