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When the bells from the campus clock tower continued to ring past the 7 am hour on Friday, Sept. 26, the ���챬�� community knew it could only mean one thing: Today was Mountain Day.

Mountain Day, Mount Holyoke’s oldest tradition, beginning in 1838, has always been about community connection and joy, as well as a break from studies. Today, as they did earlier in the College’s history, students hiked to the 942-foot summit of Mt. Holyoke.

Nowadays, the tradition has some decidedly modern twists: Ice cream, coffee, temporary tattoos, class buttons and zines are available to the community at the top of the mountain.

Liliana Stinson ’27 from Greensboro, North Carolina, was thrilled by the glorious weather; in South Hadley, it had been raining for most of the week. “It actually looks really beautiful,” they said. “I’m just excited to spend time out here.”

Eliza Mohan ’27 from Portland, Oregon, sat in the welcoming sunshine, eagerly waiting for more students to summit.

“I’m looking forward to my friends getting here, to have the whole gang here,” they said. “As much as I love Mountain Day as a moment to experience in the present, I also just think of it as something that I’ll really enjoy looking back on in the future. I’m enjoying it now and also thinking, ‘I’m going to be so happy I went.’ I can look back at pictures and think, ‘Oh, Mountain Day. That was so much fun.’”

Cherishing beloved memories in advance was also important to senior Claire Westrich ’26 from Rochester, New York. They hiked with their first-year roommate, Gray Bolduc ’26 from Andover, Massachusetts, just as they had three years ago. “We just relived that experience and got really gross,” they joked.

Alums worldwide are notified about Mountain Day so they can celebrate wherever they are, and Bolduc thinks they will continue to participate in that tradition after graduation.

“I think it would be really fun to continue that and just reflect on all these fun moments and having gone up with my [first-year] roommate,” they said. Westrich and Bolduc then took photos of their matching temporary tattoos.

As the day ended, students hiked back down the mountain carrying not only buttons, magnets and zines but also the sense of belonging that has defined Mountain Day for generations. The celebration may evolve each year, but its essence of community, joy and memories made on the mountain remains timeless.