Greasy pole

Greasy pole, grease pole or greased pole refers to a pole that has been made slippery and thus difficult to grip. More specifically, it is the name of several events that involve staying on, climbing up, walking over or otherwise traversing such a pole. This kind of event exist in several variations around the world.

As part of Queen's Engineering Frosh Week, the incoming first year engineering students must, with the help of the upper-year engineering students, climb to the top of a grease pole and remove a tam which is nailed to the pole's top. The Queen's Grease Pole is a metal football goalpost stolen by Queen's engineering students in 1955 from University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium. Currently, the pole is covered in lanolin and placed in the centre of a pit of muddy water referred to as the "Grease Pit", but from the first climbing of the pole in 1956 to 1988 the pole was covered in axle grease and it was only sometime between 1957 and 1967 that the pit was added to the event. There have been various other changes to the rules of the event since its inception, including the banning of the throwing of projectiles at the frosh attempting to climb the pole by upper years, removing unsanitary contents from the pit and allowing women to participate.

As of 14 September 2015, the Grease Pole resides somewhere in the University of Toronto after the Brute Force Committee (the engineering pranking club) was able to steal the Pole from the Queen's freshmen welcome events. The Grease Pole was returned to Queen's via a transfer to MacMaster University in June 2016 and was subsequently used in Queen's Engineering Frosh Week 2016.

The Bear River Cherry Carnival in Bear River, Nova Scotia offers $100 every year to the first person to walk out their greased pole and grab a Canada flag nailed to the end of the pole. The greased pole is held at a different time every year as they have to schedule it for high tide so there will be water below the pole for competitors to fall into. After the first round, competitors have to make it over the second red ribbon to continue on. Competitors must fall 'clean'. That is, competitors who grab the pole when falling are immediately disqualified. David Isles of Bear River added his fourth win on July 13, 2013.

In the city of St. Julian's there is a yearly il-ġostra: aka the greasy pole game. During the greasy pole game a 10m wooden beam is attached to a pier (but it has been attached to boats in the past) at a 45 degree angle and extended over the sea. Flags are attached to the pole, which is then greased. The aim of the game is to run to the end of the pole and grab the flag. This is no easy feat to do and most who try fail ... but the festival and the pole game footage outcomes are broadcast by many press agencies each year because it is visually intriguing to watch.

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