Every fall, Colby-Sawyer students eagerly await the ringing of bells on Mountain Day. A tradition dating back to the early days of the academy, Mountain Day is a celebration of the college’s history and a day of fun. For some students, however, the fun doesn’t end at the top of Mount Kearsarge.

This year, a group of students in the Alpine Communities class (plus some friends) decided to spruce Mountain Day up a little. “We were talking about how people elope on the mountains now,” says Theresa Page ‘22. “They carry their dresses up, and… get married at the top of a mountain. It’s so cool… We spent 10 days in the woods and were all really gross, and it was like, what if we wore formal wear [on the mountain]?”

But the party didn’t stop at the dress code. Organized by Connor Woods ‘22, the group of students carried bottles of sparkling grape juice and a full sheet cake to Kearsarge’s peak. “Connor had, like, 30 pounds of supplies on his back,” says Frank Riccio ‘23. Riccio was not part of the Alpine Communities class but joined in the fun anyway. Page was responsible for carrying the sheet cake over the nearly 3000-foot trek.

For Woods, the idea sprung from a desire to make his final Mountain Day extra memorable. He workshopped several ideas, including filling backpacks with heavy items and a full banquet complete with roast chicken, but the final plan soon came to fruition. Woods ended up with several bottles of Welch’s sparkling grape juice in his backpack. After all, a heavy backpack is better when there’s something fun inside. “There was no real rhyme or reason to it other than ‘This is dumb; let’s do it,’” says Woods.

He also mentions seeing pictures of students from the 1800s in dress clothes on Mountain Day, which Riccio found through his job at the archives. “They climbed to the top of the mountain like that a hundred years ago,” says Woods. “We should totally be able to do that now.”