Welcome to another episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem, coming to you live, in a sense, from the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Came up here for the premiere of North of Known, about the Alaska expedition with Dave Turner, across the Alaskan Range, which is playing this weekend. And ran into Cedar Wright, who is also premiering his film, The Fledglings. Great film, if you haven't seen it yet, go out and grab it. Really cool film about he and Matt Siegel learning how to fly. So this is the first time we've had another guest on the show for the second time. And the reason is, is because Cedar has had an amazing year. He and his team flew off Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico. That's part of the film, The Fledglings.
But the last time we sat down with Cedar, he was kind of six months in, and he was calling paragliding his sky crack, and he just couldn't get enough. And now it's a year later, he's been traveling all over the world, he's still crazy about paragliding, he still calls it a sky crack. And I just wanted to catch up with him and find out how things were going, and what progression was happening with him, and how he was approaching his training, and what's in his future. And he is right smack dab in the middle of what we like to call the intermediate syndrome. And I thought that'd be really interesting for the guests, or for our listeners, because typically I interview people who are kind of at the top of their game, and Cedar certainly has the ability to get there, but we're kind of following his progress, on the way up.
He had a pretty scary flight that he's going to illuminate you about flying back through some power lines in this talk. So stick with it. It's hysterical. Cedar's always hysterical. So we had a really nice chat here last night before the films, and just wanted to catch up and thought you would enjoy. So without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Cedar Wright.
Thanks,
man. Thanks. I'm glad you like it. It's definitely the opposite of your film. A little less serious. Yeah, a little less hardcore.
Definitely a different tone.
I'm still figuring it out, dude. I was thinking about it on the way in here. You've gone from newbie to fledgling. Do
you think you've moved on?
to, to, uh, beyond, you know, to intermediate syndrome, right, right smack and intermediate syndrome. I remember that zone for a long time. Yeah. Now I can really, I've got enough rope to hang myself with now. It's awesome. Right. And I know you've had some pretty interesting experiences lately, but, uh, before we get into those, yeah, basically a year, you know, that we talked last time, a little over a year. So last time you were about six months in, it was a full sky crack. You were just having one, you'd just gone to like 15,000 feet that day with me and Sun Valley and had a little whipper and you were like, Whoa, dude, that was amazing. And, uh, so tell me about some of the experiences you had this year. Yeah. Well, I mean, so it was just sort of that pace of things just continued, you know? And so I, um,
you know, leading up to the fledgling story, which is of course about, uh, myself and Matt Siegel, I learned to paraglide with flying off of, uh, Pico de Orizaba in Mexico. Well, leading up to that, Matt went into the bugaboos to work on this climbing project. And I went just full obsessed. I went obsessive compulsive disorder fully into paragliding and, um, I was chasing it anywhere I could. Uh, my instructor, Matt Henzey, um, was luckily going to a lot of really interesting places. And so I was just kind of going, going, you know, wherever he was going. And so, you know, that's how I ended up there, um, in Sun Valley and, uh, you know, it's six months into paragliding and taking huge collapses and going 15,000 feet. And so I was just kind of going, going, you know, 15,000 feet in six months in the paragliding and being like, I remember you were like, dude, you gotta like, you gotta freaking calm down, dude.
Cause this is how it is all the time. I'm all like, this is
how it is all the time. I was
freaking out. But yeah, so I, I, you know, I, I was lucky to, um, I mean, God, you know, it's crazy. It's only, it's been, you know, about a year since I've seen you. And it's, it just feels like a lifetime of crazy, crazy adventures. I've chased the, um, the cross country, the cross country stuff super hard. Um, I've had some incredible flights. I mean, I've been to, since I saw you last, I, since we talked last, I've been to the Sierra Nevada twice. Um, and you were out there for nationals. I was out there for nationals. I saw how serious it can be. Um, you know, I was, that was probably an eye opener. Yeah. And it seems like really bad accidents. Yep. I've seen a lot of, um, you know, I've seen some carnage. I'm seeing some carnage, but my trip out there was, um, was awesome. My first day actually kind of had some personal records, right? Yeah. Yeah. I had my distance.
So it was like coming to Sierra. I like, I, I got my first 50 mile flight. Big pine, which was totally outrageous. And, uh, I, that's an outrageous zone. It just doesn't matter if you fly a mile or 200, it's like crazy out there. Walt's point, um, is probably the most outrageous place I've ever paraglided now, but now I've, I've kind of been around the block. You know, there's a couple other places that, that compete. Um, I flew skinny Ridge and had an outrageous 50 mile flight where I flew to Aspen. Um, or it was actually almost 60 mile flight to Aspen. Dude, I got up to 17,000.
I flew to 17
,000 feet. Holy cow. And, uh, yeah, that was an amazing, amazing flight. And skinny Ridge is crazy, crazy. That's like Colorado, like distance record was set there, um, by Pete. Does that start like Glenwood Springs? Yep. Yep. Starts, it actually starts kind of like, um, a little, a little bit west. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Towards the book cliffs and towards, um, uh, towards carbon. Outrageous dude. Highest mountains in Colorado. You're just sending it right over the top, right? To like fly into, yeah, you have to do these big crossings or yeah. The, uh, the, the skinny Ridge, um, is pretty wild because you, you're like, you barely, it's like, you barely have like the LZ in quotation marks. Cause no one ever really goes and lands there. Cause it's an XC site. Right. And, uh, but you barely have it in glide and you just like go the other way, like into this, like to this horrible valley of rock and doom and trees.
And then you catch a thermal ideally something horrific happens, but it works. And, um, you know, and I was there with the locals and they were like, sure me that it would probably be fine. And, um, yeah, I ended up, uh, I ended up having a really, really amazing flight. I struggled, struggled, struggled for through the first, um, probably third of the flight while the, uh, the date kind of turned on and, um, I was pretty low, pretty low. And then by the time I got to Carbondale, which may be 20 miles into the flight or something, I just got boosted to 17,000 feet, no oxygen, just hypoxic. Uh, I don't think so. I don't think I was fine. I mean, I was fine.
I remember actually Pete, um, uh, who has the distance record in Colorado, like, you know, gave me some advice. Well, a couple of things that really helped. He was all like, yeah, most people end up, you know, landing in Carbondale cause they just kind of run out of stamina. Right. It's just because it's just, it's hardcore and intense, like mountain thermal flying, you know, maybe even more rowdy than the thermals I've experienced in this here in Nevada. And, uh, yeah, I mean, I thought it was rowdy, man. Yeah. Or actually I'm going to, and also, yeah, it's, it's crazy there. And, um, but he said, yeah, mental stamina. And, um, and then he said, you know, if you start getting really high, you know, maybe start trying to make sure your brain is working. And so he was like, yeah, you know, like he, he's like, I like to do simple stuff, like be like, okay, well, if it's 6,000 feet down there and I'm at, you know, 17,000 feet, you know, how many, how many feet off the ground am I, you know, and if you can do the, some simple math, then you're fine.
Just keep going, just keep going. And, but it is also, I think, you know, it is like, as far as that flying with O2 stuff goes, if you live in Colorado, right. And you're like, you know, I was like flying my local site there in Boulder and I was, um, you know, I was getting all kinds of, uh, you know, like 12, 13, even I got to 15,000 feet in Boulder one day. And so, you know, I was, I was going down, I was flying a lot and I was going to altitude kind of all the time, at least to like 10 to 12,000 feet, like on the regular. Right. So I think when you're kind of like subjective. Yeah. Your body to that, then you go to 17, it's not as bad. Not as bad. So you're, you're clearly, your stoke is still super high. You're like, what's, what's happened. Has anything changed in terms of the progression or has it just been a steady, is this arc it just been, you know, have there been like, Whoa, wait a minute, a little bit of a plateau.
