Standing tall: Ski flyers defend Copper Peak

Admittedly, ski flying is a bit off the beat for Off the Couch.

But this column describing the photographic shrinkage of the Copper Peak Ski Flying Hill was worth a slight detour to rediscover an Upper Peninsula outpost and ponder the butt-puckering fear of standing on a launch pad 18 stories high.

Dave Murray, from the Grand Rapids Press, gives the ski jump its proper respect, after noting in an earlier column that a postcard seemed to shrink its substantial stature. (It's worth a click, if only for the pictures).

"The ski flying hill is big, really big. Visitors can ride a chair lift 800 feet up the hill, then take an elevator up 18 stories to the observation deck of the ramp. Brave folks then can climb eight stories of an open stairway to the very top for a view that (Charlie) Supercynski promises is spectacular, especially during the fall."

Dan Egan, my colleague at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote a compelling feature on the Peak in 2004.

As he described, "The steel-and-wood ramp, the tip of which towers about 600 vertical feet over its spectator zone, is a Knievel-meets-Eiffel contraption built to launch skiers about 300 feet beyond what it typically takes to win Olympic gold."

Ski-flying stopped at the perch north of Ironwood in 1994, but folks like Supercynski, continue their efforts for a vertical revival.