Viking_Yearbook_62

Portland State's buoyant, growing Winter Carnival jumped from Mt. Hood over the pass this year, and landed in Central Oregon on the deep powder snow of Bend's Bachelor Butte. On the way to Bend, an unexpected blizzard of that snow met us in the valley. A hoped-for quick trip was turned into a long, snowy sledding. Often the road was obliterated entirely; we felt for it through the lonely swirl of white that covered the ground and filled the air. ,. All Friday night they came­ hundreds of snow fugitives from 13 Northwest colleges, crawling through the storm into the color, noise and open-fire warmth of Pilot Butte Inn. No one knew when the Talent Show would start, but half an auditorium was filled with an expectant, blizzard­ braving audience. In the hour-long wait for the talent, ad lib monologues from Student Body President Ed Westerdahl and Carnival Director Gary Curtis, plus some enthusiastic, if off-key singing by the audience, kept the show going until the more gifted performers arrived. Most spirited of all was first place winner Angela Cottel, a pantomimist from Oregon State who had the photographers climbing on each other's shoulders. Mary Francis Reichlin, an accordianist-yodeler from Marylhurst, got there just before the curtain fell, but in time to take second place. Nothing in Bend was quiet that night until the small hours, and then we were jarred awake by the roar of monster snow machines, battling the still falling cover as they scraped their way up one side of the street, and fifteen minutes later growled us out of our sleep again as they chewed their way past in the opposite direction. Pancakes and coffee with Central Oregon College Saturday morning, and then on to Bachelor Butte through 20 miles of sunshine and wind-swirled powder. Finally we crept through a long snow canyon that ran tunnel-like through high white walls, then around a last bend and suddenly the forest cover fell away and there was the Butte, lonely and stark white. We left the ground for the ski-lifts, and rose above the land and the sounds into the hush of the quiet, Alpine air. A whole family of mountains spread below and beyond - the Sisters, the Brothers and their lesser buttes. Spiral patterns made by unknown skiers etched the slopes with snowy signatures.