Oh shit. A little bit backwards. Or has it just been kind of go, go, go. Tell me maybe a little bit about wing choice, maybe a little bit about, um, you know, you did the Menarca. Yeah. You went down, he flew off the highest mountain in Mexico. Yeah. Which was rad. Um, you know, huge patients game there. Um, and I, you know, from looking at the film, it, that was, that was not a no brainer getting off that thing. It looked a little dicey. That was super sketch. But I, I mean, talk a little bit about that because you know, at first you were six months in and it was all just like stoke. And now you've probably seen a little bit more of the reality. You've seen a little bit more about what, what can be done. Um, tell me something about that. Yeah, no, the, the progression has been really, really interesting.
Um, you know, going down to Mexico is really, really big for my progression, I think, because I going to buy it, you know, it was a, so I, you know, I, I was like, I'm going to enter Menarca, you know, just like, I'm just going to go all in and, you know, and I, a lot of pilots, um, Trey Hackney, you, um, uh, Nate scales farmer, although everyone was saying, yeah, you know, like doing a comp is like worth, like, you know, like the 20, 30 cross country flights, right? Like you're going to learn so much. And, um, so I went down there before the comp, I, um, you know, all of like, you know, a lot of the top pilots were down there. Um, you know, I was flying in these huge gables, which is totally outrageous and crazy, you know, that it's just like kind of a school of fish, you know, in three dimensions, just like just circling up in this rising air.
It was totally outrageous. I was on the hook for, yep. So, so I was really lucky, you know, to use some of my like climbing notoriety to, um, um, to kind of reach out to Nivea can Nivea cook me up, um, uh, with the hook for, they also, um, which, which is an amazing wing to that wing is bomber, dude. It's like a tank. It's like an air tank wherever. Oh yeah. And it's just like, you know, it's just like, it'll take some collapses and stuff, but it never really turns. And it's just like, it was perfect for where I was at, where, you know, I wasn't flying super actively. I was sort of getting it, but, um, you know, like I was having the occasional blow up, um, like, like I had in some valley. Um, but yeah, I know the hook for was the hook for was awesome. And, um, and that experience was awesome, but Menarca, it's like the wind turned on and it was difficult.
It was really difficult. I was like my whole goal and you start getting pushed around and actually Menarca last year was incredibly windy. It was really windy. It was always windy, but it was really tough conditions, you know? And it was, it was almost like, unless you were on a two liner, you weren't really going anywhere. No, you were just weren't pushing around the course. It was impossible that even the deltas and stuff were just falling out of the sky. And like, so me on my hook for, I was like, dude, I was like, I just want to make a turn point. I didn't make a single turn point. I was like, damn it. You know what though? That's awesome. I remember when, when, when Nick Greece won us nationals a couple of years ago in Chelan, he got up, you know, to accept his award. And he talked about one of the first few times, you know, he, he went to Chelan and he was on like a pretty hot wing and he was stoked and you know, he'd done some training and he
was like, you know, he
felt like he had a good chance. He didn't make it across the river once. He just went over and lawn darted every single day, you know, like never made it over the, over the wires, you know, just makes you realize that, you know, that happens, that happens to everybody. Totally. And it won. So, you know, I was, it's like, just to kind of like make that connection. So Nick has been like an awesome, awesome mentor for me. And I've been really lucky. I just like, you know, I bumped into Nick kind of through the outdoor industry
and I think,
I think Nick farmer, Nate, you, you guys all saw my like, kind of like my unbridled stoke and you saw the potential, but also like the potential hazards of being so stoked with so little actual information in your brain. But so Nick was really great. He kind of took me, I went out to, to the comp in Chelan and, and Nick took me under his wing and dude, he hooked me up, dude. We ended up staying in like this mansion on the hill with Bruce Goldsmith. And so, you know, here I am like, right. It's like, I'm such a mother mentor. Oh yeah, dude. I'm all like, I'm like a year and a half into paragliding. I'm hanging out with Nick Greece and Bruce Goldsmith in this mansion on this hill. You know what? There's a really important lesson here because you know, I, I had this great talk a few episodes ago with Jackie Sanderson and uh, I think he was the one that said this, but he was like, you know, I said, you know what, who do you want to be hanging out with to, to get better?
And he was like, you just, you avoid the ground suck crew. Yeah. You
don't like
the plague. Totally. And cause I kind of did the same thing you did very early on. You know, I went to Haiti with, with Nick before I even knew him. And I think you just, you know, you make an effort to enmesh if that's, you know, be hang out with the paragliders you want to become like, right. I mean, you you're, you're enmeshed with the best of the best. You're obviously going to get better. And these are not people that have ground suck problems. They want to go flying. Yeah. So, so, so we're, we're staying in this mansion. Right. And, uh,
you know, and, uh,
and like one day, this is just a good story. One day, um, the it's too windy to fly. Right. But everybody's gone up and Nick's like, you know, expert comp pilot, you know, he's all no, no, we're just going to conserve our energy and hang down here. He's all, it's 2d. I'm willing to fly. And then, uh, then Bruce is like, you know, it looks like we can launch from the backyard and rich sore right now. And I was all, really? I'm all okay. I'm all like, so I watched Bruce launch. I'm like, holy shit, it's working. And then like Nick launches and I'm like, fuck. Do you, I guess I have to go for it, dude. And so I, I launch and we end up like from this mansion, like next to this lake, we end up, we end up like just like benching up like almost 2000 feet and having the most epic up to the butte or not quite up to the butte, but up to the peaks in front of the butte.
And we ended up, we had ended up having the best rich soaring session of my life while everybody was up and everybody could see us up there. Right. They're all just waiting. They were all watching us. They all could see us. Speaker
1 And
we were having this epic soaring session. We were like top landing on these peaks and stuff and like taking photos. I mean, it was like by far the best soaring session of my life, you know? And it was like, I was all like, man, Bruce Goldsmith's like a sensei. He is a sensei. And his son was there. Tear was there. We were hanging with Tear. Cool. I may or may not have exposed Tear to his first mushroom trip.
Put
it in. Don't be a pussy. Speaker 2 It's in. It's in. We got an explicit re-envision whenever we want. That is awesome. That is awesome. Excellent. Speaker
1 Yeah. Speaker 2 We had some
good things going down in Chelan. Speaker 2 Yeah.
Speaker 1 We
had an awesome time. Speaker 2 That place was magic.
Speaker 1
Yeah. That was incredible. Speaker 2 So when you were in, you know, a recurring theme on the show is of course safety and risk. Speaker 1 Yeah. Speaker 2 And trying to kind of spread that knowledge. Speaker 1 Yeah. Speaker 2 As we talked about at the top of the show, you're kind of in that, you know, everybody goes through this. You're in that intermediate syndrome. Speaker 1 I am. Speaker 2 You know, intermediate stage, whatever. Maybe not syndrome. Speaker 1 I think I have it. Speaker 2 Maybe you do. Speaker 1 A little bit. Speaker 2 And we'll talk about Marshall. We'll bring that out. But, you know, I'm going to you know, I, when you left Sun Valley, I went through this kind of like, man, and I talked about it with Farmer and I talked about it with Nate and I was like, dude, were we too hard on him? Like, do we, do we just fucking harp on this stuff way too much? Because, you know, we were seeing like somebody who comes to Sun Valley and flies in the middle of the day after six months, like you don't, you just don't do that.
You're kind of breaking all the rules, you know? And so on the one hand it was like, dude, if he gets through this, he's going to be epic. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 On the other hand, it was like, we like him, but we don't want him to get hurt or killed. So I kept, I kept, I felt like we kind of kept trying to put the brakes on you. And I'm wondering, you know, now after a year, was that legit? Was that not legit? Because you and I were talking about last night, you know, this is something that this industry, we pilots, we harp on this a lot. Speaker
2 Yeah.
Maybe too much.
