[B]RATTLEBORO — This town’s Harris Hill ski jump is the only Olympic-size slope in New England and one of just six in the nation.
This weekend, that could be a problem.
Thousands of spectators at the hill’s annual Presidents Day weekend competition, expecting to hear the voice of Peter Graves introducing athletes before they leap off a launchpad 30 stories high at speeds of 60 mph, are in for a surprise. This time, the Vermonter’s voice will be echoing over the loudspeakers at the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.
Which is also where some of the athletes are. Past competitors, including Kevin Bickner, Nita Englund, Michael Glasder, Casey Larson, Will Rhoads and Abby Ringquist — otherwise known as the U.S. Olympic ski jumping team — are in Pyeongchang, trading a weekend in the Green Mountains for a shot at a gold medal.
It’s a peculiar challenge for Harris Hill: Being so good, you lose your best to the world stage once every four years. That’s why locals are promoting this weekend’s Brattleboro event as the next best thing: The chance to discover the up-and-comers aiming for the 2022 games in Beijing, China.
“Here’s where you’ll see future Olympic jumpers,” says Patricia Howell, a member of Harris Hill’s organizing committee.
More than 40 top young male and female competitors from the United States, Austria and Slovenia will join two Marlboro College athletes — junior Spencer Knickerbocker, 25, of Brattleboro and senior Chris Lamb, 28 of Andover, New Hampshire — in the nearly century-old event.
“This is a bigger field than we’ve had in a long time,” co-director Kate McGinn said.
The 90-meter ski jump is a rarity. When the late Fred Harris, founder of the Dartmouth Outing Club, built it in his hometown in 1922, he simply laid down boards for a ramp, and lashed two more to his feet, and flew off what is now one of the few natural venues on the continent.
A nonprofit group, Harris Hill Ski Jump Inc., raised nearly $600,000 a decade ago to rebuild the slope to International Ski Federation Cup standards. Because Harris Hill is maintained entirely by volunteers, it is open just two days each February.
Gates will open Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m., with trial rounds at 11 a.m. and opening ceremonies and competition at noon. Ticket details and directions are available on the hill’s website or Facebook page.
This year the jump is competing not only with the Winter Games but also with winter itself. Organizers have been making snow all week, only to watch as above-freezing temperatures melt inch upon inch of their work.
“We’re making more snow,” says Jason Evans, a Dummerston contractor in charge of hill preparation, “just to make sure we have enough.”
