What a great ski trip so far. We left foggy cold Antioch early Saturday morning for our drive to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We drove a little over 800 miles and stopped in Pocatello, Idaho for the night.
The next morning we were in Jackson Hole. We picked up Connie and Frank at the Jackson Airport. We stopped to take a few photos of the Grand Tetons.
The temperature was about 10 degrees when we took these photos. It looks a lot warmer because the sun was out.
We stopped at Bubba’s BBQ for lunch and headed to our timeshare which is located right outside the City of Jackson in the small town of Wilson. After a slight mix up with our reservations we were upgraded from a one bedroom unit to a two bedroom unit. That worked out great for all of us. Sometimes when things don’t look too good they end up turning out better than you imagined.
Cindy and I headed out for the slopes the next day. We were planning to ski a half day to see how the conditions were. On our way to the ticket office we ran into Scott Harris. He runs Jackson Hole Paragliding. He asked us if we wanted to go paragliding! We told him we had never heard of paragliding. He showed us the brochure and advised us that Jackson Hole ski resort was one of the top three paragliding sites in the US. (I think he was a used car salesman at one time.) We said we weren't sure, maybe we would think about it. Then he said the magic words, he would give us a big discount since we would be the first ones to go today and it would be great advertisement for them. He explained once people saw someone (crazy person) doing it then they might want to give it a try too. So off we go with Scott to his office. After filling out the reams of paperwork (you know the paperwork, we can’t sue anyone if we crash and die, etc, etc) we loaded onto the gondola to take us to the top of the mountain. Along with Cindy, me, Scott and Dan our second pilot we piled off the gondola with all of their equipment. Here we are over 3,000 feet above the valley floor. They strap us into our harnesses, each pilot then hooks our harness to theirs and before we launch the say don’t worry we also have a reserve shoot in case something goes wrong but it wont! Boy does that give you a warm fuzzy feeling!! We start running down the ski slope with one of the ski resort photographers chasing after you to get the good photos of you flying like a bird or falling like a rock. After just a few steps we were up, up and away. This had to be one of the greatest things we have done ever! If you are ever here in Jackson Hole be sure to give it a try. Scott’s web address is www.jhparagliding.com The following are a few photos that were taken while we were gliding.
Scott and Cindy Above the ski resort
Birds eye view of the base of Jackson Hole ski resort
Dan and I cruising about 3,000 feet above the valley floor
Looking up at the thin ropes that hold you to the paraglide wing. Scott took this, and you can see Dan & I in the distance.
Well I better end now and check to see if my heart is still beating twice as fast as normal.
5 comments:
OMG that is sooo cool!
how FUN!!! (I don't think Vernie would ever do that) I would. ;)
This looks great -- but you will never see me doing it!! Glad you had the guts to do it!! Sounds like you are having a great trip!
Quick question -- How do you land? Just like jumping out of a plane? Do you land separately from your pilot or do you take a chance on who gets landed on?
We stayed attached to the pilot for the landing. We came down very slowly and landed on our feet, walking forward while the sail fell to the ground behind us.
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