Students embrace subzero climate
Some Hillsdalians choose outdoor activity over cabin fever
Morgan Schneider
Issue date: 1/22/09 Section: Sports
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Though the trends have changed slightly through the years, given the right conditions, Hillsdale students will eagerly don winter gear for ice skating, and some professors are still known to lead full-blown snowball sieges on unsuspecting fellow college administrators.
And students will drag anything - sleds, boxes, mattresses - to the best slopes on- or off-campus for sledding and sliding.
Lake effect
Back in 1970s, Hillsdale students would lace up their ice skates and converge on the smooth ice of Lake Baw Beese. Carol Morley Beck '77, and her girlfriends would bundle up and head out for an afternoon of skating.
"Baw Beese had frozen almost completely solid," Beck said. "You could see the bottom of the lake, the stones, the little plants, the sand."
Conditions to skate on the lake have to be just right - limited wind during the freezing process so there would be few ripples on the surface and preferably little snow to cover the ice. January 1975, Beck said, was perfect for skating on Baw Beese.
"The fish would dart around and come back as we skated," Beck said. "The ice was crystal clear and smooth…it's one of the things I remember best about Hillsdale - it's in my Top 10 memories from college."
Nowadays, determined ice fishermen are more likely to be seen occupying the lake's frozen surface than ice skaters. Beck said the popularity of the college's hockey team (now defunct) likely influenced students' outdoor ice skating trend.
'Too much snow'
This year's heavy winter snows in southeastern Michigan have meant one thing - the potential for plenty of sledding.
"This year, there has been too much snow, actually," sophomore Nick Nestorak said. "I didn't think I'd ever say that, but it has to be padded down for the best sledding."
Nick, who lives at home outside the city, and his sister Renee, who is a junior, have a renowned sledding spot on their family's property.
"People think sledding is lame - but not at our house," Renee said.
The long, fast downhill stretch is the product of the Nestoraks' careful preparation and planning. After Thanksgiving, Nick widened the path and took a push mower to the 3-foot-tall weeds that prickled the hill, and several friends help dig out a large rock that obscured the route.
"It's not the perfect hill," Renee said.
It has two sledding paths - a beginner's side and a more advanced way. Nick said those on the advanced side have to take care not to slide into other hazards too, such as trees or barbed wire fencing.
"We're working on it, though," Nick said. "[The barbed wire] won't be there next year."
Sled with caution
Before Saga, Inc., made the switch to tray-free dining at the Knorr Family Dining Room, sneaky students would swipe plastic trays as impromptu sleds around campus.
Now, though, they take cardboard boxes, toboggans and even mattresses to their favorite spots. Perhaps the most popular on-campus sledding area is the slopes by the basketball courts, near the Roche Sports Complex.
But the fencing surrounding the courts at the bottom, though, might also mean it ranks among the most dangerous sledding spots on campus.
In December, senior Tara Reiner, her fiancé and friends took saucer sleds to the slope. She spun out of control and struck a pole at the base of the hill.
"They said it sounded like a metal baseball bat hitting a ball," Reiner said. "I saw a bright flash of light."
It took 12 stitches to close the 3-inch wound, a gash that luckily didn't damage her eye.
Reiner said she will go sledding again, but not in those conditions - the snow was "really icy and really packed down - the perfect conditions for sledding."
Her friends still sled there, Reiner said, and she's seen plenty of others having fun on the slopes.
"But really, it's kind of a disaster waiting to happen," she said.
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