A trip that changed me

Star gazing in the Cascades

I want to tell you about something ordinary. Not a trip far away or a long flight. Last summer my friend and I decided to go vol-biv overnight in the Cascade Mountains to watch a meteor shower. To be honest, I was tired and almost backed out but, somehow we arrived at the trailhead in time to summit before sunset. The hike had sweeping vistas, wild blueberry bushes and a wandering mountain goat that guided us up the final kilometre, posing obligingly for dramatic sunset photos.

As it got dark, we ate and settled into our sleeping bags to watch as faraway rock burned trails across the velvet sky. Memories of watching the Perseids in Central Park, New York City as a child echoed as I thought about the possibility of flying tomorrow. If this was all I got, it’s alright. This was enough.

But we woke to a brilliant blue morning with a breeze blowing up the slope. We hiked to a little rocky east face and discussed our plan. It wasn’t meant to be a special flight; we knew the forecast wouldn’t let us into the big mountains safely. We struggled at first to get above launch, but we popped over the crest, waved to the people at the fire tower and decided to push across the jewel-bright lakes and pine-furred slopes. 

I remembered other struggles to punch through inversions and find my way over mountains as we eked towards our modest goal. I was grateful for fighting and losing those times because here I was, meteors in my memory and the valleys unrolling ahead of me. It was more than enough. Remarkable that I could watch shooting stars from a mountaintop, fly the next day and call it life. 

Violeta Jimenez is a competition pilot and member of the US team

Vol-biv in the Alps

I’ve always loved adventure travel. First with climbing and mountaineering trips and now with paragliding. This year I invested a lot of time in vol-biv in both Europe and India. My first vol-biv trip, as part of Kinga Masztalerz’s vol-biv clinic, took me in August from Feltre in...