Not Your Ordinary Winter Carnival: Carleton Students Blow Off Steam With Spicy Chili, Frozen Steaks and Human Bowling

For students in rural Minnesota in the dead of winter, one might think the options for fun are limited to the indoors, or at least to traditional outdoor sports like hockey or skiing. Not so at Carleton College, where students will exit their cozy dorm rooms this weekend for some imaginative fun in the ice and snow at the College’s Winter Carnival, a tradition that dates back to the 1930s.

The weekend kicks off with a chance to get warm on the inside, with the 12th annual Chili Challenge at noon on Friday, Feb. 4. Sponsored by the
College’s Sodexho-Marriott food service, the Challenge pits contestants against their own stomachs as they try to down four bowls of chili, with
each bowl spicier than the last. Water is provided, and it is considered legal for contestants to bring milk or other beverages to cut down on
indigestion. About 90 percent of the participants are male, so dares calling for swallowing the entire bowl of chili in one gulp are commonplace.
The weak-stomached form an audience to cheer on their friends, and to provide such necessities as napkins, breath mints, and antacids. The prize
for such intestinal fortitude? A t-shirt, which apparently is enough incentive for this crowd.

Exit 69, a student a cappella singing group that takes its name from the freeway exit number for Northfield off Interstate 35, will perform with the
Harriers, an improvisational comedy group, at 8 p.m. Friday in the Concert Hall.

Early on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 5, students turn out in droves for an ice sculpting contest on the lawn of Skinner Memorial Chapel. Two
professional ice sculptors, fresh from the St. Paul Winter Carnival, emonstrate this delicate skill and provide each of 20 teams with a block of ice nd set of tools, including a saw, chisel, and ice pick. The experts supervise the four-hour contest, and in the interest of safety, make any chain saw ce cuts that the students request. In the 1999 contest, students without any previous ice sculpting skills produced a train, a gargoyle, a dragon, and he eventual prize-winner, a life-like human foot on a pedestal.

“The secret is to take your time and plan out your sculpture,” said Melissa Vanlandingham, chair of the Social Programming Board, a student group
which is responsible for organizing the weekend’s events. “You really don’t have to be that artistic.”

The Raw Meat Challenge is next on the list of events. A tradition that goes back far enough for people not to remember why it started in the first
place, this Challenge involves participants playing the schoolyard game “Capture the Flag,” but with one fundamental difference: the object each
team is trying to capture is a frozen steak. In the event of accidental njuries like bumps, bruises, or black eyes, perhaps the “flag” could serve a
dual purpose as a cold compress.

Also on Saturday afternoon, students can try their hand at Human Bowling. A downhill “alley” is set up on the Hill of Three Oaks northeast of campus. As “bowling balls,” students in inner tubes aim themselves down the hill at the “pins,” those bottom-weighted blow-up punching bags that pop back up when you hit them, arranged in triangle formation. Score is kept based on how many pins the human bowling ball takes out.

For those students more suited to traditional activities (and staying indoors), the Winter Carnival offers up Mid-Winter Ball at 9 p.m. on Saturday evening. Dressed in their finest attire, students roam around three dance floors set up in Sayles-Hill Student Center, fox-trotting, swinging, or hip-hopping–whatever their pleasure. No date required.