Elizabeth Drolet

Play now to hear the full adventure (reports from the sky start at 1:34).

I ARRIVED at Glenwood Adventure Co, located on Cooper Ave. in downtown Glenwood at 9 a.m, ready to be blown away.

My crew of paragliders included a 12-year-old girl and her grandpa, that I would guess to be in his late sixties. Pilot Pine said, Adventure Paragliding takes ages 2 to 92 years old. The cashier told us there would be an instructional video and some “paperwork” to sign. This paperwork would probably be the scariest part of the whole adventure.

Yes, I actually had to write out the statement below and officially sign my life away.

I Elizabeth Drolet, acknowledge “that paragliding is an inherently dangerous sport that could result in injury, paralysis, and/or death to me.”

I looked around me to see how my fellow first-time paragliders were handling the news of the chance of impending death.  The young girl was hesitant, but still on-board.  OK, If she can do this, I can do this.

My paragliding crew and I loaded into the shuttle bus, ready to drive the windy road up Red Mountain.

The girl and her grandpa were from Kansas.  During the drive, the grandpa loved the views so much, that he said he would, “pay just for the drive.”

I thought how nice it was to see the valley from fresh eyes.  As a local, I am guilty of sometimes being oblivious to the constant incredible beauty of this valley.  Now that I think about it, however, the guy was a bit nervous. Maybe, he was actually hinting that he would be satisfied with a scenic shuttle ride and was ready to continue it back down the mountain.

According to Pine, this happened once. A customer got scared and after reaching the top of the mountain and decided to not take flight. I imagine this was as awkward as the kid who reaches the top of the water slide and gets scared and then has to walk back down the stairs for a walk of shame (the kid version). Only this guy was an adult. I hope for his sake, he was able to redeem himself later in a purchase of a hot sports car, or maybe, in his case,  a hot Prius.

Pilot Pine assured me that he paraglided a total of four times a day and that not even a sprained anklehad occurred under his watch, in over 10 thousand flights.

OK Pilot Pine you sold me….Now let’s jump off the mountain, shall we?

Pilot Pine corrected me, “We are not going to jump, we are going to fly off the mountain.” I thought Pine was just trying to be romantic about paragliding.Apparently, he was referring to an important aspect to the technique of paragliding.

As it would turn out, he would fly and I would jump off the mountain.

The distinction of why “flying” was better than jumping was made clear in the pictures later, as Pilot Pine lookslike a graceful bird and I look like a baby deer learning to walk for the first time, at take off.  I would have included these fantastic shots, but to my luck, they seem to have disappeared.

Fortunately, I was in the hands of Pine, the Paragliding Pilot extraordinaire and our flight still took off with ease. From my first time experience, it seems ease and control are very important functions to paragliding.

Paragliding is the closest a human can get to actually flying. If you can get over your feet dangling over 1000 plus ft in the air, it is actually a quite tranquilexperience. It’s not like a roller-coaster or theme park ride, everything seems to be done with smooth, controlled movements, thus, an abrupt jump I could see, wouldn’t be ideal.

As we soared into the sky, we flew with the birds and glided over the beautiful canyon.  Before flying off the mountain, I had envisioned a bird perching on my shoulder and us flying off into the sunset together(maybe sunrise would be a more fitting expression, as it was morning). This didn’t happen, but I was able to fly beside aVulture and a Red-Tailed Hawk and as far as I know, it was an equally amazing experience. Until next time, birds.

Pine told me he would take me on the more adventurous ride. Which would appear as some fancy air-work, while switching back and fourth a number of feet right and left, 1000 ft above the river. This was my favorite part. Still very much in control, with the added excitement.

Overall, it was a very smooth ride with the perfect blend of adventure, without the risk of losing your breakfast.

Consensus: If you have ever dreamed about being a bird, now is your chance. Fly on.

More info about Adventure Paragliding here.