"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..."
From the 1960s to the 1980s, former ski jumper Aurele Legere took care of the 3 ski jumps at Black Mountain. Jump maintenance, insurance costs, and lack of interest put an end to high school ski jumping in Maine and across the country in the early 1980s. But that didn't stop Aurele's work. I'd see him up on the 55 meter jump replacing boards, trimming small trees, and snowing the takeoff and landing hill for the annual Chisholm Ski Club Carnival jumping event of about a dozen aging ski jumpers and the occasional USSA competition.
Yesterday, for our 184th hike of the year, we headed up to the tubing area where Black Mountain's three jumps once stood. We trekked across where the takeoffs of the 20- and 30-meter jumps were and then headed up what's known as the Aurele Legere Glade, an alpine ski slope interspersed with trees and manmade jumps. This alpine glade parallels the 55-meter jump's tower where stacks of rotting wood and crisscrossed steel beams rest in the dark woods next to the glade. I doubt Aurele would be happy with the jump's fate, but he might just like being remembered as a ski jumper and caretaker.
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