K-point, hill size and hill categories explained simply — plus the maths that turns metres, style marks, wind and gate into a final score.
Short and direct: the K-point is a hill's construction point and at the same time its zero line — land exactly there and you get 60 distance points. The hill size (HS) instead marks the end of the safely usable landing area and is derived from the K-point divided by 0.9 [1].
That clears up the most common confusion in ski jumping broadcasts: K-point = scoring anchor, HS = size of the hill. An "HS 140" is a large hill with a K-point of about 126 metres. And when a commentator says someone jumped "beyond the hill size", it means the jumper went further than the hill was designed for.
The rest is arithmetic — and it is simpler than it looks. A jump consists of distance, style and a correction for conditions nobody can control [2][4].
This section explains hills and scoring — it is not an instruction to take on any particular hill size yourself.
From top to bottom: the in-run at roughly 35 degrees, ending in the take-off table angled about 10.5 degrees downward [6], then the landing hill. Its profile is not a straight slope: right after the table it is convex, further down concave; exactly at the transition, where jumpers land, it is steepest and then flattens toward the outrun [1]. Which is why jumpers fly surprisingly close over the snow most of the time.
The K-point (construction point) is the reference distance the hill was built around. Hill size is derived from it: HS = K-point distance divided by 0.9 [1]. At K 120 that gives about HS 133. HS describes the end of the intended landing area — it is the number that appears in hill names today.
The categories are clearly delimited [1]:
The route through them runs strictly bottom-up: every jumper begins on the smallest hill and only moves a size up when ready [5].
Landing exactly at the K-point = 60 points [1]. Every metre beyond adds points, every metre short subtracts — at a metre value of 2.0 points per metre on hills with a K-point of 80 to 99 and 1.8 points per metre at a K-point of 100 to 134 [1]. The bigger the hill, the less a single metre is worth.
Then come the style marks: five judges award up to 20 points each, the highest and lowest are dropped, leaving a maximum of 60 style points [2]. And since 2009 a compensation system evens out conditions: headwind brings a deduction, tailwind a bonus, calculated with a hill-specific wind factor; if the in-run length (gate) is changed, that too is settled with a fixed factor per step [4]. That is how a jump at 6 p.m. becomes comparable to one at 5 p.m.
Hill sizes are not an ambition ranking, they are a safety system. The categories from small hill to ski flying hill [1] exist so that demand grows in steps — and the order is not negotiable: every jumper starts on the smallest hill and moves up only when coaches confirm readiness [5].
That applies to you as an interested onlooker too: this guide explains and motivates, it never replaces supervised training in a club or on the hill. A jumping hill is a piece of sports equipment with a precise profile, not a slope you casually take along. The way onto any hill size runs exclusively through a qualified coach and a certified facility — dry-land practice, smallest hill, then step by step bigger.
At the next competition, watch the metre value. On a normal hill an extra metre earns you 2.0 points, on a large hill only 1.8 [1]. Sounds like a detail — but it means: the bigger the hill, the more the style mark decides, because a single metre weighs less [1][2]. Which is exactly why on large hills you so often see that the longest jump does not win.
The K-point is a hill's construction point and its scoring zero line: land there and you get 60 distance points [1]. Hill size marks the end of the intended landing area and is calculated as the K-point distance divided by 0.9 [1]. In short: the K-point scores, HS describes the size.
The boundary sits at K-point 100. A normal hill has a K-point of 75 to 99 metres and a hill size of 85 to 109, a large hill a K-point from 100 and an HS from 110 [1]. In practice that means longer flights, higher speeds — and a lower metre value of 1.8 instead of 2.0 points [1].
From four building blocks: distance points (60 at the K-point, plus or minus 2.0 or 1.8 points per metre) [1], style marks from five judges of up to 20 points each with the highest and lowest dropped — a maximum of 60 points [2] — plus additions or deductions for wind and in-run length following fixed hill-specific factors [4].
Ski flying is the competition format on hills from hill size 185 upward [3]. Only a few venues qualify, among them Vikersund and Planica at HS 240 and Oberstdorf and Bad Mitterndorf at HS 235 [3]. There, distances beyond 250 metres are possible — the world record stands at 253.5 metres, set in Vikersund in 2017 [3].
How High Do Ski Jumpers Really Fly — and Why the Landing Is Not a Crash