Short Skis

Title: Short Skis

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

The informant is a female who is a ski patroller at Dartmouth College. She wishes to remain anonymous.

Contextual Data:

There are several items of gear that are passed down through the team from year to year and have a sort of prestige. One of these items in a pair of short skis.

Item:

The short skis are passed down from class to class to the best skier in the group. They are basically a set of trick skis, but are never actually used on the mountain. There is a legend that they were once used and there was a very bad accident on the Skiway. Therefore, they are now just a glorified trophy for the best skier in each class to protect and pass down the next year.

Transcript:

“There’s a pair of short skis that are passed down each spring. They apparently used to have to be used, but one year the day they were used we had a really bad accident so now people think they’re bad luck. But we still have to pass them down to the best skier, so now the skis are supposed to be safeguarded by that person until they pass them on. It’s kind of stressful really, but a really big deal if you get them.”

Informant’s Comments:

The skis are a really prestigious thing to receive, but also are “cursed”. So this is a complicated gift to receive, but overall worth it.

Collector’s Comments:

These skis are an interesting piece of folklore both for their meaning and the legend attached to them. They stand for something very prestigious: being the best skier on a team of some of the best skiers at Dartmouth (excluding the actual ski team, of course). This in and of itself is an interesting ritual as the team basically names a person as the best each year. Then, there is the legend. This tragic event is talked about by the informant and the team, but no one actually seems to know what happened. All they know is the skis cannot be used. This juxtaposition of meaning is incredibly interesting to me. It seems like almost a way to temper naming someone the best skier in the group by giving them something that is attached to a pseudo-curse. This may speak to the close nature of the group, and not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings while maintaining the tradition of handing down the skis.

Collector’s Name: Lindsay Pitt

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive