Brattleboro ski jump opens
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By Susan Smallheer Rutland Herald - Published: January 7, 2009
This is the Vermont version of a field of dreams.
Built on the edge of a Brattleboro cornfield, the new $575,000 Harris Hill Ski Jump and organizers hope the new 90-meter jump will draw world-class competitors to this southern Vermont town for the event Feb. 14 and 15.
Hopes for the Harris Hill Ski Jump, Brattleboro's iconic winter event, are soaring, as construction on the modern ski jump is winding up. On Tuesday, workers were still installing the steel steps going up the hill in preparation for the 85th event.
The ski jump first opened in 1922 and turned into a world-class event drawing ski jumping competitors and spectators from all over the world, hosting regional and national championships. But the jump's wooden superstructure had fallen into disrepair and jumping had been suspended since 2005 out of safety concerns.
But a successful community effort, coupled with two surprise donations from the New York City-based Manton Foundation, preserved the longtime tradition, said Liz Richards, a co-chairwoman of the local effort.
Somehow the Manton Foundation found out about the local effort to save its ski jump hill and came through with $318,000, more than half the cost of the new facility, Richards said.
On Tuesday, members of the committee showed off the new 90-meter ski jump to the media. The bigger jump will mean the Brattleboro event will be sanctioned by the International Ski Federation, which will draw a better field of competitors, Richards said.
The new jump will restore Brattleboro's longtime reputation in the ski jumping world, said Richards, whose son Drew Richards, a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, broke his collarbone while jumping in the 1995 event.
Drew Richards, now 32, said he is now 30 pounds heavier than in his teenaged jumping days, and wouldn't dare take a jump, despite the state-of-the-art facility. But he said as a youngster growing up in Brattleboro, he got intrigued by ski jumping and went on to compete on national and international levels.
Liz Richards said the tremendous community support, including key corporate sponsors such as Mount Snow Ski Area and Entergy Nuclear, had assured the continued success of the Brattleboro tradition.
Mount Snow will make snow for the February competition, she said, if the white stuff is needed. Entergy, fittingly, provides the electricity.
"We couldn't do this event without their help," she said, noting the group was also indebted to Pepsi, which had been a sponsor since the 1980s.
Liz Richards noted the hill had to be redesigned several times to make it affordable for the local effort. While the costs skyrocketed, the local committee was faced with taking out a personally guaranteed loan, until the Manton Foundation again came through.
Construction of the new jump was completed by Jason Evans of J Evans Construction of Dummerston, who tackled the unusual assignment.
On hand Tuesday was Sandy Harris of neighboring Spofford, N.H. Harris is Fred Harris' only child, and she remembers playing with her dolls at the foot of the ski hill, while her father worked on improving his creation.
Sandy Harris redesigned the Harris Hill Trophy in honor of the new jump, which features a set of wings on jumping skis angled over a triangular (think mountain peak) block of Vermont white marble, set on a base of Vermont butternut. The emblem of the Brattleboro Outing Club sits on top of the trophy.
Harris' father was a legend not just in Vermont. Born and bred in Brattleboro, he went to Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where he helped found the Dartmouth Outing Club and establish Dartmouth's famous Winter Carnival. He returned to his hometown, founded the Brattleboro Outing Club and started building the wooden jump. He had jumped for Dartmouth while a student there, his daughter said. In between he was a world-class ranked athlete, competing in tennis and sailing.
Sandy Harris was born when her accomplished father was 64 years old, and he died when she was only 9 years old, so she said her memories of him are limited. But her memories of him are dominated by his "obsession" with the Harris Hill jump.
Sandy Harris said her father was constantly working to improve the "geometry" of the hill to improve the jumping experience and the records of the jumpers.
"My father was a determined and committed man," she said. "Everything he did, he did it with dedication. He was very competitive. " Fred Harris died in 1961.
"I think he would be totally in awe," she said, looking up at the modern structure, which included a complete re-landscaping of the hill itself.
For additional information see www.harrishillskijump.org.
Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.
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