Recreation & Sports section
Good afternoon, the Harris Hill Ski Jump 101st addition has wrapped up, to much success. Today’s Fred Harris memorial tournament results are attached, the winner of the event was Slovenia’s Ozbej Kotnik.
Thank you for your continued interest and support of Harris Hill Ski Jump.
Hello!
RESULTS are attached from today’s Pepsi Challenge at Harris Hill Ski Jump, February 18, 2023.
Highlights:
Vermont Governor Phil Scott attended today’s jump and gave welcome remarks to fans and athletes.
The final Target Jump at the end of the day (which is a fun competition) had a three way tie with jumps at 93M each. In the end, Slovenia’s Vid Vrhovnik took home the win.
“On Your Mark, Set, Go!” According to the Guilford Park committee, the “starter pistol” has been fired for a 60-day race to raise $20,000 more dollars for the construction of the Guilford Community Park. The committee has been working for over a year on plans to build a park behind the Guilford Store, alongside the Guilford Community Church, in the center of Guilford’s Algiers Village. The park they envision is complete with a green spaces, a pavilion, a walking labyrinth, children’s play area with a slide and swings, a basketball half-court, net and fire pit.
If community members and businesses donate $20,000 by February 28, the park can qualify for a matching $40,000 Vermont Community Development grant, “Better Places Program” which will allow the park committee to have everything on their wish list, explained Dunham Rowley, one of the organizers.
BRATTLEBORO, VT—July 19, 2022—The Connecticut River Conservancy’s first-ever Riverfest Weekend kicks off Aug. 6 & 7 in Brattleboro and Hinsdale, highlighted by the 44th Annual New England Paddlesports Championship on Sunday. Riverfest promises family-friendly near-river and on-river activities bridging southwest New Hampshire with southeast Vermont. www/ctriver.org/nepc-riverfest
On Sunday (10-2p), The New England Paddlesports Championship (NEPC) will welcome racers from across the Northeast. Canoes, kayaks, surf skis, and stand-up paddleboards will have separate race classes. Although this marks the 44th year NEPC has been held on the Connecticut River between Southern Vermont and New Hampshire, this is only the second time competitors will paddle the waters in this stretch of river between Hinsdale, N.H. and Brattleboro-to-Vernon, Vt. The race, launching from Norm’s Marina, Racers can earn points that will count in the NECKRA Flatwater Point Series www.neckra.org.
The first few links at https://hollandmills.website document my ICCF career.
The two noteworthy aspects of this title are that it’s an international title and that it survives me.
Also, after over five years without a tournament victory, I finally placed first in a Master Norm tournament:
https://www.iccf.com/event?id=88928
The deadline for registrations is fast approaching for “CORNSTOCK: Cornhole for a Cause!”, according to organizers at Youth Services. The inaugural year of this new fundraiser, Youth Services is offering space on Saturday, May 21 for 12 teams to play this popular lawn game every hour, between noon and 5, on the Farmhouse Square at Retreat Farm on Rt. 30 in Brattleboro, Vermont.
CORNSTOCK: Cornhole for a Cause! is presented by Chroma Technology. Sponsors for all Youth Services events in 2022 are Pacesetters Brattleboro Subaru, The Richards Group and Headwater Precision.
The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department would like to announce that the Nelson Withington Skating Facility at Living Memorial Park will be closing for the season on Sunday, March 6th, 2022, following the last program. Thank you all for another wonderful season!
The 100th Anniversary of the Harris Hill Ski Jump competition continued today with the annual Fred Harris Memorial Tournament and a fun Target Jump wrapping up the weekend.
The day presented jumpers and fans with much better weather with partly sunny skies, which kept the briskness of the day at bay.
The 100th anniversary of the Harris Hill Ski Jumping competition got underway today with the Pepsi Challenge and the US Cup competition. With blustery temperatures in the 20s and snow qualls throughout the day, the weather delayed jumping by two hours. However, the record crowd was committed to staying at the hill to cheer on the 40+ ladies and men who jumped at the iconic 90 meter ski jump in Brattleboro, Vermont.
The biggest jump of the day came at the very end of competition by Norwegian Ole Kristain Baarset who jumped 101.5 meters in his second jump. Today was Baarset’s first time ever jumping at Harris Hill and his first trip ever to the United States. The current Harris Hill record is held by Slovenian Blaz Plavic who jumped 104 meters in 2017.
The Harris Hill Ski Jump, the only Olympic sized ski jump in New England, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend, February 18-20 in Brattleboro, Vermont.
On Friday, February 18, an evening of FREE festivities will be held to kick off the weekend and celebrate the community as Harris Hill Ski Jump and The Brattleboro Outing Club celebrate their 100th anniversaries. The evening, which will run from 6-8 pm under the new lights, will include a ski jumping exhibition, local food and beverages and a fireworks display. The Harris Hill Ski Jump and Brattleboro Outing Club were founded by Fred Harris in 1922.
On Friday, February 18, an evening of FREE festivities will be held to kick off the weekend and honor the fans as Harris Hill Ski Jump and The Brattleboro Outing Club celebrate their 100th anniversaries. The evening, which will run from 6-8 pm under the new lights, will include ski jumping competition, local food and beverages and a fireworks display. The Harris Hill Ski Jump and Brattleboro Outing Club were founded by Fred Harris in 1922.
