Klondike has discovered something amazing!
 

Klondike recently posted a batch of photos he got from a webshots album in this post, which most responders identified as containing a mixture of new and familiar hidden/covering shots. So did I, I confess, until something caught my eye in the first photo attached to this post, and that thing was not any of the women pictured. It was the building. That building is unmistakably DePauw University's East College Hall.

Immediately behind the women in the first posted photo, barely visible, is a boulder. The Boulder, an icon of DePauw. It is most notable as the focus of the Boulder Run tradition, where DePauw students run naked (or in the women's case, topless) from their living unit to the Boulder and back. Klondike has discovered what are, to my knowledge, the only extant photos on the internet of a Boulder Run in progress. The Boulder Run especially features in the initiation ceremonies of most of DePauw's Greek organizations. I'm pretty sure that the second attached photo shows the same women, probably having just finished the run, posing in front of the Pi Beta Phi sorority house at DePauw.

Having done a Boulder Run or two myself and visited DePauw a number of times, I have always wanted to find some photo documentation of this event, and now I have! The webshots page is swamped, so I haven't been able to get in and see if there are any more Boulder Run photos, but these two are amazing enough. I just wanted to publicly acknowledge the fantastic find that Klondike made, which he himself may not be fully aware of.

Included as a bonus is the only other Boulder Run photo I've ever discovered, showing an entire sorority pledge class (from the same sorority house!) in the moments before the final strip and dash out the door.

I have to say this is very cool. Now, you will notice I posted those two years ago, so "recent" they are not, but your discovery is very interesting and I had to do a little searching to find out where this school is (Indiana, right?). Anyway, I had totally forgotten about these, but it just goes to show you how often you don't know what you've got, but with the internet, someone somewhere is bound to recognize it sooner or later!

So, this is a new tradition for me. We all should put it on our list of events to watch for, and with enough searching, maybe more pics will surface.

thanks,

Klondike

Ah, well, that's what I get for not looking at the timestamp.

Yes, it's in rural Indiana. I certainly hope more pictures turn up, but so far they've been rare as hen's teeth. There are definitely more pictures in existence. I've been shown a few myself (in person, by the people who took them), and I've seen people stake out the Boulder with cameras. They just don't seem to drift onto the internet. I'd imagine that most of the existing pictures are squirreled away in subfolders on various frat guys' hard-drives, waiting for some enterprising young mind to put them on the 'net. My personal theory on their rarity is that, since Boulder Runs are largely tolerated by the administration and highly popular with the students, even the dimmest fraternity bros recognize on some level that a scandal involving a lot of pictures getting out will quickly lead to the current steady stream of runners trickling to nothing.

That notwithstanding, I just wanted to let you know that you actually found in-real-life one of the legendary hauls: an honest-to-goodness sorority initiation streak.

Well, now this is something I don't think I was fully aware - is it ONLY women that run? Because, if thats so, it might make it the only "Women's only" campus naked event known to exist. If i searched the net on "Boulder run", I would probably end up with a lot of naked pumpkin run pics. So, unfortunately, finding more pics is going to get confusing because the name sounds like something happening in Boulder, Colorado. but its worth a shot - any other info you can provide (did you post the name of the sorority - can't recall) would help. thanks again, Klondike

EDIT: Ok, rereading your initial post, each frat or sorority has its own run (and you did include the name of one sorority). So, there are a lot of runs but each one would tend to be relatively small. But I could REALLY DIG an all girl run, even if only topless. That would be something totally unique (outside of Smith Colleges Convocation which is all female but doesn't generally get as naked). But for all of the girls in a campus sorority to do something naked or semi naked together, whether as a tradition or a one time thing is EXTREMELY rare to non existant (on the net in pics, anyway)!

KLondike

here is a pic of some Depauw girls sitting on "the" boulder. Imagine them topless.....(yum.....:))

If possible, I would like to ask the mods if they could move this thread into the exhibitionist forum where all the other bike and run stuff is. No big deal, but the thread might get more looks and replies there (and replies with pics would be awesome).

thanks,

KLondike

just to add one other note: Apparently, Depauw's first snow this year was back on around the second of December.
I dug up this tantalizing little titbit from twitter, posted that day by a student:

"So many people running naked outside of my dorm right now... This is why i love depauw!!!! :D"

"First snow"? We already have a "first rain", so why not a "first snow"?

Klondike

Well, Boulder Runs are a pretty general part of celebrations / blow-out parties, so certainly there are mixed-gender Boulder Runs, too. However, the ones done as part of the initiation festivities for Greek organizations are, necessarily, single-sex. When I said "topless," I was actually referring to the women in the particular picture, although it's a pretty good description of Boulder Runs anyway. The archetypical Boulder Run is done in the nude, but (unsurprisingly) it tends to be the men that follow the letter of the law here. In my experience (and from the stories of female friends), when sorority pledge classes run, there tends to be a majority that run topless (or effectively so, i.e., scarves or homemade pasties), a more reserved minority that run in underwear, and another more daring minority that run fully nude.

One interesting aspect of the Boulder Run is the traditional rule that it starts and ends at the living unit of origin. Some houses essentially just cross the street and return; others have to run several blocks in both directions. Depending on the time of night and the routes chosen, this can bring runners directly into the path of unsuspecting students taking shortcuts through the middle of campus; one female friend literally ran into one of her upperclassman tutors.