Speaker 1 Do you harp
on it too much? Speaker 2 Yes. Speaker 1 Okay. Speaker 2 Yes. So my opinion coming from climbing and, you know, my, you know, my, you know, as a professional climber where there's tons of risk and there's tons of injury and there's tons of death, you know, and it's important to recognize all that stuff. I think there is an unusual obsession with, with accidents and injury in this sport. And, and I think that it can, it can make it really hard to have fun flying, you know, some of the, some of the, the fear and the anxiety that some people can kind of put on you. And so I kind of quickly realized, you know, I'm very good at sort of just compartmentalizing things and, and, you know, and taking, you know, like taking someone else's emotions and fears and sort of, you know, just like acknowledging them, but then realizing that I feel good about this, you know, and that for me, this is the path I want to be on, you know?
And, but see, I think we worry a little too much in this paragliding community, I think. I think we obsess over accidents a little too much. But at the same time, right? It's like, I mean, I get it. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 I really want to, you know, I'm going to tell my incident story here a little later. And it's like, there's a lot of things that you can learn from these stories. So even I get, even myself, I get kind of fascinated. I really want to know what happened, you know? And it's interesting. I see some, you know, I see this, this is a really interesting thing in the community. You see people, they're like, oh, well, you know, there's this tendency to be like, oh, well, he fucked it up. You know, he was, you know, we really want to like kind of reason to ourselves, like, well, that couldn't happen to me because I would never do this or that. Speaker
2 Right. Speaker 1 Right. Like,
but there's all this also this element of, yeah, it's a risk sport, you know, don't kid yourself, you know, paragliding is dangerous, you know, and, and if you don't acknowledge that, then it's even more dangerous because if you're just trying to like convince yourself that this, this is somehow like a perfectly safe sport, then you're really making it risky, right? Speaker 2 Sure. Speaker 1 And, and so in climbing, coming from this risk sport of climbing and having done a lot of ropeless climbing and a lot of alpine climbing and stuff where you're constantly assessing risk and you're constantly, you know, you're taking risk. You're, but you're trying to, you know, have like a, to use your abilities and your, and all the information around you to make smart decisions, you know, it, it, it works, it can work that way in paragliding, I believe, but also in paragliding, it is, man, there are, there's, there's shit that you can't see that can get you.
Speaker
2 You
said something last night that I thought was really interesting in, in one, the one big difference is that with climbers, the access to the stuff you're climbing. You're talking about requires talent, ability, training, athleticism, whereas in paragliding, you can kind of be a dipshit and go fly a paraglider, can you a little bit, a little harsh, that's a little harsh, but also the right, I mean, but you, you, you may not have the quote unquote stuff that it takes that suddenly you're, you're in the air, especially, you know, whether you're new or, you know, pushing into where you are more intermediate or even beyond that. Speaker 2 Yeah. You know, like the things just suddenly radically change. Whereas with climbing, it's like, okay, I can climb a five 13 or a five 12 or a five let, or I can aid, you know, like you don't, you just throw yourself on something way above your head.
You just don't even get up on the rock. Speaker
1 Yeah.
There's more of a progression. There's more, um, dues paid, I think, to get there, you know, and I think that was, you know, um, to, that was some of your guys' concern. We were like, well, this is cool. This guy's here in sun Valley, but you know, it's only been six months. But, um, I think it was, I think it was kind of like, well, we really should be checking off some things before this, you know, like there, there's certainly, there's some things that are being, been skipped and I, you know, because I was hearing the same thing for sure. Believe me for quite a while when I was, when I was going through the same thing, I was just incredibly stoked and I didn't have the same kind of fear, I think factor that many people have. So I think dicey things weren't scaring me as much. I kept being told. Oh, over and over again, dude, you're risking it too much.
You're risking it too much. Too much. Yeah. But that's like the, you know, the beauty of paragliding. I mean, I was like, this is my favorite, favorite quote, um, is bill Belcourt said you can't retro bolt this guy.
So for people who aren't climbers, people aren't climbers to explain this quote to him. It is that retro bolting is where you basically take a climb and make it safer, right? You add bolts to the climb to make it safer. Yeah. And you just can't do that in the sky. The sky is inherently dangerous. You know, you can try to make your glider safer and more class resistance and all that stuff. But in a sense, right, there's always this inherent kind of gnarliness and rowdiness and risk out there in the air, in that, in that midday mountain air. And that's, I think part of the, um, attraction, um, for me to the sport. Um, and, uh, you know, I kind of, like when I first started climbing, um, it was a little more old school. We're a little more willing to go for it.
And I've watched like with the advent of climbing gyms, um, and sport climbing and bouldering, I've watched people kind of just become like, like gymnasts, you know, and there's, and there's no real, they're, they're, they're milking all the risk out of the sport. Right. Right. And so the beauty of paragliding is it's risky. Yeah. It's a risk sport, but like, it's outrageous, dude. Like the stuff that you can do in a paraglider is like, oh
my God.
It's unreal, dude. Like, you know, it's yeah, it's totally, it's still took completely absurd. Every time I jump off the mountain, I'm like, this is absurd. This is crazy. I'm hanging under a bed sheet. So when you, when you, when you think back to last year, when I was talking to you, do you have a different approach going forward now than you did then, or is it pretty much get after it? Keep doing it. Yeah. Well, so I mean, I, I, it's like, I have more information, you know, I'm learning a lot about the, uh, the weather, you know? I can actually go onto XCSkies and, you know, um, and analyze conditions, you know, um, for myself, you know, I'm still not by no means an expert, but at least like figuring it out. Yeah. I'm figuring it out. You know, I'm starting to understand, you know, like, like different layers of wind and, um, you know, I'm able to look at a day and kind of get it, get it like a feel for whether it's, it's, you know, going to be a pretty good or a great day.
Um, but I mean, you know, I, I don't regret the way I went about paragliding. Um, I think you kind of ran the gauntlet or not really. No, I think so. No, I don't think your approach is, I mean, I think you've been really aggressive, but I think you're also super mindful of the hazards. I think you're pretty good about going. Yeah. Maybe today's not my day. Yeah. And I, you know, I, I think, um, you know, for, for all the things, you know, people are like, oh, well, he went so fast into it. Well, well, yes, but it's also, well, I'm very fortunate to be a professional climber. So I have like, you know, and when I went into the sport. You know, I didn't have a job, um, I didn't have a nine to five, like, so I like racked up like, you know, like the hours that a lot of pilots probably rack up in a few years in six months.
And so I was flying every single chance I could get. And I don't regret that at all because, um, I built this really great base right away. And I kind of knew in my mind, um, and from my experiences with risk and climbing, you know, that it's all about, it's the same in climbing. It's all about currency. It's all about. You can, you can improve so much faster if you just never regress, right? So if it's like, if you're flying like once every weekend, um, you know, you're kind of almost just catching up. You're kind of back where you started all the time a little bit. Right. But if you're like flying every single chance that you can get, you know what I mean? Then it's just like the, the lessons start to build on top of themselves more. And I think that, um, in some ways I would argue that that's a safer approach, um, you know, and especially so, and I was talking about this with Henzy and he saw this when we learned.