On Wantastiquet, the trail is dry and the mountain laurel is blooming. On June 23, 2021, there was no water on the carriage road trail up to the summit. Not even a puddle. Really, things are that dry. You can wear sneakers. And the mountain laurel will be in bloom for another week. Invasive mountain laurel is everywhere on Wantastiquet, unfortunately, but it sure is pretty for these two weeks. It doesn’t bloom well at lower elevations, so you won’t see blossoms until the 7th hairpin turn (out of 9). The blossoms are much better if you continue past the summit towards Mine Ledge. (The trail after the antenna tower is narrow. I found a tick on my arm within three minutes. Past the summit, tick precautions are necessary.)
The view from the summit is disappointing now. The scruffy oak trees were last cleared out in 2009. Now they block most of downtown Brattleboro. Instead, you should take the side trail at the 6th hairpin turn to see the view from the lower lookout–the preferred spot for Brattleboro panoramas for 165 years. I’ve posted the two panoramas I took today on iBrattleboro’s photo section. It was a post-thunderstorm morning with low humidity–perfect for a photo. There’s even some mountain laurel in bloom on that side trail. That outcrop will have good blueberries in two weeks.
Youth Services has once again created a downloadable spreadsheet of all camps in Windham County as a service to area families.
“Our Summer Camp Listing gives parents and grandparents a listing of all the options in one convenient location,” notes Russell Bradbury-Carlin, Youth Services’ Executive Director. “We’ve been doing this for years as a service to local families.”
AGENDA
1. Public Participation
2. Minutes from Previous Meeting
3. Old Business
A. Skatepark Update (10 min)
4. New Business
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Vermont’s Harris Hill Ski Jump is canceling its February 2021 competition due to the Covid-19 pandemic and turning its attention to planning for its centennial in 2022.
“We considered the enormous health risks to the jumpers, coaches and judges coming from around the country and overseas,” event co-directors Kate McGinn and Liz Richards said. “Those risks would extend to the hundreds of volunteers who staff the competition and the thousands of spectators who come from all over New England.”
The Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Department is pleased to announce that the Living Memorial Park Pool / Rotary Water Playground will be opening for the season on Saturday, June 20th, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. Priority will be given to Brattleboro Residents and will be open to Non-Brattleboro-Vermont Residents as space allows. Due to COVID-19, the pool schedule, fees, and procedures have been updated.
Pool Reservations: Pool reservations will be taken daily beginning at 10:00 a.m., and reservations can only be taken at the swimming pool by calling (802) 254-6700. Only 25 people including staff will be allowed into the gated area at a time. Please note that only same day reservations will be accepted, and you can only reserve one time slot a day. Additional slots may be available by calling the Pool after 2:30 p.m. When making a reservation you will be required to provide your address, phone number and first and last name of everyone in your reservation party. If all time slots are full you can add your name to the waiting list in case of no shows or cancellations.
It would seem that Major League Baseball (MLB) would have been able to figure out how to resume their season without fans in the stands by now. They have nearly unlimited financial resources and they certainly have the personnel to work on solving all of the logistical problems that have to be dealt with. Players have made comments that they would find it difficult to play without fans, but if they really had a love for the game they would realize that the fans would adjust temporarily. They owe it to their fans to make a better effort.
Professional sports in this country are driven by obscene salaries and, no matter what well-intentioned people might say, money rules. Consider these numbers.
There’s a beautiful, unknown 3-mile loop trail on Wantastiquet. I discovered it a few years ago. I’ve pushed fallen branches to the side, so now it’s sort of possible to follow it. I’ve posted a GPS track “kmz” file here that can be used on a smartphone to help stay on the trail, www.danaxtell.com/Wantastiquet_Flank_Loop.kmz . Google Earth will show this track as an overlay.
The trail goes nowhere near the summit, but does visit the best panoramic lookouts on the mountain—the ones that photographers have been using for 170 years. The loop is possible only because there is a carefully graded trail and retaining wall through the rockslides on the steepest section. I have never seen a mention of this stretch of trail. I found it while exploring the various lookout points in the area. It’s a mystery.
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — A 21-year-old Slovenian bested more than 40 of the world’s top up-and-coming athletes Sunday to win the Harris Hill Ski Jump’s annual namesake Fred Harris Memorial Tournament.
Blaz Pavlic, performing for a crowd of several thousand spectators, retired the event’s Winged Ski Trophy by topping the field for a third year after victories in 2017 and 2019.
“I’ll find a place for it,” Pavlic said of the weighty trophy that has only been retired by five other jumpers in the venue’s nearly century-old history.
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — A young Slovenian topped a field of 45 of the world’s best up-and-coming ski jumpers Saturday on the first day of this weekend’s Harris Hill Ski Jump.
Blaz Pavlic, 21, won the most total points in front of a crowd of several thousand spectators, with Simon Viehhauser, 18, of Austria second.
In the men’s U.S. Cup, Canden Wilkinson, 17, of Colorado’s Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club finished first, with teammate Niklas Malacinski, 16, second.
