Headmaster's Perspective: A Vernal Tradition

At Ridgeview, Valborg is a family gathering to herald spring, to steel us for the final stretch of the academic year, to form new connections between young and old, to strengthen our community, and achieve a bit of catharsis by an invigorating run through the hills at the entrance to the Big Thompson Canyon. If all goes well, it will be smokey, muddy, dirty, wet, and glorious. It will involve students with wild hair, faces painted blue, hollering boisterously, throwing axes, javelins, shooting arrows, eating, competing, and laughing. It culminates in an obstacle course and an off-track endurance run beginning at dusk and lit only by the fading sun and the participant’s headlamps. Everyone who wishes to can run the race, throw an axe, or simply enjoy a meal around the bonfire and laugh with friends.