BRATTLEBORO — The Slovenian at the top of this town’s Harris Hill — Vermont’s sole Olympic-sized ski jump — was one leap away from a historic trophy win.
If only the high school senior from Lake Placid hadn’t shown up this Presidents Day weekend with a surprise.
Urh Rosar, who previously won the annual February contest in 2024 and 2025, had flown 4,000 miles from Mislinja, Slovenia, to the Green Mountains in hopes of racking up a third victory — a feat only six other athletes have achieved in the hill’s century-old history, allowing them to permanently take home its Winged Ski Trophy.
Amid Rosar’s 54 competitors from 10 states, Canada and three European countries, 17-year-old Henry Loher had driven a shorter 175 miles from upstate New York.
The teenager’s dream: simply qualify for next month’s Junior World Championships.
But after doing so in Saturday’s opening event, Loher entered — and went on to win — Sunday’s closing trophy tournament for top flyers.
“I decided I had a shot,” said the student, soaking in the mitten-muffled applause of several thousand spectators.
Loher’s win surprised the crowd — or most of it. Brattleboro resident Hugh Barber, the only local to take home the trophy after victories in 1972, 1973 and 1974, recalled how he was in second place with one chance left when he pushed forward in his final round 52 years ago.
“I had the jump of my life,” the now 75-year-old Barber said Sunday.
Since local sports pioneer Fred Harris created his namesake hill in 1922, only six athletes have won its annual tournament three times — Torger Tokle of Norway in 1942, his brother Arthur Tokle in 1951, Art Devlin of Lake Placid in 1954, Barber in 1974, Vladimir Glyvka of Ukraine in 2000 and Blaz Pavlic of Slovenia in 2020.
On Sunday, the defending champ Rosar, speeding off a 30-story-high ramp at 60 miles per hour, topped the first of two rounds with a 93.5-meter jump. Loher countered by leaping 99 meters in his second and final run, leaving Rosar with one last chance to land an even longer distance.
Instead, the 22-year-old Slovenian reached a still-impressive yet ultimately second-place 95.5 meters.
“I think the pressure got to me,” Rosar said after.
Harris Hill is managed and maintained by volunteers who traditionally open it only one weekend a year. As a natural evergreen-lined slope rather than a steel framework surrounded by security, the jump is one of the few anywhere to allow spectators to climb all the way from the base to the takeoff and see athletes up close.
This year’s field was the largest since the hill hosted the last of nine national championships in 1992. Athletes with Vermont ties included Spencer Jones, the 15-year-old Putney great-grandson of the late U.S. Sen. George Aiken; Galen McCusker, a 13-year-old White River Valley Middle School seventh grader from Rochester; and Seth Rothchild, an 18-year-old Park City, Utah, jumper whose mother, writer Bari Nan Cohen, grew up in Rutland.
“It’s a really high-flying hill,” said Rothchild, who noted Brattleboro’s lower altitude held “thicker air” that can help with aerodynamics.
“The atmosphere here is incredible,” Rothchild added, this time speaking of the crowd. “Everyone is rooting for you.”
Take Barber, who congratulated the jump’s latest winner, who may miss out on next year’s contest if he follows through on plans to train in Norway.
Rosar, for his part, had hoped to not only retire the trophy, but also step down from competition.
“I guess I’m going to have to give it another shot,” the Slovenian said.
