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Winter is definitely here to stay for some time, and sportsminded people are taking advantage of some free time to enjoy the outdoors. Ski jumping hills have been groomed, and athletes have been training for the annual winter events.

 For the more adventurous skier, the world’s best ski jumpers have gathered at Vikersund, southwest of Oslo, for this winter’s Ski Flying World Championships.  Years of hard work and training are behind every one of the young men taking part in this tournament.While there are several Olympic-style ski-jumping sites, the most famous is Norway's  Holmenkollen Ski Jump which  has been setting the standard for Norwegian skiing for over 100 years.

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 The first ski jumping competition took place on 31st January 1892. .Oslo’s newly remodeled Holmenkollen Ski Jump opened just in time for last winter’s Nordic Skiing World Championships, after enormous budget overruns and political controversy. Now it’s apparently full of construction mistakes and deficiencies, and maintainance costs increase. Newspaper Aften has  reported that a long list of problems had cropped up, but the sport goes on.
The first widely known ski jumping competition was the Husebyrennene, held in Oslo in 1879, with Olaf Haugann of Norway setting the first world record for the longest ski jump at 20 metres. The annual event was then moved to Holmenkollen in 1892, and Holmenkollen has remained the pinnacle of ski jumping competition.

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Skiing has also been a staple of Nordic winter activity. Skis were necessary to “walk on the snow” to hunt or move anywhere in the rural areas. Earliest “skis” were long boards that were pushed by the feet, unattached to the boards, making turns impossible until someone designed a foot connection to the ski.

One of the first recorded advances in binding design was made by Sondre Norheim, the "father" of modern skiing. His invention was a binding utilizing a leather toe strap that was fastened tightly with a buckle, and a heel strap of small birch roots twisted into a rope, allowing the ski to be lifted from the snow and maneuvered.

Sondre Auverson  Norheim was born at Øverbø, a little cotter’s farm, and raised in Morgedal in the municipality of Kviteseid in Telemark. Skiing was a popular activity in Morgedal. Spectators watchng Sondre leap from shed roofs to the snow might have questioned his sanity, but ski-flying and the sport of ski-jumping was born..

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The new skiing activity was not without accidents.Norwegian ski jumping star Tom Hilde took a bad spill during the annual New Year’s week of competition in the Alps. Hilde had been in first place when he took a bad fall at Oberstdorf  while in competition. The 24-year-old was quickly back on his feet, to talk to NRK on Sunday.
“I’ll just have to use the time I have to make a comeback, or prepare for next season.” Hilde told reporters after being released from the hospital.

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A Telemark landing

After each jump, competitors are judged by five judges, who are based in a tower to the side of the expected landing point. They can award up to 20 points each for style based on keeping their skis steady during flight, balance, good body position, and landing. The highest and lowest style scores are disregarded, with the remaining three scores added to the distance score. Thus, a perfectly scored K-120 jump - with at least four of the judges awarding 20 points each - and the jumper landing on the "K-point", is awarded a total of 120 points. In January 2010, a new scoring system was introduced to compensate for variable outdoor conditions.

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Snowflake Skihill

Meanwhile, back here in the USA, A southwestern Wisconsin community is hosting their annual Ski-jumping event.Westby, Wisconsin , a well-known Norwegian community plays host to jumpers during their 2013 Snowflake Ski Jumping Tournament, February 1st and 2nd. This annual event is part of the US Cup schedule that includes competition in several Midwestern states.Approxmately twenty-five national and international athletes are expected to be in the competition at Westby, arriving from Poland,Canada, and Norway and the United States.

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Snowflake Ski Complex in Westby, Wi.

Westby’s Snowflake Ski Club was organized in 1922 by a group who thought the community should have such an event, due to Westby’s strong Norwegian heritage. Organizers originally tried to buy some metal jump scaffolding,  but found the cost too expensive. So, they decided to build the scaffolding from wood. They ordered 10,000 feet of 1-by-4 and 1-by-6 boards and went to work. It has been said that “They didn’t really know much about building a ski jump, but just observed the way the hill went, and built the jump.” Some of the supports were tied to trees to help hold them up. These  ski-jumping events have created a tradition that has gone on since 1923, and has put Westby on the international ski jump map.
Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 7 PM, February 1st. The tournament  has added attractions  featuring night ski-jumping events with fireworks and entertainment between jumping events.

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Besides the food offerings onsite, a local Westby Church will be serving a special treat for hungry visitors. At 11 AM, February 2nd,  the main-street church basement doors will open for the traditional lutefisk dinner, complete with lutefisk, meatballs,potatoes, rutabagas, and all the expected Norwegian trimmings topped off with Norwegian pastries. An alternative dinner,  a cheaper version for those who come for the excellent meal, will be for  those who, for some reason, omit the lutefisk.

                      There IS something to do on a snowy February Day!