, 1889-04-05
JUMPING DOWN A MOUNTAIN.
snowshoe Thompson's Remarkable Leap of
$50 Feet

snowshoe Thompson's Remarkable Leap of
$50 Feet
The sport of ski, " or snowshoe run
ming. SO long popular in the Sierra
Nevada mountains, is beginning to be
practiced in some of the northern of
the Atlantic states. An eastern ex-
change says: "Ski running, a Scandi-
navian sport, is becoming popular in
Minnesota. The performer slides
down hill on long wooden skates, or
foot toboggans, and at a prepared jolt
makes a leap into space. Ninety-five
feet is the longest ski jump on record
in Norway.
N~inety-five feet seems a immense
leap, but it has been so far surpassed
in the Sierras that no fastener need
ever try for the championship. The
champion ski runner and leaper of
the world was John A. Thompson
better known as 'Snowshoe Thomp-
son"-who died in Alpine county,
Cal, about thirteen years ago.
Thompson was born at Upper Tins,
Prestijeld, Norway, April 80, 1927,
and died at his home in the Sierras
May 10, 1876. He was the father of
the whole race of snowshoe runners
Of the mountain counties of Califor-
MIA He made the first pair of Nor
wegian snowshoes ever seen on the
Pacific coast.
Thompson's greatest leap was made
on the side of q steep mountain just
west of the town of Genoa, Douglas
county. Darling down the side of the
steep mountain he made a leap of $50
feet. This leap is vouched for by w.
Z. Merrill, postmaster at Woodfords,
in the high Sierras, and by several
citizens of Genoa. The leap was made
from a terrace half way down the side
of the mountain, andthe leaper landed
In a drift of snow V fifty feet in
depth, where for q time he WIS buried
out of sight.
@. P. Gregory (now deceasedD, who
was for some years neighbor to Snow
shoe Thompson in the mountains,
said, in speaking of the feats of the
great ski leaper: 81 did not see him
make his great jump off the side of tho
mountain back of Genoa, but l have
often seen him make leaps of fifty and
sixty feet at Silver Mountain, Alpine
county"
The people of Silver Mountain min
ing camp We're wont to amuse them
selves in winter by descending q big
mountain near the town and then
darting down to a valley below on
their snowshoes. They had q starting
point only about half way up the side
of the mountain. Snowshoe Thomp-
son sometimes Joined these parties of
ski n He was not satisfied with
a run down half q mountain-he
wanted it all.
He would circle round till he had
reached the highest peak Of tho big
mountain. He would then utter the
wild war cry of the old Mortimer, and
then with his balance pole poised hori-
zontally before him in both hands,
would come flying down the side Of
the mountain like a hend of the wind.
When he came near to the crowd of
townspeople standing midway down
the mountain, Thompson would stoop
almost to the ground, then suddenly
springing up would go sailing through
the air high above the men and women
watching the descent. At times he
would make several leaps, each Of
from fifty TO eighty feet in a single
descent. His ski leaping was not q
little like "sky flying"
Snowshoe Thompson was q very
sinewy and powerful man. He stood
six feet in his stockings and weighed
$50 pounds. He had the blonde hair
and beard and the blue eyes Of his
Scandinavian ancestors, tho old sea
rowing Mortimer. Virginia City En-
terprise.