This weekend, Jan. 31 through Feb. 2, students will flock to the slopes of Keystone in an historic DU tradition, Winter Carnival. The first Winter Carnival was held in 1961, thus the 2014 event celebrates its 53rd year as a part of campus culture.
The Legacy of Winter Carnival
Winter Carnival has evolved throughout half-century-and-change of its existence; its location has changed several times since the inaugural event. It has been held at Winter Park, Keystone and Steamboat Springs, as well as Crested Butte. In the 1980s, the event was sponsored several times by the Budweiser Beer Company, which meant that students and parties were often provided free kegs of 3.2 percent ABV beer, which was legal for people above the age of 18 to drink in Colorado at that time.
“Budweiser was our sponsor, and they served all the beer all the time. We had crazy amounts of beer and refreshments,” said David Thompson, who graduated from DU in 1986.
Thompson was part of the Winter Carnival organizing committee in the 1980s and was president of the committee for two years. He attended every Winter Carnival from 1983-1986. His vision of the event was to bring as many people to the mountains as possible.
“I was … immersed in trying to get 1000 people to the slopes,” Thompson said, adding that at that time, the event was almost entirely run by the students.
University Historian Steve Fisher wrote in a 2011 article that the first Winter Carnival was sponsored by the Pioneer Ski Club and was held on Friday the 13th.
According to Fisher, activities that used to take place before Winter Carnival in the on-campus pre-celebration included the crowning of a “Snow Queen.” On-mountain activities at previous Winter Carnivals have included barbecues, snow sculpture making contests and entertainment, including comedians.
Gene Lake, who graduated from DU in 1978, shared insight into a scary incident that occurred while at Winter Carnival in 1972. That year, the event was held at Steamboat Springs, which was a six-hour drive from DU, according to Lake.
“On Sunday, we were in a gondola, and the gondola came off the tracks,” said Lake.
“It was really windy. Two gondola cars in front of us actually flipped off the cable and fell onto the ground,” said Lake. He and the other skiers stranded in the gondola did not leave the mountain until around 4:30 p.m. that evening, after sunset, when they were carried down by a snowcat.
Lake also said that famed comedian George Carlin was the entertainment for that weekend’s festivity.
Christine Neuens, who graduated in 1988, served on the committee that planned Winter Carnival for three years; she attended the 1985-1988 Winter Carnivals, the last of which was held in Crested Butte, Colo. and saw 1,200 skiers, according to Neuens.
“Not many schools have an annual event where students, faculty and administrators all ski and have fun together in the mountains for a weekend,” said Neuens.
Winter Carnival today
According to Fisher, attendance at Winter Carnival dropped during the years of the Great Recession, starting in about 2008. Subsequently, DU Programming Board (DUPB) Traditions Co-Chair Neda Kikhia says that enrollment has increased recently.
“Last year was really instrumental. Our numbers increased so much from previous years. Last year we had at least 1000 [in attendance],” said Kikhia. She also explained how this year’s tradition differs from various years in some degrees: Alumni, graduate students and a wider array of community members will also be invited to the festivities.
“The biggest difference is that Winter Carnival has always been open to the DU community, but this year we’ve tried to get graduate students involved, parents and alums and the community as well,” said Kikhia.
According to Kikhia, $10,000 was available to undergraduate students in the form of scholarships to the event.
“We only subsidize the undergrads, but discount from Keystone help everyone from the community,” she said.
In addition to on-mountain events, there have also been on-campus components to this year’s Winter Carnival, such as the “Cereal Bar,” a free-cereal station on Driscoll Bridge, as well as a chili cookoff on Jan. 28 in the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management building.
The future of Winter Carnival
Kikhia has big ideas for the future of Winter Carnival.
“DUPB is always looking for ways to make [our events] more inclusive for the student body,” she said, adding that DUPB tries to create, “cool events that students genuinely want to go to.”
Winter Carnival is certainly an experience unique to DU and one that enables us to take advantage of the close by mountains and free time many of us enjoy as students before entering the professional world.
For future Winter Carnivals, Thompson said he would like to see students go to more remote skiing or snowboarding destinations, such as Crested Butte.
“It’s cool to get away to somewhere with nothing around,” said Thompson.
Thompson said many students viewed Winter Carnival as a highlight of their time as a Pioneer.
“I’d say that Winter Carnival was the highlight for most people’s experience at DU,” said Thompson.
