Paragliding in the Tetons!

First picture taken as I glided over the Tetons.  My feet were no where near the ground when I took this picture

Ever since I first arrived here in Jackson Hole I have been thinking about paragliding over the Tetons.  I have never before had an interest in para sailing or hang gliding, but when I watched the para gliders over the Tetons, I thought to myself "I might like to try that."  I even spoke with Rashawn about his interest in doing it while he was here in August, in hopes of convincing another person to try the adventure with me.  Rashawn has already experienced ski diving in Las Vegas, so I did not think it would take much convincing to get him to go paragliding with me.  Rashawn quickly answered "yes" to my question of paragliding with me in August.  Yesterday, while hiking/climbing the 7.2 miles to the summit, the weather was perfect and the para gliders were consistently gliding over head.  As I climbed/hiked higher and higher and got closer and closer to the gliders, I knew I had to experience that ride.  Once we reached the summit, the para gliders were talking about the fact that the area had perfect weather for paragliding yesterday and today.  Such perfect weather allowed for a take off from the highest point at the summit and also meant that the thermals would provide the opportunity for a 20 to 25 minute glide/flight back to the base.  Although I knew it would be nice to para glide right then and there, I had reached my exhaustion level with the hike and only had finding a cold beer on my mind.  While enjoying that cold beer or two or three after the hike, Olivia talked about wanting to para glide also, so we made the reservation for Sunday (today) morning.  I did let Rashawn know that I would be paragliding without him and his response was "that is not nice."  I explained to him that if I were to crash and die I did not want him to have to witness the accident!  I also told him that if I were to survive, I would enjoy the experience with him again in August.

Olivia and I made a reservation for the first flight/glide of the day.  The experts say that the best time to go is during the early morning because the conditions are at their best.  The best is what we wanted, so we made a 7:45am reservation.  Once we arrived at the Teton site and after signing 5 pages of waivers, we met our pilots.  My Pilot's name was Tom and he was great.  I found out that he is a native of Jackson Hole and for some reason that made me feel more comfortable.  Together with our pilots we boarded the tram for the ride to the summit.  I was very happy to be riding up this morning as instead of hiking!

Olivia and her Pilot John

My pilot Tom with our chute/glide

Once at the top of the summit, it was a short walk to our "jump off" location.  Remember that we were at an elevation of 10,600 feet.  I would be gliding back down to the base which is at an elevation of 6311 feet.  It was at the jump off location that Tom got me all geared up and ready to go...jump...fly/glide!  Getting geared up was not always an easy task because the wind was pretty strong and I was standing on icy snow on a down hill slope while wearing tennis shoes.  After getting all geared up and while Tom unpacked and spread out our chute/glide, I had time to look around at the other gliders and realize that if the 10 year old near me could do it than I could do it!  The time also allowed me to practice my flying.

Practicing my flying

Now ready to go, Tom explained the jump/running off procedure.  He made it sound as simple as standing up.  He said we would take a quick few running steps and the wind would gently lift us up and off we would go.  I really wasn't so sure about that, but before I could really think about it he said "let's go, start running" and in just a few steps my feet were no longer on the ground.  Tom was right, it was as easy as standing up.

First view from the air.  No feet on ground!

I was one of the first jumpers/gliders to run off the mountain and was lucky enough to have Olivia near by who recorded the take off on her iphone.  Here is the short video clip.




Once Tom and I were off flying, the ride down to the base was smooth and beautiful.  Tom had a video camera attached to his helmet and another one that was hand held on a long stick.  I hope the video helps you get just a bit of the soaring/flying feeling that I enjoyed for the 25 minute flight down to base.  I would have to say that the approach to and the actual landing might have been the most fun part of the paragliding experience.  I thoroughly enjoyed all of it and rank it right up there (but not above) my experience of climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Sydney Australia.  Each experience has etched beautiful views into my memory bank forever.