Mt. Okura Ski Jump Stadium (Ōkurayama-Schanze)

This guide to Mt. Okura Ski Jump Stadium in Sapporo replays the afternoon of February 11, 1972, when a nineteen-year-old Polish mechanic named Wojciech Fortuna, barely considered a contender, stepped into the gate above you. It sets him against the favorites, Japan's Yukio Kasaya and reigning champion Ingolf Mork, and follows his first jump off this exact inrun toward a landing so far down the outrun that rivals were left stunned. The hill itself was built four decades earlier by timber magnate Kishichiro Okura with a Norwegian ski official's advice. Ride the chairlift up past that same inrun to the observation deck above the city.