Um, to Paraglide, right. Because we were able to come down and be like two weeks all in, all in. And it was like, and we eat, look, sleep, breathe, paragliding for the entire time. Right. We, um, and we were, and Henzy was an amazing teacher and he, he was there for us from the moment we got up and we're having coffee together and just talking about like, you know, thermals or about like launching and kind of dribble all day, all day, literally. And then we go and we go and we have these epic days, you know, of flying, you know, we were flying off mountains. So within our first four or five days, because it was also compressed and it was just like, there was no downtime and Santa Barbara, it was great, you know, every day, God bless like Eagle paragliding and Rob's for, for like making, yeah, like love to those guys for making that all possible for me and, um, and you know, and loved him out Henzy for
giving me this incredible grip gift. But so we've been talking and, and that's not kind of how Matt wants to, he's now since then, um, taken some other, um, really great pilots or, I mean, really great professional athletes. I'm sorry. Um, he's been working with some, uh, professional kayakers and he's using that same approach and he just worked with a really good friend of mine, a climber, Josh Finkelstein. He's got the sky crack. He's I'm like, dude, he's all like, he's got it bad. Just like me. Yeah. I'm all dude. I know. And, um, he worked with him and he's like doing this really, um, immersive condensed approach to teaching. And I think it's really effective. And I think that his students are walking away with a lot more skills, um, because they're not. They're not, they're not just going for the weekend and like learning a tiny bit of kiting and then, you know what I mean? And then like they come back and then they learn a little more than it's like, it's, it's, it's really hard to, um,
And, and I think it's really discouraging, you know, and I think that Eagle is such a great place to do that. Like I know farmer used to always get so discouraged trying to teach in Sun Valley because you just don't get any sky time. It's fickle. There's a lot of wind. And so, you know, you work with somebody for three months and they're still not at their P2. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really discouraging for them. Yeah. Doing it. Yeah. And I can't even get my license, you know? So, yeah. I mean, I mean, I think, you know, for if, if, if there's anyone out there listening, who's like just thinking about getting into it or just getting into it, you know, I mean, definitely glad I went to Santa Barbara, you know, probably Salt Lake would also be a good place to go, like someplace with consistent flying where you can like really build your base. Um, because I think that's like what's kept me for the most part incident free, um, except for this one incident that we're going to get to you.
Let's talk. Let's hear it. It's an incident. Yeah. Let's hear Marshall. Yeah. Okay. So I've been, you know, I've had, I've had a lot of flights. Um, I've set some goals for myself. Um, some of my goals from my local flying site in Boulder, Colorado were to fly to lions, you know, which was like right after I saw you, you know, six months in, I was like, I want to fly to lions just like a, a 15 mile flight, but pretty damn technical. And then I did that. And then I managed to do that like almost 15 times this year. So exceeded that goal. And then I flew way past lines. I flew to Loveland a couple of times. I was like, and I, then I was like, I want to fly to golden. And then I, I flew to golden and I flew to golden again. And then I flew past golden to Morrison. And I was like, all right, I'm like, kind of, I'm learning. I'm putting it together. You know, I'm like, I'm like, before you go on, I want to make a point of that to the listeners. It's really, really, really important to do that when you fly.
Don't just talk yourself off the hill and fly around like a dope. Yeah. Always have a goal. You should always, it should always be considered training because training is fun. I'm not saying it shouldn't be fun. It should be. And those are always fun to do that. Yeah. But this is a really good way to get, you know, because then you can make days that have really strong inversions or really light or really technical or, you know, like otherwise you get all wrapped up in this. I want to go a hundred, 150, 200, you know, and then, and if you don't get those, it becomes really discouraging. And then you only start flying the best days. Yeah. That's not how you get good. That's that, you know, you have to just, you have to fly as much as you possibly can. And when you fly, make it purposeful. Totally. And that's one of the things I love about paragliding. Is that, um, it's, it's like a climb, you know, rock climb is always kind of the same.
It's static. You can go to it and you can test yourself against this climb and you can count on it to be basically that climb, you know, but paragliding every day is so different, you know, and you have these days that are inverted and the lifts really low and it's kind of rowdy and a twice. Yeah. And, and, and, uh, I like all those days, you know, and a lot of people were like only flight, fly the epic days. And I can see how I've like, you know, you've been flying for 15 years, like bill Belcourt mostly flies the epic days. Cause he wants to fucking go Senate. Yeah. And he's done that. But where I'm at, like flying the not epic days is the most instructive because it's like, it's one thing to fly to lions when you're getting up to 15,000 feet over boulders. Another thing to fly to lions when you're getting up to 8,000 feet. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's no room to work and it's tentacle and it's super tiny little glides. Yeah. Little climbs. Yeah. You got to worry. Yeah.
Yeah. And like, so like I learned a couple lessons, like sometimes, um, you know, just like random things I learned. Like sometimes instead of just pushing on it. It makes sense to run back to where you had that little tiny bubble of lift, you know, and that's really paid off for me on a lot of flights where I'm like, this isn't working retreat to where you know that you can maintain. And then usually if you can maintain over there, it's gonna, it's gonna boost off. You know, that is Kregel's magic. If you watch him in the X helps, that's what he's always doing. Everybody's pushing, pushing, pushing, and then they land Kregel's constantly going back. Yeah. Staying in the air. And that's the, yeah, that patient's game always pays off. Yeah. So that, that patient's thing has been really big. And then the other, I guess the other big thing for me, as far as people out there are trying to figure it out, that's really helped me is just like getting better at thermaling and really learning to, um, you know, to top out thermals, you know, because that's not so easy.
And thermals like do all this crazy stuff with the wind, they drift all over the place. So awareness of what the wind is doing to the thermal and, um, and really kind of, cause a lot of thermals will stair step and like snake and do all these weird things. And the more you can become intuitive and, um, and figure out where the thermal is going the higher you can get into the thermal and then, you know, if you can get up to base, um, which can be tricky on days where there's different wind layers and things are kind of funky, you know, and sometimes there's this, like, there's a little bit of a crux to get through to the next part of the thermal, you know, if you can start to figure that stuff out, then it really helps. That's really wicked. I don't know if you'd be aware of this, but there's no way you could have said that sentence a year ago. No, you know, we were clueless about that. No. And so now as I remember that day where I was getting whacked and then eventually got 15,000.
Yeah. Yeah. And so now Gavin, so Gabby, you know, for the audience, Gavin was like, he was all dude, come on. And I just couldn't, you know, the thermal was drifting and stair-stepping and do all this weird stuff. And I was just like, my move was just to turn in circles and that's just not enough. You need to turn the circles. You need to push into the wind or push out of the wind, depending. And, um, you need to, you know, be really, yeah, yeah, and learn to sense what's going on. And, and, um, you know, that really happened since I saw you, I got much better at thermaling and that's what really, you know, that was the most important thing for, um, being able to do these, these, you know, bigger XCs that I managed to pull off early in my career is just topping out thermals basically, you know, so it was, um, yeah, I don't know for, for those out of you, those of you out there who are trying to put it together and figure it out.
Those are two things that helped me and hopefully it helps you too. And I think, and I think what you'll find if I can kind of look into your future, I think the next big step will be gliding. Yeah. Which is, which is the real crux, that's what separates the men from the boys on big distances. Cause you just, that's, it's almost unteachable. And so I'm getting a little better at that. And, um, and actually I had this day, um, and this is a good lead into my incident that everyone I'm sure wants to hear, um, but, uh, but it was, I was in Marshall. I just showed up in Marshall, never flown the site before. Um, but it was a big day and, um, you know, Gavin Fridland was there. Um, uh. We had, um, you know, I, Henzy had come out, I actually flew Henzy out, bro deal them out there cause I just wanted to, you know, hang with my homie.
