FIS Ski Jumping Continental Cup wraps up final day at Pine Mountain
Fans like Chuck Winters and Therese Ceda says it’s one of the biggest turnouts they have seen at any competition held at the resort.
IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WLUC) - Sunday marks the final day of a FIS Ski Jumping competition in Dickinson County.
It’s the second-highest level of ski jumping behind only the FIS World Cup. “The Continental jumper boys are trying to get to the World Cup and they jump hard,” Coleman Engineering Company Computer System Administrator and Ski Fan Chuck Winters said.
The event wrapped up at Pine Mountain Ski Resort Sunday after a weekend of competition. Fans from across the midwest and the world came out to see some of the best junior ski jumpers compete for a spot on their nation’s world cup team.
Iron Mountain Native Chuck Winters is one of the thousands that showed up. He claims to have missed only two ski jumping events over the last 30 years. “I did grow up on the backside of this hill so I did spend a lot of time up here,” he said. “I’ve been to more ski jumping tournaments than I haven’t, other than when I was gone.”
Winters works for Coleman Engineering, the company that helped survey the ski jump before its recent renovation.
His father Orville A. Winters competed alongside U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Famer Joe Perrault in Pine Mountain’s 14th annual Ski Jumping Tournament in 1949. “My father jumped off of this in ‘49 and ‘50, and when I grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s every kid jumped,” Winters said.
Iron Mountain Native Therese Ceda was also in attendance. She has a special connection to Pine Mountain, the first woman to ski off its jump. “Pine Mountain was always my goal, and I was able to accomplish my goal in 1978,” Ceda said. “I also skied through the circuit being the only woman.”
Like winters, Ceda has been coming to these competitions since she was a child. She says this year’s event is one of the best she has ever seen. “You can’t even explain it in words,” Ceda said. “It’s the best.”
Winters says the attendance at this weekend’s Pine Mountain FIS Continental Cup is the most he has ever seen there for any event. He estimates over 5,000 people showed up Saturday, with a slightly lower attendance on Sunday to close out the weekend.
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