By Carroll students took to Guad Hill Friday, Jan. 19, aboard inflatable rafts in what has become a popular Carroll College tradition, hosted by the Carroll Adventure and Mountaineering Program (CAMP).
The tradition got its start three years ago when Liam Lynch, a new CAMP leader at the time, pitched the idea at a brainstorming meeting.
“Initially I got some weird looks, and then we started talking about the details and everyone agreed it would be a blast. Within a few weeks we were out there with a group of 40-50 students having an awesome time,” said Lynch.
It’s since become a Carroll tradition.
“It’s just a random fun thing that we got at Carroll,” said Luke Ostberg, a junior from Fairfield, Montana, double majoring in catholic studies and philosophy.
Amk Tekverk, a senior from Ogden, Utah, studying biochemistry and catholic studies, agreed saying, “I really enjoy it because you can go down with all your friends.”
However, this year’s raft sledding event got more mixed reviews. Some had positive things to say, like Josie Gale, a junior from Minneapolis majoring in biology, who thought it was fun.
“It is something I have never done before and it[sic] did it with a lot of my good friends,” Gale said. “It was a good activity to start the Spring semester!”
Others were less impressed.
“[It’s] honestly pretty overrated, you get in this massive raft that goes down the hill. Then you have to cart it up each time. You can go faster on a much lighter sled,” said Nolan Forseth, a freshman, from Fairfield, Montana with an undecided major.
The weather and snow conditions may have been a factor.
“This year we got some extremely cold weather, which definitely impacted our turn out and sledding conditions,” Lynch said. “We did not get as many students as we did in previous years, likely because it was about ten degrees outside. This also made the sledding a bit slower because the snow was so frozen we didn’t have the slippery conditions we would have liked.
“Overall we still had a fantastic time!”
Retrieving the rafts also was different this year.
Lynch said last year they had the idea of making a pulley system for the rafts to pull them back up the hill.
“We chose not to do that this year because last year the students did not help as much in bringing the rafts up,” Lynch said. “To make it easier on the CAMP leaders we went back to having the riders carry it back up.”
Brad Maddock, director of Campus Recreation, added that they try to avoid jumps, which can send people flying.
“Six people banging into each other after a jump is a bad combo,” Maddock said. “But a smooth run down the hill is probably safer than walking down Guad hill after class.”
In the interest of safety, CAMP also limits rafts to six people, briefs passengers on risks, trains their leaders in first aid, and keeps a first aid kit on hand.
CAMP plans to continue this tradition and host another raft sledding event later in the semester. “Since it’s such a popular event and we have so many graduating CAMP leaders we want to have one last hurrah at one of our favorite events,” Lynch said. “In the future we may include hot chocolate or even bring back the pulley system.”
