The week started on such a high note—51 degrees Fahrenheit—that the purists declared 2012 was “not a real Kuvia.” But by Friday, scarves and snow pants were both commonplace and necessary.

Every year Jean Treese, AB’66, who leads the weeklong winter festival’s Salute to the Sun exercise (pictured above) at the Point on Friday, asks participants not to disrobe before the yoga begins. And while the cold snap kept some bundled in their beds, it didn’t deter the diehards from stripping down to shorts and T-shirts and flopping around in the snow.

In theory, the Monday–Thursday morning exercises are preparation for the final Friday ritual at the Point: you build up from two salutes on Monday to ten on Friday, when your collective labor culminates in a glorious sunrise over Lake Michigan. In practice, there’s a big difference between yoga in the gym and yoga in the snow.

After the march from Henry Crown, a perfunctory plank pose and a few quick dips into the snow are enough to demonstrate commitment. Diehard or not, though, everyone hopped onto the buses and rode back to campus, where they were welcomed with a bagel, a juice box, and the coveted Kuvia T-shirt.