Iola celebrates 100 years of skiing

IOLA - This year marks 100 years of skiing in Iola.

“It’s still alive and kicking,” said James Cady of Iola.

With their love of winter sports, Norwegian immigrants formed the Iola Winter Sports Club in January 1910. Ever since, people are still marching up the Iola hills to keep going down them.

“Years ago there was ski hills all over the place,” said Don Aasen who is a board member of the Iola Sports Club. “Every little hill seemed to have a jump on it because that's what people did for entertainment and nowadays there's so much more going on in the winter, but its still really exciting to see ski jumping alive and well in Iola.”

Part of the reason for the popularity of skiing and the winter sports club in Iola is anybody can participate. At the Winter Carnival’s ski jump competition, participants ranged from four to 64 years old.

“I like competing against other people and its just fun,” said Riley Steuernagel of Iola, who started skiing at three years old.

It’s common for Iola kids to start skiing at a young age. They come to the Iola Winter Sports complex, which has ski jumps ranging from five to 60 meters. It also has skiing for those who'd rather skip the slopes.

“We have seven miles of cross country trails, four miles which are lighted, which makes it the largest lit trail system in the state,” said Aasen.

While celebrating 100 years of skiing was the main attraction of this year's Winter Carnival, plenty of people came out just to enjoy the winter weather.

“People love being out here and being out in the outdoors and there's a little bit of snow falling so it's just a great atmosphere,” said Aasen.

About one thousand people went to Winter Carnival over the weekend. More than 130 people from all over the Midwest participated in the carnival's ski jump competition.