The biggest weekend of the year for the Iron Mountain area — the Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson FIS Continental Cup ski jumps at Giant Pine Mountain — could be super-sized this year.

Organizers will try to expand the usual three jumping competitions — normally two on Saturday and one on Sunday — by adding another Friday, weather permitting.

It’s perhaps fitting, given the Kiwanis Ski Club was the first to host three Continental Cup competitions in a single weekend, according to the club.

The jumps, held at Giant Pine Mountain since 1939, have managed to endure, even grow in popularity. The event is expected to again draw tens of thousands to watch competitors from 10 nations, one more than in 2024: Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, France, the United States — and Norway and Finland, nations with strong ties to the Upper Peninsula’s roots.

It also will feature the usual raucous crowd at the base of the hill, where makeshift shacks and campfires for tailgating feature plenty of food and favorite beverages. It’s all part of the unique flavor of the event.

They’ll cheer no matter how long the jump, no matter which country the athlete calls home. The teams that journey each year to the remote U.P. are much appreciated by the fans who faithfully show up in mid-winter to watch the skiers soar.

The athletes, in turn, recognize a good audience. The nations that participate in the Continental Cup have named Pine Mountain as the best venue in the world for the past three years, which is as long as such a vote has been taken, according to Susie Fox, the Kiwanis Club’s correspondence secretary.

Two returning this year — Jonas Schuster of Austria and Markus Eisenbichler of Germany — set a record of 456 feet in the 2024 jumps. Also on hand is Clemens Aigner of Austria, who set a record of 472 feet before hill renovations were undertaken in 2020.

The competition’s effects go far beyond Giant Pine Mountain.

The restaurants, hotels, grocery stores and other businesses benefit from influx, to the tune of an estimated $1.5 million in economic impact, local officials say.

The growth of this community event has been wonderful to behold, a compliment to the organizers and volunteers who make it possible each year, as well as the law enforcement and others who are there so the tournament can be as trouble-free as possible.

Those who attend should take a moment to acknowledge their work, be it simply a silent thanks or, even better, by taking the time to relay that appreciation to one of the Kiwanis Ski Club members or volunteers if possible.

Then enjoy the spectacle. Soak in the atmosphere, the sights of the skiers taking flight off the jump, the sounds of whoops, horns and cowbells when they land. The scent of grilling from the tailgaters.

Iron Mountain native and former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci told Dave Kallmann of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel — himself from Florence, Wis., who for several years has graciously provided high-quality photos of the event to The Daily News — for a March 1, 2023, article that while quarterbacks coach in Green Bay he’d try to convince others in football to make the trip.

“It’s unbelievable, and it’s the biggest party in the Upper Peninsula each year,” Mariucci said of the event, “and it is something that will drop your jaw when you see this.”