The Olympic Ski Jumps at MacKenzie Intervale
Near Lake Placid, New York
Rising above the MacKenzie Intervale, just east of the village, stand two towering ski jumps that are among the most visible landmarks in Lake Placid. The taller structures you see today, at ninety meters and one hundred twenty meters, were built of steel and concrete for the nineteen eighty Winter Olympics at a cost of around two and a half million dollars. But ski jumping here goes back much further.
The Lake Placid Club built the first jump on this hillside in nineteen twenty, using the natural slope itself as the landing surface, a modest thirty five meter jump on the intervale. For the nineteen thirty two games, a tall steel tower was raised, and it stood until nineteen seventy seven, when it was torn down to make way for the modern jumps. Today these are the only ski jumps in North America approved for both winter and summer competition, and in the warmer months athletes launch off a surface of wet porcelain and plastic, landing on a watered plastic hill below.
A glass enclosed elevator carries visitors to an observation deck at the top, where the view stretches across the High Peaks. Watching a jumper drop down the in run and sail out over the valley gives you a real sense of the nerve these athletes need.
