McGill Winter Meet

Last weekend – last weekend in January in the good new year of 2007 – 18 of us intrepid Dartmouth Woodsmen headed up to the far reaches of Quebec to participate in the Winter Woodsmens Meet at McGill University. After getting lost for about an hour on the winding highways, interestates, on- and off-ramps in the outskirts of Montreal, we finally arrived.  We sent one men’s team, one women’s team, and one jack and jill (coed) team. Twas a cold day that Saturday morning. The temperature hung around 0 degrees fahrenheit, but with a five mile per hour breeze on top of that. So while it wasn’t that shell-shock type cold, it was the get-down-to-your-bones cold as you stay outside for hours on end.

So we did the normal events for a normal Woodsmens meet, and I have a few pictures from various things here and there.

Pulp Toss – take these probably 20-30 pound pieces of hardwood and throw them 14 feet and try to get them between these two sticks in the ground. Fun times – t’was heavy pulp, but then frozen ground facilitated sliding nicely.

Log Decking – take an incredibly heavy piece of tree and try to get it up this steep ramp using only your peevee – this logging tool. We got ‘er done, but ooh boy was my back sore the next day.

Single Buck – a singles event, not all of us did it. Take your crosscut saw, minus one side’s handle, and cut through a damn big piece of tree. Good times.

Chainsaw – ME! – this is basically speed and accuracy. Make a half cut from the button and then a half cut from the top. Have them meet in the middle, but for ever 1/4 inch you’re off, be penalized 3 seconds. Luckily, I wasn’t penalized and ended up getting 4th in the event.

H-Chop – A fellow Dartmouth Woodsmen getting a h-chop ready. Then you stand on it and chop it out beneath you.

Firebuild – watching the judge waiting for the go signal.

Firebuild – a leftover fire from a previous firebuilder in the foreground, with Dartmouth’s women’s firebuilder in the background.

Indeed indeed, gotta love the good cheer.

V-chop stantion not yet pounded in. The stantions weren’t all that great, but sure looked gnarly.
Yep, and that’s it for the Winter Meet at McGill. Of course plenty of stories, but here’s not the place.