And, um, we had a lot of, a lot of really, uh, Revis was there and, um, uh, a lot of great pilots and, um, and I actually did really good that day. Um, I had an, I had an epic day, I flew all the way out to San Jacinto, which is quite a ways. I did like an over a 50 mile out and back. I like top landed at the, uh, uh, I top landed. Yeah. And drove the, like the shuttle vehicle down. Oh, epic. Dude. I felt like a God among me and I'm all dude, I got this. And one of the things, one of the things actually that I nailed that day was I kind of just was like, just feeling the air and just kind of feeling the vibes and I, I got into this weird little, I found this little squirrely little convergence thing, you know, I found this sick little scene and I was watching, I watched, um, I watched Gavin kind of just like take a different line.
And luckily I had him. He took off a little before me up on the, on the back, you know, cause we all kind of, I ended up with Revis and gathering a few other people out there. Um, and they were all dude, who's the fucker on the B glider. You know, I was stoked, you know, I was like doing good and, uh, and I watched Gavin take this different line and it was just not the right line. And so I was like, well, what would happen if I just like, you know, pushed a little, pushed a little deeper. And I just got on this, like I got on this convergence thing, this weird, weird little scene. And I got this crazy body line and I was just kind of, I kept on just pushing it a little deeper, pushing a little deeper. And that just happened to be the move. And I was feeling it. And I was gliding better. I was good. I was gliding better. What happened there too. I learned a really critical lesson very early on with Nick went down to Haiti. I mean, I was really newbie at flying XC and, uh, and it was, I think the last flight we were there and we took off and we, you know, we kind of cut the cord, like we were going in deep into Haiti and, uh, and he took this line that was like, it was just so much clearly better.
Right. Yeah. And, but, but my line was safer and, and, and there was a lot of sun and it just like, and I stuck with it all the way to the ground and I was just like, this is, this makes more sense. This makes more sense. And it's exactly gliding is exactly like thermaling farmer really talks about this. Like in, in competitions, you can be, you know, 30th off the thing going off on a glide 30 gliders in front of you, you've got 30 people mapping the air. You should ping pong through them. Totally. Most people will just ride it out. You know, bam, you're onto them a little bit of hype and you're onto them a little bit of height. So in that case, you clearly have the better line. It's just like somebody in a better thermal. Totally. You need to, you don't need to go, you don't need to do this for five terms to do this for 10 seconds.
Whoa. That guy's climbing better than I am. I'm going to go to his thermal. Yeah. Totally. Leave. Exactly. And it's the same thing with glides. There's always better air, you know, and if you've got, if you're by yourself, okay, that's Jedi. But if there's other people around, you don't pause Gavin made a mistake there. I mean, I don't know Gavin, but amazing pilot, amazing pilot. I'm just saying, you know, like in that case, you know, and you can't let things like, Oh, well that's Cedar. He doesn't know what he's doing. That that's, you know, that's irrelevant. Totally. That guy's in a better glide than me. I need you're on it. You're right on it. Yeah, totally. I love that. I love the gliding. I guess, you know, before we get into the incident, one other for people out there, you're trying to get better. One other thing.
One other thing
that's been really helpful, um, and it really helped me actually in like, I managed to do the classic flight from waltz to, um, uh, to Bishop. I was super psyched. It's over a hundred kilometers, one of my 200 kilometer flights, which I'm pretty proud of. And, and, um, and what I've learned is that usually the right decision is it's always cat and mouse. You know, you always got to kind of make sure you're not making a stupid decision, but it's almost always better to dive in a little deeper in the mountains and to just push it a little more into the train. Cause that's where things are triggering. Yeah. Yeah. And then you can start. Yeah. And then you can start benching up. Right. And so it's like, you know, I just kind of learned that it's, it seems committing at first, but if you just, if you can just play that cat and mouse game and be like, okay, I've got the LZ, you know, whatever that might be a bad place to land. I'm going to push it a little deeper and just see if there's something there and there's usually something there.
And then, and then you take that and now, now you, now you've got that LZ and you got another LZ and now you're going to push it in even a little more deeper and you can bench up. I think, I think what you're discovering there and what you'll discover more and more is that. When you get, when you get better, then it's not really a question mark. Is there going to be a climb over there? You know, there is total, you know that, okay, I can fart around out here in twos and threes. I can go in there and get a ripper totally know that's going to be work has been bacon. It's in waltz. You know, I'm underneath with me. It's bacon Southeast for the last three hours. You know, that's the place I need and then you're never surprised. You'll never get in there and be like, you know, it will always work if it should work. It works. The Sierra works dude.
In some ways it's funny because the Sierra has this reputation kind of, but in some ways there's a lot of things about Sierra that are pretty straightforward, right? Like you go to the ridge, you get the climb. It's like sagebrush everywhere. There's landing zones everywhere. It's just the thermals are nuclear, you know, that's strong. It's just really strong. But in some ways the flying can be pretty, um, it at times can be straightforward. Although I went over and flew boy scout, which is over Mona lake and that was, um, that was a lot less straightforward, more technical. Yeah. There's more different valleys and different things going on in Tahoe. We did that Sierra trip back in 2012 with those guys, you know, that Mona lake to Tahoe flight was, was, you know, when you, you totally leave three 95 like that. Yeah. Gonzo for all day, basically you're in there then. So I did that.
I made that. I didn't make it to Tahoe, but I made the whole committing, um, I did the whole committing section of that flight on that day and it was outrageous. And I got to 17,999 feet. Yeah. Aka. Aka. Dude, I got so high, dude. I was like, well, it was too dangerous to leave the thermal, so I had to just take it to the top.
Right. Right. At seven. It was amazing. You came out at 17,999. It was 999. I'm all, I must leave the thermal. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, outrageous. So you've had, you, you've had these, you know, a whole succession of, uh, 50 mile flights. You, you flew off top of, uh, Pico de Orizaba in Mexico. You've,
you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've
done some comps. Uh, you, by, by all standards, you've had an epic year. It's been outrageous. Until just recently. Until recently. So, yeah. So let's, let's rewind to that story I was telling you. I was like doing really good in Marshall. Like I was like, I was hanging with the big dogs on my B glider. I was like, man, I'm kinda getting good at this. I wasn't getting necessarily cocky, but, um, you know, I've always known about this. I was feeling it and I've always known there's this thing called the divine smackdown.
Um, it's what I call it. And it's, uh, uh. And it was coming for me. And, uh, so the next day, time to be humble. Next day it was windy. It was pretty windy. And, um, and I, uh, I actually had a couple, you know, I'd like to put the wing up and kind of gotten tied in knots a couple of times. So I didn't get off the hill quite as quickly as I would've wanted to. And, um, and, uh, Mitch, Mitch was there, um, uh, and Tenzi. And so we've got a bunch of Enzo's in the air. Um, uh, Evan Boucher, like a bunch of really good guys. Really, really good pilots, like competitive pilots. And um, and they all ping out and then they all like start heading over the back, you know? So I'm a little behind and I'm like, this is the move you're going over, we're going over the back, you know?
And so I just started following everyone. I learned later that it's pretty uncommon to go over the back and Marshall, apparently that's like, you know, so I didn't have a lot of information. It's a big committing move. Um, you know, the, uh, it was a really good lesson. It was pretty windy. Um, and I was like having a real time, like kind of getting established and getting out. And um, I was getting all these like frisbee thermals that were frisbee too much and weren't going to like allow me to go over the back and I kept pushing back and pushing back and trying to get something. And I felt kind of uncomfortable. I felt pretty deep, um, and pretty committed and like, like, like you wouldn't be able to get back to the launch and you're kind of in that you're in that big goalie on the backside, right? Exactly. Yeah. So in, in Marshall, it's like there's the launch and then there's this, um, there's crest line back there, but crest line feels pretty deep, especially when there's a lot of wind.
