Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid
How high can you fly over the Adirondacks?
Photos courtesy ORDA
It was a dark and snowstormy night as we made our way north on Route 73 toward Lake Placid the weekend before Thanksgiving. Snow was not projected that evening, but there we were, alone, on a dark Adirondack highway, with a thick coating of enormous snowflakes blanketing our vehicle and the road before us. We were hoping we wouldn’t slide into a ditch with no cell service.
Photo credit: Genna Batchelor
And as we rounded yet another bend in the twisting road, two enormous towers stood out against the pitch-black night, with lights blazing like guideposts steering us toward Lake Placid, as if Commissioner Gordon was sending us a bat signal or naughty Zoot was flashing the Grail Beacon again from Castle Anthrax.
It was neither of those things, but just as legendary: the Olympic Ski Jump Complex. Those two twin beacons? The pair of ski jumps, 90 and 120 meters tall, were built for the 1980 Olympics and are still fully operational today.
Quick sidebar: How tall is 120 meters? That’s roughly 400 feet. A baseball field is about 400’. So is Godzilla. It’s also 11 school buses stacked end to end. It’s 100’ taller than the Statue of Liberty and Big Ben.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the Lake Placid Ski Jumping Complex is a thriving part of the Lake Placid Olympic training complex and a terrific place to visit year-round. As an official U.S. training facility, the site allows winter visitors to watch athletes train on the ginormous jumps. Or, during warmer weather, watch from the deck of the intervales Base Lodge as aerialists flip and spin in the air and into an enormous pool.
For an even more up close and personal experience, take the Skyride, an eight-passenger gondola transporting visitors to the base of the ski jumping towers. Then feel your blood pressure explode when you take the newly-remodeled scenic elevator up to the sky deck of the 120-meter ski jump. With its glass exterior, the ride gives a stunning bird’s-eye view of the Adirondack High Peaks.
And if that’s not enough blood-pumping, heart-stopping fun for you, there’s also a zipline park running alongside the 90-meter Ski Jump Tower & Landing Hill to replicate the bowel-quivering thrills of Olympic Ski Jumping.
Be sure to check out the special events calendar for the Lake Placid Olympic sites. They host many National and International events all year long.
And all the details you’ll need to plan your visit can be found on the Ski Jumping Complex website.
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