Copper Peak

Copper Peak
Location	Ironwood Township, Michigan United States
Opened	1970
Expanded	1980, 1988
Size
K-spot	K-145
Official hill record	Werner Schuster, Mathias Wallner (158.0 m in 1994)
Copper Peak
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Michigan State Historic Site
Location within the state of Michigan
Location	Ironwood, Michigan
Coordinates
NRHP Reference #	73000948
Designated MSHS	January 22, 1971

Copper Peak is a ski flying hill located in Ironwood, Michigan, United States. Ski flying involves going much greater distances than normal ski jumping.

History

Built in 1970, Copper Peak remains the only ski flying facility in the Western Hemisphere. In 1994 a K-point on Copper Peak was at 145 meters (476 ft), allowing jumps up to 158 meters (518 ft). There have been no flights at Copper Peak since 1994. An exhibition tournament was announced for 2014 but was canceled.

Between 1970 and 1994 there were ten competitions in the hill. The hill record is 158 meters (518 ft), set by Mathias Wallner and Werner Schuster (both Austria) on January 22, 1994, and January 23, 1994, respectively. The hill was expanded in the 1980s, but the profile is still outdated compared to current standards.

The site is currently used as a summer tourist attraction.

World Cup

Men

Date	Size	Winner	Second	Third
13 Feb 1981	K-145	Alois Lipburger	Andreas Felder	John Broman
14 Feb 1981	K-145	Alois Lipburger	Andreas Felder	Fritz Koch

Hill record

Date	Name	Length
1970	Zbyněk Hubač	134 m (440 ft)
1973	Akitsugu Konno	136 m (446 ft)
1973	Jerry Martin	137 m (449 ft)
1973	Akitsugu Konno	138 m (453 ft)
1974	Tom Dargay	144 m (472 ft)
1974	Jerry Martin	144 m (472 ft)
1975	Jerry Martin	147 m (482 ft)
1976	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	154 m (505 ft)
13 Feb 1981	Alois Lipburger	154 m (505 ft)
1990	Stanislav Vasko	156 m (512 ft)
22 Jan 1994	Mathias Wallner	158 m (518 ft)
23 Jan 1994	Werner Schuster	158 m (518 ft)

Renovation and future events

File:Copper Peak Ski Jump.JPG

From the bottom of the jump, August 2008

The Copper Peak, Inc., has established the Copper Peak Organizing Committee for the purposes of raising funds to renovate the ski flying facility for FIS competition scheduled to occur in summer 2017. Some improvements to the facilities were made in 2012.

On July 14, 2015, FIS (International Ski Federation) announced "Copper Peak shall be reactivated" after an inspection of the facility by FIS Race Director Walter Hofer, and the chairman of the FIS sub committee for jumping hills, Hans-Martin Renn. In October 2015, FIS awarded Copper Peak a Grand Prix Summer Series finale event to be held in September 2017 and a Summer Continental Cup and a Nordic Combined summer event, both tentatively scheduled to occur in 2018.

Mining

The hill, also known as Chippewa Hill and Old Peak, was the site of a mine owned by the Chippewa Copper Mining Company. Work began in 1845, but no copper was produced.

See also

Two other ski jumps located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan:

• Pine Mountain Ski Jump, one of the highest artificially created ski Jumps in the world, located near Iron Mountain, Michigan
• Suicide Hill Ski Jump, located near Ishpeming, Michigan and the National Ski Hall of Fame

External links

• Copper Peak
• Above It All at Copper Peak