On a recent Friday morning, a crowd gathered at Cronemiller Lake in Peavy Arboretum near Corvallis to watch students from four universities scamper up an elevated pole of wood and saw the end off with a chainsaw.
The event was called “Obstacle Pole,” and it was part of the Spring Thaw, a series logging sports events that formed a competition hosted by the Oregon State University Department of Forestry Logging Sports team.
Along with OSU, participating schools at the 2026 edition of Spring Thaw were Montana State University, the University of Idaho and the University of British Columbia.
Logging sports are athletic events based on traditional and modern logging practices. Events competed include crosscut sawing, horizontal and vertical chopping, axe throwing and log rolling.
OSU Forestry Club President Norah Steed said the best part about logging sports is the variety.
“There's something that works for everybody. Starting out, I was a little bit concerned that, oh man, I'm just a little person. I'm not going to do very well compared with some of these huge guys that you're competing with,” said Steed. “But I found that there's really something for everybody's strengths.”
Beyond the competition, students at the Spring Thaw said they enjoyed the logging sports community.
OSU Forestry Club board member Sierra Mirsky said the camaraderie is why she keeps competing. She said the logging sports team helped her find people with similar interests at OSU and beyond.
“Just meeting people from other teams has also been a really great experience. I now have really close friends down in like Nevada and Montana that I never would have met without this logging sports community,” said Mirsky.
The OSU Logging Sports competes across the country at different logging sports competitions.
The Spring Thaw competition took place Feb. 27-28 at the George W. Brown Logging Sports Arena in Peavy Arboretum.
