While many other schools that the Dartmouth Woodsmen's Team competes with have Forestry as a varsity sport and hold tryouts, our club team is different. At Dartmouth, we are far more serious than that. We won't take just anyone on the team. There is a minimum biceps measurement of 37" (25" for the guys) as well as a rigorous psychological exam to be sure the person can handle the intense pressure of intercollegiate woodsmen's competition. Well, really we'll take anyone at all, especially if they are silly. Intense practice at Oak Hill and fierce competition help mold teams into formidable wood-chopping machines every year.

Newcomers are always welcome! Send an e-mail to Cabin.And.Trail@dartmouth.edu to learn about practice times.

 

Forestry. Ugh! The rallying grunt of the Dartmouth Woodsmen's Teams echo from scenic Canadaigua, NY, to the suburban jungles of Montreal. From the arid plains of Durham, NH to the whispering pines of Oak Hill in Hanover comes the thrilling ring and crunch of the keen axes as they bite into the peeled and glistening wood. Forgive these adjective-laden reveries, but to me Forestry will always be a blur of impressions, a bosky collage of sights and sounds. The glint of the sun on the razor teeth of a salmon-spotted crosscut saw, the smell of fresh-cut wood, the tautness of muscles after a good practice: these are the things that come to mind as I think back over my years with forestry. But over and above all this I remember the people, the camaraderie that exists as in no other sport. Half the fun of a forestry meet lies in cheering on your team-mates, in screaming yourself hoarse to encourage someone to keep going even though their arms burn and tremble. "You're not tired!" and "Breathe!" are some of the commands that burst forth from the lips of your comrades as you stand on top of an eight inch thick block of poplar thinking you will never break through. Then your axe severs the last fibers and you collapse, surrounded by a whooping and hooting circle of friends.

- David Hastings '00