The Abominable Snowman

The Abominable Snowman At MIT, we think big. We apply engineering principles whenever possible. We build snowmen so large that they require the use of ramps, ice skates, and a team of friendly tourists. My friend Julia 08 shares her IAP snowman experience below: (Note: I promise that I have a non-snow related entry in the works, for those of you who are sick of hearing about it.) On Sunday when I heard there was going to be yet another snow storm hitting Boston, I called up my friend Dan 10. Did you hear about the snowstorm tomorrow? You know what this means….Battle #3!. Dan and I are in the midst of a multi-part snow battle. The first two battles involved grape throwing, running around the basements, playing in the secret ninja courtyard, and most importantly lots of snow! By the time I woke up the next morning 6 inches of beautiful packing snow graced the MIT campus ready to be made into snow fighting artillery. When I met up with Dan in Killian court we decided to make a giant snowman in front of the great dome instead. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. First, we had a little competition to see who could roll the bigger snowball. Then we teamed up to roll the base which Dan insisted had to be at least as tall as me. To my surprise, creating this giant snowball was just as exhausting as a snowball fight! There we were, in t-shirts, sweating and struggling to push the giant ball back towards the center of Killian. We were getting pretty tired and literally losing momentum. Sometimes the ball would roll back over me after we attempted to budge it from rest. Luckily, a large group of Korean tourists ran out into the courtyard to enjoy the snowy scenery, and a few even lent us their strength to push our snowball base. The next task was getting the middle portion of the snowman up on top of the base. After several failed attempts to lift the beast and attempting to create a snow staircase, we realized that we were going to need more helping hands. I pleaded with random people walking through lobby 10 for help, and ran into my friend Marie 11. While I was off rolling the snowball for the head, Dan and Marie came up with an ingenious idea. There are these tall and thin green stakes connected by ropes surrounding Killian court. Using just three stakes, we built a makeshift ramp on the side of the 5 feet tall base. Using our engineering skills and atlas-like strength we finally managed to push the middle snowball on top of the base. None of us could believe that it actually worked, and more importantly that it stayed! Ghassan G, who stopped by earlier to take some pictures, returned and helped us stick the head on top of the now 9 feet tall monster. How did we get the head on? Simple, Ghassan stood on a chair. Finally, Maries friend, Eva 11 helped us shape, decorate, and put the final touches on our giant snowman! After 3 hours of intense working out, some thinking, and plenty of fun we had just made the biggest snowman of our lives. Julia 08 and Dan 10 roll their massive snowballs across Killian Court. Marie 11 hands Ghassan G some rocks for the snowmans eyes. Dan 10, Julia 08, Snowman, Eva 11, Marie 11, Ghassan G. The final product.