Salisbury is Jumping

It has been a century since John Satre, a Norwegian ski jumper, crossed the Atlantic to become a chauffeur for the Warner family in rural Salisbury. The young man had left his natal country behind, but not his passionate attachment to Nordic sports.

No one in Salisbury knew he was one of the top Norwegian ski jumpers until, in 1926, he demonstrated his ability by climbing up on a barn roof to ski off it and landed gracefully at the feet of his neighbors.

He had by then been joined by his brothers, Magnus and Olaf, and they established the Salisbury Outing Club which quickly morphed into today’s Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA). On January 29th, 1927, the club held its first ski jumping competition with a crowd of more than 200 spectators and the annual Salisbury Jumpfest was born.

The annual jump, planned for February 2nd through February 4th this year, and the stellar jumpers trained by the Satre brothers and their successors, put Salisbury on the map in the international ski jumping universe.

Many of Salisbury’s own sons went on to win National Championships and to complete in the Olympics, a tradition of excellence carried on today by its annual hosting of the Eastern National Ski Jumping Championships and, every fifth year, the Junior Olympics (an honor it shares with Anchorage, Minneapolis, Park City and Steamboat Springs).

“This will be our 98th year,” said SWSA President Ken Barker. “We will have the Eastern Championships here with target jumping on Friday and Saturday meets on the 20- and 30-meter jumps for younger athletes. There will also be competition on the cross-country loop (created in 2021 at the base of the jump). Then on Sunday, there will be the Eastern U.S. Ski Jumping Championships.”

The eastern division Junior National Team will be named after Sunday's competition.

Over the decades the ski jumps have faced a number of trials. They were temporarily halted during World War II and the ski jump fell into disrepair—but SWSA has always risen to challenges. Entirely volunteer, the group has repaired, replaced, added to and improved its jump facilities over the decades. 2010 marked the demolition of the SWSA’s old main jump and a major fund drive to finance construction of a new jump, compliant with current standards for jumps, was begun in preparation for hosting both the Eastern National Championships and the USSA Junior Olympics in 2011.

SWSA currently has a 10-meter “bump jump,” and 20-, 30- and 65-meter jumps. This range of jumps makes Salisbury a natural for competitive meets for younger jumpers. In the 1980s, ski jumping was dropped from National Collegiate programs, adversely affecting young athletes who then had to compete at ski centers with larger jumps out of their skill level. To address the problem, competition was divided into two categories: the Junior Olympics and the North American Championships.

Creation of the Junior Olympics opened national competition to sites such as Salisbury whose 65-meter hill is more appropriate for younger athletes. Because the U.S. has few good hills of that transitional size, Salisbury once again became a factor at the national level. In fact, for Eastern Division ski jumpers, Salisbury’s is the only 65-meter jump and a prerequisite before they can advance to the 90- and 120-meter Olympic jumps.

Barker said a capital campaign will kick off March 1 to create a new 30-meter jump, replacing the current one, which is 75 years old. SWSA hopes to have it ready for the 2025 Jumpfest. He expects it to cost $400,000 to $500,000.

Not the least of the challenges faced by the group has been climate change. While SWSA volunteers of early years could predictably count on Mother Nature to provide snow for them to groom, recent decades have seen valiant efforts to provide decent cover for the jumps and the slope below. That has been solved by the addition of snowmaking equipment.

Barker said that the lack of natural snow is now expected. “Our snowmaking capabilities are better than they used to be,” he said, “and we are working on other improvements. If we had a pond we could make snow faster but, as it is, anytime the temperature hits 28 degrees, we are out there making snow. The guns have been going for 28 days straight.”

“This is very much a community event, and we are always looking for people interested in ski sports to join in,” said Barker, who, while not a jumper, came to Salisbury out of the ski industry. But, like other civic organizations, finding volunteers is more difficult. “We’re just like the fire department and other organizations when it comes to volunteerism,” he said. “Everyone’s time is precious.”

The efforts SWSA volunteers make result in a good time for all on Jumpfest weekend. And not all action takes place on the hills. Following the “target jumping,” which starts at 6PM Friday (each hill has a target point for landing, known as a "K" point) there will be the ever popular and frequently hilarious Human Dog Sled Race in which six intrepid souls—five pulling and one in a sled of their own design—race against other teams on a 200-yard-long snow course to the delight of hundreds of cheering fans, many of them ringing cowbells with one hand and holding a hot toddy in the other.

The Human Dog Race is a crowd favorite on Friday night and entries are still being accepted by emailing info@jumpfest.org. It costs $25 to sign up a team which includes free entry to other Jumpfest competitions. The evening also offers food, beverages, bonfires and a party-like atmosphere.

Saturday settles down to more serious stuff. Competition begins at 9:30AM with the junior jumpers on the 20-meter and 30-meter hills. At noon practice opens on the 65-meter hill and at 1PM there is the Salisbury Invitational Ski Jump there.

Everyone gets a chance to warm up that evening at the traditional Snow Ball fundraiser at Lakeville Town Grove where the Steve Dunn Band provides the music.

Sunday, it is back to the hills where at 1PM the Eastern U.S. Ski Jumping Championships will be held.

Proceeds from Jumpfest fund SWSA youth skiing programs. “We have a really vibrant group of kids that travel to meets around the country,” said Barker. “This past weekend we had kids competing in New Hampshire and they travel on a consistent basis to places like Lake Placid.”

SWSA actively promotes winter sports through its scholarship program in five area towns. “Every year we give $10,000 to $12,000 away in scholarships to five of the surrounding schools that need financial assistance for kids to enjoy Alpine skiing. And we try to support programs like SOAR, which is Salisbury Central School’s outdoor program. We hold regular practice sessions and a Holiday Camp. On any given night, we might have 12 to 16 kids.”

Please check the link below for program changes and schedule updates.