IOLA – The 64th annual Iola Winter Carnival wrapped up on Sunday at the Iola Winter Sports Club, where a crowd gathered to watch nearly 60 young ski jumpers take to the hills following a weekend of winter sports and downtown activities.
Sunday’s Central Ski Jumping Championships featured participants ranging in age from 8 to 14 from clubs across Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, competing on four active ski jumps: five-meter, 10-meter, 30-meter and 60-meter hills. Meters refer to how far skiers travel from the takeoff to where they land.
Club Operations Manager Morgan Pease called this year’s Winter Carnival one of the best in years, thanks to natural snow and the return of the 60-meter jump, which opened for the first time in several seasons.
Iola’s 60-meter jump (60 meters = 196.85 feet) is a fully above-ground structure built in 1996 that Pease described as “a towering piece of engineering that stands at 187 feet off the deck.”
For young skier’s, Iola’s 60-meter serves as a bridge between smaller local hills and much larger 80- and 120-meter jumps elsewhere. Several youth competitors stepped up to the 60-meter for the first time during this year’s event, he said.
Ski jumping has deep roots in Iola, tied to the region’s Norwegian heritage. The Iola Winter Sports Club was founded in 1910 as a ski jumping and hunting club, and while the jumps moved locations a few times, athletes have been competing on what is now called Norseman Hill since 1956, Pease explained.
Ski jumping has been part of the annual Iola Winter Carnival since its inception. A 1962 article in The Post-Crescent noted a Sunday morning ski jumping tournament at the carnival, sponsored by the club.
While ski jumping is the club’s origin, Pease said the Nordic (cross-country) skiing program has become its most prominent offering in recent decades. The club maintains over 20 kilometers of groomed ski trails on 400 acres, including more than 9 kilometers of lighted trails, and also offers snowshoe routes. Visitors can bring their own equipment or rent on site.
The carnival kicked off Friday with a fat bike race on lighted trails. Saturday’s events included children’s ice fishing on Lake Iola, skijoring, a kids’ cross-country ski race, a craft fair and bake sale, a chili walk cook-off, and an ice-sculpting contest at Chet Krause Legacy Park. A lutefisk supper, a traditional Norwegian fish dish, was held at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, followed by the crowning of Delilah Kulinski as Snow Queen.
An estimated 500-600 people turned out Sunday at the club for the ski jumping competition that closed the carnival.
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