Issues → January/February 2010 → Features →

Brattleboro, VT: Harris Hill Ski Jump

Famous landmark is restored

by Mel Allen

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The Fred Harris Memorial Ski Jumping Tournament takes place February 13-14, 2010. For details, visit harrishillskijump.org Salisbury, Connecticut, boasts a ski-jumping tradition nearly as long as Brattleboro's. It's "Jumpfest" winter weekend is February 5-7, 2010. swsa.info/events_jumpfest.html

Imagine a house. But not just any house. It's the house your grandfather built. Your father grew up in it, and you did too. In this house your father married your mother, and your siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles filled the rooms on holidays. When you think of growing up, when you think of family, what you think of first is this house.

Now imagine the house rotting board by board, sinking on its foundation, the roof sagging and leaking, and for too many years you've patched it the best you could, but the house keeps falling apart; there's talk that it isn't safe to live there anymore. To fix it up will cost tens of thousands of dollars, but your bank account is barren and you have no idea what to do.

That's what it felt like in the winter of 2005 for Pat Howell and Liz Richards, and for all the volunteers who for so long had worked to keep Harris Hill Ski Jump open and hosting its annual tournament during Brattleboro, Vermont's Winter Carnival. Five winters ago, after the last ski jumper had landed and the spectators had made their way home, the committee members who'd kept the jump patched and running knew that they'd run out of time and do-it-yourself fixes.

Brattleboro's Olympic-caliber 90-meter ski jump, the only one of its size in New England, was no longer viable. The timbers that supported it were no longer safe. Harris Hill had hosted ski jumping for 84 years. There had been nine national championships there, and even Olympic qualifiers, with many of the best ski jumpers in North America and Europe. Years past, there'd been weekends when 10,000 people had filled the hillside--some of them climbing trees to get a better view. Now this hard reality: Just as ski jumping had all but died out throughout New England, maybe its day had passed here too.

But what about the warmest memories of cold days on the hill? What about the legacy of Fred Harris? The hill bears his name because he built the ski jump from the ground up. He found the perfect spot, sheltered by trees to protect it from crosswinds, and he saw the first jumpers fly off in 1922. He'd started the Dartmouth Outing Club in 1909, and even while he'd become a successful stockbroker and a world-class sailor and tennis player, he'd thrown himself into building in his hometown a ski jump that would rival any in the world.

It's hard to believe now, but ski jumping once thrived in New England, and the best athletes took to jumping before all else. Time and fate eroded its popularity. In the 1970s ABC's Wide World of Sports used to open its popular "... the thrill of victory ... and the agony of defeat" montage with the horrifying footage of a ski jumper losing control and hurtling down a slope. The fact that he wasn't badly injured didn't matter. To high school and some college administrators, the fear of injured students and ensuing lawsuits sent them scurrying to close the jumps. By the mid-1980s, the sport was kept alive only through ski clubs and faithful supporters.