A Rare View

The Prevel cupola, from the outside, is an intriguing structure.

Inside, the view is great, but the state of cleanliness (along with rumors that it’s haunted) do not support an extended stay. We’ve installed a cupola webcam to track progress of the Pomerleau Alumni Center construction between Prevel and the observatory. The alumni center foundation is pictured below, through the original wavy glass.

Rail Jam

Last Friday, Saint Michael’s skiers and boarders were in the 300′s field assembling the site of the 2008 rail jam. For those who don’t know, that’s where people voluntarily slide down a short ski jump toward a railing or other improbable structure in order to ski or snowboard along it, do tricks and land safely at the other end.

A rail jam requires scaffolding, piles of snow (of which there were only two), railings and a large, nicely painted triangular object. These people were racing against time to make it happen Friday; Saturday’s forecast called for unseasonal, monsoonal rains.

Once the railjam is over and the wounded have been properly cared for, the producers of the event put together a compilation video. You can see last year’s on YouTube. We’ll post this year’s as soon as it’s been released.

Maple in the Quad

This maple is in the row of trees along the south side of the main quad. A photo from this series may make it into the fall magazine issue, but this one was taken with an eye more on the trunk, which appears bent and twisted from the wide angle lens.