And because there's this big goalie between that and the launch and there's no real great LZs down there. There's some stuff that you could probably wing it into, but you're not looking down there being like, sweet, I got a great LZ. You're more like, I'm kind of fucked right now. And um, so I started to feel so first lesson, um, fly your own flight, you know, fly your own flight. Yeah. That's the most important lesson. Um, is just, you have to fly your own flight, especially like, Oh, those guys are leaving me. Yeah. Yeah. It's one thing if you're with them, you know what I mean? It's another thing if you're trying, you're, you're playing this like rushed game of catch up, you know? And, um, and so you're not getting the climbs as high as they are. You're not making the transitions. And then not to mention that you're on a B glider and they're on Enzo's, you know? Um, and so obviously they're going to out glide you.
Sure. And, um, you know, but fly your own flight. So I eventually, yeah, eventually also if it's windy, be respectful of that. Hmm. You know, it was a windy day, you know? So be really, really give everything a wider birth, you know, and really be constantly watching the winds and then especially coming in from the west. Yeah. Assuming. Yeah. And then especially when you make a big transition into a completely new Valley or new area, really really take in all the information you can to know what's happening there because you've now, what was happening was, so eventually I got a nice climb and, um, and I, uh, I, uh, and I peeled off the back, you know, and about a similar, I think a similar altitude that those guys peeled off at, at, and of course, you know, they're on hotter gliders and so they got a better glide, um, coming off the back and they kind of, they made it into the flats.
And, um, and, uh, So they went over crest line, over the power lines. And Gavin, Gavin, who was on a Trango XC3 made it, um, uh, he made it like not quite into the flats, but over this ridge, um, he, but like very high over the ridge and he was established, you know? And I was actually, I reached, I like went on the radio and I was all, Hey Mitch, what do you think I should do? Hey Gavin, you know, Gavin, they all kind of piped in and Gavin was like, well, I'm getting a nice climb over here at this ridge. And Mitch was like, well, I went to the other side of the lake and it worked for me. And I was, so I was like, okay, like it was this crux moment, right? To make a decision, you know? And I decided, well, Gavin's got to climb over the ridge. I'm going to this ridge, you know? And so I go into the ridge, like I have a million times you go into the ridge, there's going to be like, you know, everything's going to be triggering off of it. The wind's coming into it. I was like, well, I'll be able to soar the ridge and then find a thermal, right?
It's going to be like total textbook. And as I came in, I was like, okay, like about like 400 yards back are some high tension power lines. And, um, so, you know, just be mindful of that, you know? And, um, and I come in and, uh, and into the ridge, I'm like, okay, I'm like, kind of like, I kind of come in, I'm testing it out. I go to where I would guess like the, uh, the thermal is going to be kind of like triggering up and I'm like, oh yeah, it's like a little thermal, like cool, perfect. This is going to work. I turn in it and I'm like, oh no, it's sort of like a, it's too, it's like, yeah, or it's like too, it's, it's, it's not strong enough to be pushing through the wind and be steep enough to really take me where I want to go. And I'm like, oh, there's those power lines. So I can't really frisbee back or else I'll go into the power line. So I'm like, okay, that's not going to work. So I like, kind of just like, I like turn back into the wind and I'm like, okay, I'm just going to kind of glide down the ridge and, and, uh, you know, go look somewhere else for a thermal.
And, uh, and then I'm like, I'm like, whoa, like the, right in that moment, right? It was already strong. It's. Nothing. Zero. I'm going zero miles an hour. I'm going straight down and I'm like, holy shit, I'm going to land on this ridge, you know? And so I'm like, you know, and I'm, and at this point I've gone, like, I'd like, you know, gone from the like, oh, wow, it's windy. Half speed bar. Oh, I'm kind of going backwards. Full speed bar. Okay. I'm going straight down. I'm going to land on this ridge. And, um, and then, uh, it was, no, no, I was like straight over this road. I was like, at this point I'm still like, oh, wow, it's really windy. I'm sort of like, just like, I'm sinking out. This is how it felt. It's too windy. I'm sinking out. There's no lift. I'm sort of a little pinned back here, but I'm just going to like, I had a road right underneath me and I'm going straight down. I was like, I'm going to land going straight down on full speed bar. I'm going to left the speed bar at the right, the right moment.
And I'm going to like kill it with the seas and like, and I have like a, you know, kind of rowdy dicey, but acceptably, you know, not dangerous, um, landing. And then, um, and then like, as I got lower and lower compression and so now I'm going backwards, you know, on full speed bar. And now I'm a little like, fuck. So now I'm like looking behind me. Right. And I'm like, cause I'm like, okay, now my, I'm not landing on the road anymore. I'm going to land in the bushes or something. And, um, I'm like, Oh, kind of no, but I'm like, just keep your shit together. You can land backwards going in the bushes. It'll be fine. It'll actually be perfect. Cause like these bushes look soft and you know, I'll kind of like just drape myself in a bush and then the wing will kind of, you know, I won't get drugged too much hopefully. Right. And then I kind of come down to the present, the, uh, the compression band and into the rotor.
And I take this monster class. Well, bam. And so I'm off the speed bar immediately. I'm like, Holy shit. You know, I'm like, recover, recover, recover, recover the wing. You know, how high were you at this point? Um, at this point I'm like about like 150, 200 feet off the ground. Okay. All right. Yeah. You're in a serious, I'm in like a bad situation place. Yeah. I fucked it up. Yeah. You know? And, uh, and so now I'm just like, now I'm just like a hundred percent just like, cause I'd already taken this like kind of pretty good collapse and like kind of pendulum that I can see the writing on the wall. If you take another big collapse like this. It could be, it could be like a pendulum into the ground. And so my like main priority is no longer like maintaining speed. It's just like keeping the week, the wing open and it's super turbulent and it's just the wing surging all over the place.
And luckily at this point I've gotten pretty good at active flying and I'm doing everything I can to keep the wing open. And, and I'm like, at the same time I'm looking backwards. I'm like, fuck the fucking power lines right there. And, uh, and there's kind of nothing I could do. Um, there was a moment earlier. On, um, where I could have, um, right when I started to go straight down, I could have realized how fucked I was and immediately turned to run and like gone over the power lines, like 50 feet over the power lines, kamikaze style and over the ridge would have been a better move than what happened to me. Right. Um, uh, you know, I would have gotten rotored as I went over the other side of the ridge sometimes is, yeah, but that's one of those ones where you would have had to just, you had no time that you had to, I just got to go turn. Yeah. I mean, certainly if I ever found myself in a situation like that again, I would, you know what I mean?
There's like, I have a little, I've had this experience. Um, and this is now the best part is like, I'm like frigging catching collapses, catching collapses. I'm looking back. I'm like, I can see the fucking power lines, you know? And these are these huge high tension lines hanging about here. Oh yeah. Full on big burly ones, like three and three, um, like three lines kind of like, like running, you know, um, opposite each other. Oh dude, this is a horror story. Dude. Yeah, dude. And so now I'm like, fuck. And then I go, I just. I just blow like a leaf in the wind through the power lines. Oh my God. Dude, I go through the power lines. I like my pod bounces off a power line. Oh my God. And at this point I'm like, you know, I'm just like survival mode, you know?
And I, and it's crazy cause I remember thinking I was all, I was all okay. Your wing is coming through. You're either, it's either going to catch and you're going to be hanging these power lines, you know, or it's going to, or it's going to release and you're going to, you know, you're going to hit the ground. And so I just like instinctively, God bless Henzie for teaching me the PLF and being like, dude, if you're ever, you know, PLF, I instinctively, I went into PLF mode, the wing rips out the, you know, cause I've gone through the lines and the wing goes through the lines. It rips through the lines and then I free fall about 45 to 50 feet. But with the wing, the wing sort of reinflates a little bit. It slows me down. I PLF pound into the. I pound into the, into the, luckily right into this Bush and Sandy Bush area.
