GEORGE CARTER
Age 71
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Eau Claire Ski Club
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| Billy Olsen and Keith Zuehlke help George Carter off the Pine Mt. slide at 1958 US Nationals. |
Following
the 1958 National Tournament at the huge
Pine Mountain slide just outside of Iron Mountain, MI, a picture appeared in
the Iron Mountain News showing Billy Olsen and Keith Zuehlke helping an injured
George Carter off the slide. It was the
result of a mishap as Carter, skiing in the Junior Class, left the hut at the
top of the 156-foot tower.
Typical of
the times, Carter ran out of the top to gain more speed but suddenly lost one
of his skis. Carter did the sensible
thing, plunging into the sideboards in an attempt to break his fall down the
slide. While he was tumbling, the loose
ski shot down the slide, off the takeoff and continued down the hill. After being helped off the scaffold, Carter
was taken to the local hospital for observation. While in the emergency room he was lying on a
bed next to another man who had just arrived and was bloodied.
“What
happened to you,” Carter asked.
“I was out
at the ski tournament,” the man replied, “and some jerk lost his ski at the top
of the slide and it came down the hill and struck me.”
The stranger
then asked Carter what had happened to him.
Thinking quickly, Carter replied, “Oh, I was skating and fell down on
the ice.”
Carter related
another humorous event- skiing on an all-natural slide at Wisconsin Rapids he
got out of the track at the top of the hill.
“I couldn’t
get back in the track so I just continued down the side of the hill,” he
said. So far to the side that he skirted
outside a grove of trees that ran alongside the landing hill, beyond the view
of spectators, and then curved back to the outrun at the bottom of the hill.
“All the
people were looking up the hill waiting for me to come down the slide and I
just skied up behind them.”
Carter
survived his ski jumping days with no serious injuries but holds some memorable
moments.
Editor's note- This piece was excerpted
(loosely) from Ron Buckli’s book “Riding the Wind- Eau Claire Ski Jumping
1886-2008.”
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