On July 12, 32 students set out to hike the Dartmouth Outing Club Fifty, a 106-year-old College tradition in which students hike 54 miles from the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge to Robinson Hall. According to summer co-director Kenna Franzblau ’26, 28 of the 32 students completed the hike — and those who finished did so at an unusually fast pace, averaging about 27 hours compared to the typical more than 30.
According to co-director Ben Shaman ’26, 80 students worked to support the hikers, providing them with food, water, first-aid and morale in the tradition that is, for many, a highlight of sophomore summer. The students were split into eight support groups.
To many students, there is something remarkably “Dartmouth” about the Fifty. Participant Ella Klinsky ’26 said she decided to partake in the tradition because of its uniqueness.
“My teammate Asa and I were sitting in my room after the Fifty meeting in the fall, and we just thought about how it’s one of those Dartmouth traditions that you can only possibly do here,” Klinksy said. “Never in my life again would I hike 50 miles. And so we were sitting there talking about it.”
According to Klinsky, the two recruited two more friends to form the required four-person team soon after. In order to hike the Fifty, a team must enter the lottery all together, and then a random number generator is used to determine the teams that get to hike. Supporting the Fifty gives a potential hiker “points,” which give their team more weight in the lottery for future terms.
“We supported in the fall all together, with hopes of winning the lottery,” Klinsky said. “And then we did.”
Thomas Hohmann ’26 said the Fifty was on his bucket list before he finally decided to sign up.
“It’s always been something that I have wanted to do — one of those bucket list things — but it was a last minute decision to do it, just because I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out this summer,” Hohmann said. “But I had friends who were encouraging me to do it, and they needed another one for their team.”
Many supporters of the Fifty aim to hike it themselves. Franzblau said that she chose to direct in part to guarantee a spot in a future lottery.
“I think it’s a really special event, so it was really cool to be so involved even a step up from just supporting,” Franzblau said. “Also, to be super transparent, one of the only ways to be guaranteed a spot hiking the Fifty is if you direct the Fifty. You get an auto bid in the lottery system. So that was also definitely a draw for me. I am planning on doing it senior fall.”
Bea Sears ’26 said that she initially signed up to hike but did not get chosen in the lottery, leading her to join one of the hiker support groups.
“It seemed like a fun opportunity to be involved even though I wasn’t hiking, and [it] would make it easier to do it in future terms,” she said.
According to Franzblau, this summer’s hikers moved faster than anticipated: the fastest group finished in fewer than 24 hours, while the slowest group completed in fewer than 30 hours. In past terms, teams have typically taken up to 36 hours.
“I’m not sure why,” Franzblau said. “I would guess that we just had well-prepared and fast teams.”
Sears said her support time got pushed up because of how fast the hikers were finishing.
“It was supposed to be 2:30 to 9 p.m., but it ended up being 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. because everyone was really fast this year, so we got called in earlier,” she said.
For hikers, the support groups were an invaluable source of motivation, according to Hohmann and Klinsky.
“Honestly, I don’t know if mentally I could have done it without the support groups,” Hohmann said. “When you’re hiking you just focus on getting to the next support station and you just look at it as one 8 to 10 mile hike and then you do another 8 to 10 mile hike.”
Klinsky also emphasized the role the support groups played in uplifting her mentality. Like Hohmann, she found herself splitting the hike into eight mile sections between the support stations.
“The support groups made my whole entire life,” Klinsky said. “I was obsessed. Everyone was so sweet. It wasn’t even just about getting the food… Even if all that stuff had been there and they hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have finished.”
Hohmann said the Fifty required weeks of preparation, which included hiking practice with his team and rest in the days immediately before the event.
“We went out as a team and hiked several of the sections leading up to the Fifty,” Hohmann said. “We practiced with the gear we would be wearing on the Fifty, like our hiking boots and our backpacks. We also paid attention to what pace we were setting in our practices, making sure it was fast enough. But then the week of it we went on one less hike or run and then really stopped exercising for the last two or three days. Then we made sure we were eating and drinking a lot of water and electrolytes.”
For Hohmann and Klinsky, the hike felt good in the beginning, but became much more mentally and physically challenging by nightfall. Klinksy said they were cruising up until Smarts Mountain, which hikers reach at roughly 30 miles, before slowing down when faced with darkness and rain.
“It was really steep and rocky,” Klinsky said. “We were going like one mile an hour, just getting frustrated with ourselves, so that was probably my low.”
Hohmann described a similar nighttime experience, adding that the possibility of injury became a concern.
“We had to go really slow on the downhill because we didn’t want to fall and get injured because that is the one thing that means that you’re out,” he said.
Franzblau added that directing the Fifty over sophomore summer was a “special” experience.
“The Fifty is a school-wide event but it was all sophomores who were volunteering and hiking,” she said. “It was extra special that I knew most of the people involved. It was really fun to hype them up and work with them and to just be a part of this great event.”
