Six-thousand cow bells were ordered, the snow groomed, the ice sculptures chiseled.
Spectators put on layers, lots and lots of layers — anything to keep warm on Saturday and Sunday as wind gusts of more than 40 miles an hour made 6 degrees feel well below zero.
Attendees shivered at the base of a hill in the far northwestern corner of Connecticut where risk-takers have been ski jumping for a century.
They gathered in Salisbury, Conn., for the annual competition known as Jumpfest.
The three-day competition is the marquee event of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association, a showcase for future Olympians and a winter social where fur is as welcome as Carhartt and you can sip a hot toddy, graze a cheese platter and watch humans race like sled dogs.
The tailgating vibe is distinct.
“Salisbury is a little unique, more charcuterie, definitely, than anywhere else,” Jack Kroll, 18, a ski jumper from Albany, N.Y., who trains in Lake Placid, N.Y., said on Saturday.
The competition’s backdrop is Satre Hill, named for three brothers from Norway: John, Olaf and Magnus Satre, who brought the sport to Litchfield County. Legend has it that they skied off barn roofs.
“There is no one alive today that jumped in the first year here, which is insane,” said Mr. Kroll, who has been jumping for half his life and is in the running for the Nordic Junior World Ski Championships next month in Norway.
He was supposed to jump on Saturday in the Salisbury Invitational 70-meter competition, but the wind had other plans, forcing a delay until Sunday.
The après-ski had already begun. Spectators set up a table featuring an old chafing dish, its lid impeccably polished. On the menu: Gouda sausages, chili, tortellini soup and cured meat. A set of vintage skis leaned nearby.
“I do remember the year the red wine froze,” Missy Fitzpatrick, 67, said, surveying a spread of food and adult beverages on Saturday.
Ms. Fitzpatrick drove from New Canaan, Conn., with a group of friends, for whom Jumpfest became an annual outing before the pandemic.
“We tailgated in the parking lot like you would at the Giants game,” she said of the first time she attended.
Ryan Killion, 19, who was coaching some of the jumpers and competed twice at Salisbury, said it’s an exhilarating experience soaring through the air.
“It’s the best feeling,” said Mr. Killion, who is from Plymouth, N.H. “It’s like nothing around you matters, just in the moment, flying down a hill.”
Organizers said it takes about 250 hours to make enough snow, a base of roughly 18 inches, for Jumpfest.
Four athletes currently competing in the Winter Olympics have jumped at Satre Hill, according to Ken Barker, the president of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association.
Competitors can reach speeds of up to 50 m.p.h. as they hurtle down the largest of the three jumps — there are also 20- and 36-meter jumps — on Satre Hill, the only ski-jumping venue of its kind in Connecticut and the southernmost in New England. The next closest is in Brattleboro, Vt.
“It’s less about aerodynamics and more about riding the cushion of air or catching air,” said Dale Jones, 64, the competition’s longtime announcer and a radio broadcaster. “You know when a jumper has got it right at takeoff, when they hit the edge of that tower and they seem to lift off of it. That’s when you know they’ve really caught air.”
To the average spectator, the jumpers might appear to be at dizzying heights, but they are only about 10 to 15 feet off the ground because of the contour of the landing hill, Mr. Jones said.
“It looks like the skiers are just in absolute free fall,” he said. “That’s not the case.”
Jumpfest traditionally starts on Friday night with jumping to hit a target, fireworks and human dog sled races — there are no dogs, just people.
Crashes on the hill are rare, organizers said. Still, Caroline Gilbert, 62, a director of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association, acknowledged having feelings of trepidation when her son would compete.
“When they’re ready for the next hill,” she said, “there’s a gulp moment.”
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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