Magazine

Every year for the last 43 years, a group of St. Olaf friends has reunited on a frozen lake in northern Minnesota to celebrate and renew their friendships. 

This annual reunion began soon after their graduation in 1979, when several met on a Twin Cities lake for some urban ice fishing. The gathering continued the next year, and the next, moving to different lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin as opportunities (and new cabins) emerged. These reunions evolved into an important tradition for this group of Oles, which includes Eric “Rocket” Ristau ’79, Rick Rost ’79, Steve Vanden Heuvel ’79, Brian Larson ’79, Mark Simonson ’79, Lee Dunfee ’79, Kerry Multz ’79, Bruce Berger ’79, John Nahorniak ’79, David Mylrea ’78, and Erik Landvik.

The group includes locals from Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as Oles traveling from South Carolina, Colorado, Tennessee, and Alaska. They all met during their first year at St. Olaf, with many of them members of the 1978 MIAC Championship–winning Ole football team. Larson notes that some members of the group actually like to ice fish; some tolerate it; and some mostly provide critique and commentary.

But for every single one of them, their reason for reuniting each year is the renewal of the lifelong friendships that began on the Hill. Over the years, as cards are played and stories are told (and retold), their friendships have grown deeper as they support one another through the joys and sorrows of life.

“Despite getting older and maybe slightly less enthusiastic about sitting on the ice for days, our gathering somehow endures,” Larson says. “Staring at a frozen hole in the ice for hours certainly creates plenty of opportunity for thinking, reminiscing, and catching up on a year’s worth of news  — and with no ready escape, perhaps we end up digging a little deeper in our conversations.”

Ice-fishing Oles: another example of the lifelong impact of St. Olaf friendships.