Perfect. And I'm fine. I don't have a scratch on me. I've taken worse falls climbing.
It was like you blew through high tension, power lines and fell out of the sky and you walk away. Dude, so lucky, you know, I was just, just, just dumb luck. Um, and I know that and, um, you know, and it was definitely, I felt like I was walking around feeling like a ghost, like, you know, like one of my nine lives was gone to do kind of this whole thing. Yeah. I was patting yourself down. Like, am I okay? Yeah, no, totally. I was like, am I okay? It's so funny. I went, like, I went up to like, you know, shoot some video to like, show like how extreme this thing had happened to me, you know? And, and I like kind of slipped on this rock and banged my knee. And literally that was more painful and I was like, well, you should be careful because like you've run out of luck. Like just, yeah, no more luck left. Yeah. Yeah. No more luck left in the jar. Oh dude. And, and, uh, I knew, you know, that I like.
That I'd gotten out of jail for free. Um, and that I easily could have died, you know, and of course it was like, well, how come like I didn't get electrocuted. Right. And like, we started looking into it and I think it was just that I only touched the first three lines and I would have had to connected with those other back three lines and I don't think I ever touched them. And so I never, um, you know, made a, uh, a connection between the two different currents. Right. Cause I, people do not like, then somebody was like, oh yeah, this friend and he blew his hand off when he went through power lines and you know, people die, um, going through power lines. It's serious business. So literally just got lucky. And, um, so you must've thought about this a lot. You had the, you had the three things when you're talking about it, but there've been some other takeaways, like, like even, even, even, even, okay.
Obviously don't get in that situation, but that's, everybody knows that one. But, uh, you know, like I, cause I've been, I think we all have been in situations. I got in a power line situation just like that in France training for the X ops last year. It was terrifying or the year before. And, uh, you know, and I, I often think about like, okay, well now you're in that. What w w are there other possibilities? What are your moves? Like when you were, when you were in the compression, were you low enough then to have just ditched it or, you know, or w you know, is there anything you could have done that? So it was other than, other than, you know, it sounds like the best thing was that turn and run, turn and run, turn and run. I should have immediately turned and run. But at the same time I was like going straight down and it seemed like I was just gonna. You know, just land on the road at that point. So it was, it was, it was, um, it was a little, I mean, you know, I, I don't want to make excuses, but I think it was a little bit of bad luck.
I think that, um, I came in and it was an acceptable amount of wind and I think like a big thermal triggered and it was just like, it was just overpowered, you know, that combined, you know, made so much wind. But also I think that, um, um, that the wind, cause I was going over the back, the wind was like strong. And so it was like kind of rushing down off those mountains. There was a lake there, there was just a lot of things that made that not a good place to go. It sounds like maybe the, your, your first lesson, fly your own flight was the number one thing because you're with guys that are on much hotter wings, you didn't respect that margin enough. You know, you needed another grand from what they left at, you know, probably you fought it out, you fought it out. Oh, I'm at the same height. They are. Well, that's not enough.
No, I needed to fight it out more. I needed to stay. I needed to get higher. And, um, I, you know, it's, it's, it's hard to say, um, there's a lot of different things. The other big one is just respect. I mean, respect the wind when it's windy condition conditions, just give everything a much larger, much wider birth basically, you know, and, um, you know, and everybody who flew that day was like, yeah, rowdy, crazy day. Um, you know, I talked to Mitch, he was all dude, you did everything that you could, you know, it was like kind of, kind of a little bit of bad luck, you know? Yeah. I mean, honestly, dude, if I'd been on a sea wing. Yeah. I think I would have hit full speed bar and gotten out of there, you know, cause it was like a compression ridge blow back situation, you know? Um, now I'm not getting on a sea wing, um, you know, but, uh, no, I mean, just the reality of it.
Yeah. There was just, yeah, there was a lot of, it was a little bit of bad luck and, um, and it was really quite traumatizing, you know? And so I, like I pack up my wing, my wings destroyed, um, you know, and I'm like on this paragliding trip, right? Me and Hensie have like a week of paragliding. So I'm like, like, you know, I was flying. I was flying the Akuma at this point, which is Niviuk's kind of hot B, but it's just done. It's destroyed. Yeah. And, um, but I pack it up, um, and I, uh, and I started like hiking down. I immediately, I immediately decided, oh, I shouldn't take the road. I'm going to like go down this goalie and it would just end up, dude, it was just insult to injury, dude. Just the most horrendous bushwhacking, dude, just like just ticks and stickers and like loose rock. And I'm just like, just like just bushwhacking down to the road.
And then I hitched a ride back. And, um, you know, then I'm just telling my story and kind of processing what had happened to me. Cause it was really, you know, I was a little PTSD kind of going on. Um, but I knew, um, that I had to get a glider right away. You had to get back on the horse. I had to get back on the horse right away. And luckily, um, bless Gavin's heart. He lent me his, um, his old ragged out Rush 4. And so the next day me and Hensie went up and, um, and, um, and, um, and, and, and, and we launched, um, and it was like kind of an inverted, not good day at Marshall. Um, but we, we got, we got like a really nice flight, um, flew like past, like, were you feeling jittery in the beginning where you feel a little off or were you, it was just, I kind of was fine.
I
swept it
under the rug. Good. I think sometimes it's nice to like, you know, if you're, unless it's like so traumatic that you can't deal with it, you got to get back on the horse and just keep flying. I'm so glad I did. And I, I, um, and I knew, well, I was like,
I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like,
obviously I was just like, I just knew that I just needed to fly my own flight and that's what I did. And so Hensie kept on like just taken off and I was just like being patient and like waiting until the thermal really fired off and getting really good climbs. And because of that, I actually got ahead of Hensie a little bit at points because I was just flying my own flight and doing my own thing and using my own intuition and flying my glider the way it needed to be flown to be safe. And, um, and so I was kind of back in the game and, um, next day, um, that evening, we drove up and, uh, we, uh, we launched from Flynn's and, um, had an epic flight. I flew, um, Hensie tried this different line, tried to do the mono line and, um, ended up just kind of landing in Benton and I just like kept to the mountains and it just like, as soon as Hensie like left, it just started getting better and better.
And I like ended up like getting boosted to 17,000 feet over, um, uh, uh, what, what's it called? Uh, the peak there, um, at the end, um, uh, boundary peak, boundary peak, and then I punted off into Nevada. Like for like this. Yeah. Like I got like this epic 10 mile glide, that one little climb and, uh, and then Hensie managed to in the time that I kind of glassed off my way along and then in the time that I had like finished that flight, Hensie managed to get back to the car. Um, luckily there's some other pilots gave him a ride and, um, and then like was there right where I landed and had like a beer waiting for me. I literally like flared and grabbed a beer and it was like, I was like, I love you Hensie. It was awesome. And I was like, all right, back on the horse and came back to Boulder and had some nice flight. And, um, and I've had a couple of really good, just yesterday I climbed, um, mountain Yam Nesca here and then, um, and I brought my little mini wing and I flew from the base and did like a 1500 foot descent back to the car, which is a really cool culmination of my climbing and my, um, and my flying skills.
So yeah, I'm back on the horse, but I'm like cautious and, um, I'm aware of, of that things can go wrong really quickly and that I have a lot to learn and that, um, especially when you're moving into new, um. Valleys into new air systems to really, really, really taking all the information and be super aware. I just didn't realize how windy it was. Yeah. That was like my mistake once I decided to go over the back.
