Sam Evans-Brown ’09 completes a breakout weekend with his second consecutive fifth-place finish in the Bates Winter Carnival. In March, Bates hosts the 2009 NCAA National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championships and partners with two of Maine’s outstanding skiing venues: Sunday River in Bethel and Black Mountain in Rumford. [More...]

The Bates carnival, second only to Dartmouth’s as the nation’s oldest such festival, will continue through Jan. 21.

Among the activities planned for this year’s carnival are winter sports contests, a skating party, concerts and a snow sculpture competition.

The festivities begin on on the steps of the Statehouse in Augusta, where Senate President Jeffrey Butland, a 1973 Bates graduate, lights the ceremonial Winter Carnival torch. The torch is then carried by relays of Bates students to the campus and used to ignite a bonfire next to Lake Andrews.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, students will take part in the annual “traying” races, sliding down Mount David on standard cafeteria trays.

Saturday’s events include the “Winter Olympics” of such oddball events as three-legged snowshoe races, the cross-country ski throw and judging of student-built snow sculptures. All are scheduled for noon. Jazz and rock concerts are planned for the evening.

The Bates Winter Carnival is sponsored by the college’s Outing Club, celebrating it’s 75th anniversary, and the Chase Hall Committee.