A trio of competitors successfully make their way down the landing hill of The Big Nansen ski jump on Saturday during the annual art sled rally at the Nansen Ski Club’s Winter Carnival.
Claudette “Crash” Marino heads down the landing hill of The Big Nansen ski jump on Saturday during the annual Art Sled Rally at the Nansen Ski Club’s Winter Carnival.
A trio of competitors successfully make their way down the landing hill of The Big Nansen ski jump on Saturday during the annual art sled rally at the Nansen Ski Club’s Winter Carnival.
MILAN — Employing what she called “reverse psychology,” which included her dressing as a crash-test dummy, Claudette Marino avoided trouble Saturday while riding her miniature Jeep to unprecedented lengths during the fifth annual art sled rally at the Nansen Ski Club’s Winter Carnival.
First held in 1923, the Winter Carnival took place at the Nansen Ski Jump State Historic Site on New Hampshire Route 16, about a mile north of Berlin.
In the past five years, the Winter Carnival has begun with the rally and ended, as it did Sunday, with the Nansen Eastern Ski Jumping Meet, which draws competitors from all over New England and as far as New York.
Marino, 71, who lives in Milan with her husband Phil, has competed in every art sled rally, but until Saturday she had only one finish and three crashes in trying to come down from the midpoint of The Big Nansen’s landing hill.
At 171.5 feet long, the ski jump now commonly known as The Big Nansen was the largest steel tower jump in the U.S. when it opened in 1937, according to the club’s history of it. A year later, the jump hosted the inaugural U.S. Olympic tryouts, and subsequently the FIS World Championships in 1939; four U.S. National Ski Jumping Championships; and many regional competitions before it closed in 1985.
For the next 32 years, The Big Nansen went dormant and was known as The Sleeping Giant.
The giant awakened in March, 2017 when Sarah Hendrickson, preceded by a teammate, soared off the renovated tower as part of a promotion by the makers of the Red Bull energy drink.
Shawn Marquis, who is president of the Nansen Ski Club, said on Sunday that the art sled rally and the Eastern Ski Jumping Meet, each of which took place under bright, sunny skies, but in bitterly cold temperatures, celebrate the long history and bright future of the club and The Big Nansen.
The Nansen Ski Club and the state have worked to bring The Big Nansen back to competitive form as part of a multi-jump venue. To date, a 39-meter jump and a 10-meter jump have been installed, and the plan is bring electricity and snow-making capability to the site, said Marquis.
Claudette “Crash” Marino heads down the landing hill of The Big Nansen ski jump on Saturday during the annual Art Sled Rally at the Nansen Ski Club’s Winter Carnival.
John Koziol/Union Leader Correspondent
He said the Winter Carnival keeps the promise of The Big Nansen’s revitalization in mind for the club and its supporters.
He conceded that Saturday “we were a little light on sleds because of the weather but we were certainly strong in spirit which is always the case whenever we hold the art sled rally.”
Unlike the Nansen Eastern Ski Jumping Meet, the art sled rally is less a competition than an exposition of “fun and play across multiple generations,” said Marquis.
“We’ve had people who’ve slid down in a port-a-pottie,” he said, and others whose only motivation was getting a laugh out of spectators and successfully completing a run.
Marino did both, he said.
“Collette really wins the spirit award for me,” said Marquis, although no such award is actually presented.
“She’s shown up every year with amazing sleds,” he said. “Everybody loves what she does and the fact that she unleashes the kid inside her and takes it to the hill with such ferocity and joy … she is one of the pillars of the event.”
“I’m the oldest one out here, always,” she said with a chuckle, “but I keep up with the young kids.”