Yeah. Was
just not respecting the wind and how strong it was. And um, but yeah, I also learned that I'm indestructible. That's a great takeaway. That's a great way to be heard. Yeah. No, I'm indestructible. Just keep going. I'm doing dumb shit. Cause it turns out fine for you. Now. Okay. Well, I, we, you and I have to go watch some films. So, so that's a perfect end. Uh, just real briefly, tell me what your plans are for this next year and then we'll, uh, a year from now we'll, we'll hook up again and we'll, we'll have the third, third series of the Cedar Wright? Progression. Yeah. The Cedar at the progression. Yeah. So to all those people out there trying to push it and get better, you know, hopefully that a few things there that I've learned will help you. And, um, you know, where is it going?
Well, so the big goal, um, my goal was to, uh, you know, to, to fly a hundred miles this year. It didn't work out. Um, I had some really good opportunities to do that. Um, when I was hanging out with Nick Greece and Salt Lake city, um, we flew horse heaven and low angle butte, which are two major distance areas where frigging Belcourt just got his like longest flight. So rad. Like he almost got me on that one. I know, dude. He came with the UK short, which is so awesome, dude. Like what a great sport or what he's like in his fifties now. You know what? You know, what's even the coolest thing about that. So like a few days after that, he came up for Nate's event and, uh, and I was like, Hey man, I was watching your, or bill, I was watching your guys flight just minute by minute. And I was like, you totally had me. And I said, I'm sorry.
You know, like that you really deserved it. That was an Epic flight. Like, are you bummed? You were, he was like 5k short. It was almost, you know, and he goes, Gavin, that would've been criminal to take your record on that flight. And I was like, what, what are you talking about? He's like, oh, I would've been so disappointed. I'm so glad I didn't get it. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, dude, I was flying right down a freeway on a perfect day with these popcorn clouds. Like there's no terrain. I wasn't flying over five mountain ranges. Like, no, that's not legit. That wouldn't be legit. I mean, like what a cool dude, he's like the all time, like bill, yeah, he's like, yeah, definitely one of, one of my, one of my heroes in the sport and, uh, and I loved, I loved to see that, you know, it's exciting for me, right. I'm 40 now. And, um. That, uh, that I could, you know, even though I'm into the sport relatively late that I could like do some pretty amazing stuff that I can continue to progress, um, in the sport because it's not just a pure genetic, like physicality sport, it's a experience and intellectual
sport. And, um, so I'm really excited for the future. I of course would love to fly a hundred miles. I'd like to fly a hundred miles in the flats, like to fly a hundred miles over mountain ranges. Um, you know, I'd like to, um, continue to explore my local area. I'd like to fly new lines in my local area. Um, you know, not many people have flown to the crest. I think just actually just a couple, um, they're out of Boulder and heading up towards the Rocky mountains. Um, uh, my last guest, uh, Kelly Freena had a really good thing to say, I thought about distances, you know, that instead of, you know, being, he just thought like chasing distances kind of, you know, one, it can leave you distraught, you know, you didn't get it. Damn it.
You know? Instead of just being like, holy cow, I just had an awesome flight, but he was talking about like, I think one of the things you're doing really well is you're, you know, you're, you're taking, you're, you're nailing all the steps, you're getting the ground handling, you're getting the different wings, you're getting the, you know, you're, you're, you're training. Yeah. The distances come. Do you know what I mean? Like instead of, you know, it just, it's just being there on the right day and with the right weather. But it's, it's really more, I, I just, I like that approach that if you, you know, if you just keep laying the foundation and keep, you know, identifying
yourself, you're, you're identifying
weaknesses in your game and solving those, then the distances just follow. Totally. Yeah. And I think, I think it's like, it's like those, it's, it's probably like for me, what's really helped me more than anything is, is, is those little flights on those really hard days. Right. Yeah. And to me, that's just as rewarding as the longer flights I've had on the more textbook classic days. You know, I really liked those days and those are, and they're a little more risky, a little more kind of hairball cause you're never that high off the ground and you know, and you're, you're doing way more transitions. Yeah. And you're catching way more thermals to make it work. But I, I love those, those technical low days and dude, I just love paragliding. I love it so much. I'm like, I'm fully sky cracked out. It's like the first, you know, it's like, I love it as much as rock climbing and, and that's so cool.
I spent the last 20 years chasing that and I'll probably spend the next 20 chasing paragliding and you know, hopefully I can, I can stay safe and, but also have some amazing adventures. Dude. Finally. I just want, dude, I want to fly over broad peak someday. Antoine Girard, dude. I know. Shout out to that. Dude, that's like literally the most bad ass thing I've ever heard of. I know. Yeah. It's insane. So cool. It just, I, I, I love, I love where we're going, you know, it's just really incredible that they're building, they're building us wings now that we can be even more absurd on all the time. Totally. And it's just, it's so cool watching, you know, it's not just the half a dozen guys anymore. It's, it's a world of pilots all over the place. Just doing cool stuff.
Just looking at maps in new ways and you know, Ben Jordan, all solo flying across BC and Alberta. That was 37 days. That is really bad ass. You know, there's just some really cool things going down and yeah, happy to have you part of it. That's cool. Dude. I can't wait. I can't wait to kind of add to the, to the story. You know, I know it's going to take time, but hopefully someday I want to like throw, I want to catch a thermal off triangle tower like Antoine Girard did, you know, like for sure in my lifetime. Yeah. Like if I can like at least have a crack at that, I'm going to take it, you know, I want to fly Pakistan really badly. I want to bull bib in the Sierra. I want to, you know, I want to do more of this, like, you know, like kind of more spewing mini wing mountain descent stuff where you climb up and fly off, you know, like I did there in Pico de Orizaba and yeah, yeah.
So watch the fledglings. Yeah. It's going to be touring in different film festivals. I'm really proud of it. Yeah. I've had a lot of people come to me and say, Hey, how can I get into paragliding? And Yeah. It's super inspiring. It's super fun. I think it's great to see, you know, it's great to see not the experts making a film. It's great to see you guys going through a lot of the stuff we were just talking about. Totally. And you did it in a really, really good way. The progression. I'm proud of it. And people really love it. It's playing here at BAM Saturday night and yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be around. It's going to be touring around. There's a shorter version that you can watch for free. Thanks to the North face. But there's a, which is about like 13 minutes, but there's a full 26 minute version that right now you can only see at film festivals, but but soon you'll, you'll be able to pick it up on Vimeo and yeah, and then we'll see, we'll see what the next, what the next next film is.
Maybe it'll be me and Gavin. It'll be. I'd love to do something with you someday. I like that. I like that. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. College relief. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
Yeah. And for the audience, go see fledglings is awesome. If you haven't seen it, it's touring right now at five point and it'll be torn with Banff. I'm sure too. So yeah. Tell you, right. Right. Cool. Thanks very much. And we'll, we'll pick this up in a year from now. Yep. See you guys out there. See you guys in a thermal somewhere. Awesome. Cheers. Well,
I hope you got something out of that. Uh, always great to sit down with Cedar Wright, a world famous climber and filmmaker turned paragliding addict. It was really cool to, to see where he's coming. This last year and, uh, hope you got some nice lessons out of, uh, some of his progression. Um, as always, all we ask for is a buck a show. If you got something out of this or one of the previous episodes, you'll find the donate button on cloudbasedmayhem.com right on the podcast page or any of the specific podcasts. Uh, if you are just discovering the show, highly encourage you to go back and check out one of the previous episodes. There's so much good knowledge there from guys like Jackie Sanderson, mad center guard, Will Gadd many, many others. Uh, we've got. I've got quite a few of these in the can right now, so I'm getting some help editing. It takes a long time to edit these.
So your little donation goes a long way. I promise you. Thank you so much. Uh, if you can't donate, just give us a rating on, uh, Google play or stitcher or iTunes, however you get your podcasts and, uh, yeah, we'll see you on the next show. Thanks for listening. Cheers.