my random ramblingsan infrequent (and these days, mostly Mira related…) blog

late night packing, hectic morning finishing and wrapping up other details. tried to soak up the views on my way out, then got to spend my third day in a row at the SLC airport.

up and at the hangar ready to go, but we were put on a weather hold due to a cloud layer. got a jump in late in the morning when a hole developed, then another jump early afternoon, but the conditions were turning overly windy. now up to 94 jumps for the year, and got pretty close to my optimistic target of 100 by year end. made the drive back up to Phoenix, and flew into SLC to sit on my JAC flight for 2 hours before it got canceled and i got stuck in Salt Lake for the night… 🙁

was up late, and slept on a couch most of the night even though my bed was only a few steps away. nonetheless, up early, grabbed breakfast and manifested on the first load. second jump of the morning, did a 2-way with Craig Girard, member of Arizona Airspeed and arguably the best skydiver alive. got a ton of helpful feedback on my skydiving from the jump, and he was even nice enough to let me copy some footage from our jumps off of his GoPro. did a few more jumps with him through the day and ended up with a total of 7. went through my audible jump records and found a jump from this afternoon with an 87 second freefall! drove into the nearby town for dinner at a recommended sushi restaurant, then back to the DZ to listen to a DJ and eventually some well earned sleep.

slept ok, all things considered. got up early and had a nice breakfast, then managed to stand-up into the prop in front of the restaurant and put a huge gash on my forehead. 🙁 good thing I collect scars… guess i don’t need to buy a t-shirt now to remember the weekend. got in 6 jumps over the course of the day and had a blast – so glad I came. met some great people and even ran into some people I already knew. on the last jump of the day, watched the women shatter the heads-down freefly world record – setting the new mark at 41. dinner again at the Bent Prop, then boogied all night with the ladies, who were in a festive mood after the record.

7 am flight out, but delayed for various reasons and left 3 hours late. eventually got to Phoenix and made the 1 hour drive down to Eloy. was -30 with the wind chill in Jackson when i left, got to AZ and it’s in the mid 60s. insane DZ, biggest one in the world, the level of activity here is hard to imagine. people here from everywhere, training or on vacation. have heard a number of languages, met all sorts of Europeans, even including 50 or 60 Dutch paratroopers, along with folks from every other continent. only a single jump today, but expecting a busy day tomorrow. staying in the “bunkhouse”, which is worse than a hostel. Thanksgiving dinner at the Bent Prop – the DZ bar / restaurant.

first time out this winter, up on Teton Pass. climbed Mt. Glory which sits about 1600′ above the top of the Pass. coverage was pretty good up high and decent all of the way down to Old Pass Road. nice to be able to hitchhike from my driveway to the top of the Pass, and snowboard all of the way home. 🙂

got a CD in the mail from Лена with all the pictures from her camera. nice to now have 500+ pictures and videos in total from the trip, plus it gives me an excuse to post one last picture. time to start planning the next vacation…

got back from Thailand and nice to see the new construction painted. paint isn’t the best match (and will now repaint the whole thing), and there are still a couple of small items outstanding, but i can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.