Deep dive into the short, Danish ski jumping world set eyes on a “mountain monkey”
How much is there to say about the ski jumping history of a nation whose longest recorded jump is 37 meters? Attpåtil set by a Norwegian.. Roger Pihl has written a book of 212 pages about the Danes’ jumping history – among other things when the Danes in the post-war period sent food to Norway by train, in exchange for Norwegian snow.
Roger Pihl grew up in Oppsal, has lived in Fjellhus in Alna district and today lives in Fetsund. He has his own weekly column in the local newspaper, “Onsdagsphilsen”, and he is listed as an author of almost 80 books. Nine of these are about the Danish highlands, and now he is out with “Skihopping in Denmark … with accompanying side jump”, book number nine in the above-mentioned book series.
– In a way, this is a natural sequel to my projects about Danish high mountains. Previously, I wrote about rock climbing on Bornholm and then one about Himmelbjerget. Then I had to write an article in the Ski Association’s yearbook for 2022 about Holtekollen, which was the big jumping hill in Copenhagen.
– I did research and found out that there were quite a few jumping hills in Denmark. “This deserves a whole book”, I thought, someone has to write that book, and that someone is me, says Roger Pihl.
37 meters against 250 meters
In total, the work has taken just over six months, and Pihl, who has a background as an editor, knows how to do research. 7,000 newspaper articles stored in the Danish newspaper archive have been reviewed, and Pihl himself has been to Denmark to track down the ski jumps. Today they have all been removed. So, the hill is still there, but the scaffolding and the jump itself are gone, and many of the hills are overgrown and reclaimed by nature. There is little to say about the effort for the man who has a fear of heights.
– You will find most of the hills in Jutland, where you have the central Jutland lake highlands with high points. But also on Funen and Zealand, says Pihl.
The book about Danish ski jumping history is for those interested in sports, but also for those with a sense of humor and for those who “have everything”, says Pihl:
– Because it’s a humorous addition to it when you see what ski jumping is like today. Today they jump a quarter of a kilometer, and the hill record in Denmark is 37 metres. If you had told Danes back then that in the future it would be a man named Stefan Kraft who jumped 250 metres, they would have thought you were sick. But it belongs to history that at the same time the hill record in Holmenkollen was 50 metres.
The Danish hill record is held by the Norwegian Ola Geithus, who, at the end of the 40s, jumped 37 meters in Holtekollen in Copenhagen.
– And the audience influx was enormous in Denmark. In 1952, only Holmenkollen had more spectators in Europe. Denmark drew more than the hill in Oberstdorf did. It would be unthinkable today, but that’s how it was then.
– Laugh at them, but not too loudly
Ski jumping died out in Denmark in the late 60s. “Denmark has, for natural reasons, little tradition of skiing”, it says when you search for Danish ski jumping history on Wikipedia.
For a long time, the Danes had Norwegian snow transported by train to Denmark, says Pihl.
– Norwegian children were helped by Denmark during and after the war. Denmark sent food to Norway by train, but the trains returned to Denmark empty, because what we had for export had either been taken by the Germans or we needed it ourselves. Then Birger Ruud came up with the idea of sending snow to Denmark, with the empty trains, to ensure that they could organize showjumping there.
– But eventually the Danish food aid stopped, and thus there were no train carriages to use. Then the Danes had to pay, and they didn’t have the money for that. That’s how the snow export disappeared by itself, and then the winter in Denmark disappeared, it became snow-poor and unstable.
Today’s Holmenkoll hill was designed by a Danish-Belgian architect, and Pihl can tell that several Danes have also jumped at Holmenkollen.
– That is more than most of us dare. You can laugh at them, but you shouldn’t laugh too loud.
Friend of Denmark
– Aren’t you making fun of Denmark with this book?
– No, I don’t. I joke with them on their own terms. When I say I’m going to Himmelbjerget, they say «remember oxygen». They understand my humor, and my books about the Danish high mountains have sold more than 40,000 copies there. It is obvious that they understand the humor.
– What kind of feedback do you get from Danes on these books?
– I don’t mean to be rude now, but I can walk down the street in Danish cities and be recognized. They come up and say that they know that it is I who wrote this and that book. It is an expression that I have struck a nerve there.
– Is there a way back for Danish ski jumping?
– It gets complicated when we look at climate change. They don’t get the big hills in Denmark, but if it’s a stable winter they could make a 50-metre hill. They could start their careers there, and then go to Lillehammer to develop in the big hills. But it comes and goes, Pihl concludes.