James Harris reaches new heights as he rediscovers the Mile High City from above.

Let’s face it; Denver is one of the most spectacular cities in the country. We’re known for John Elway and the Rockies, but aren’t we more than just the face of greatness and an underdog baseball team on the rise? We’re the first thing on everyone’s mind when they think of Colorado. We lie between the endless plains of the Midwest and the most extravagant mountains in the country. People see us as the gateway to fresh powder and famous Aspen. We are the “Mile High City” and yet it seems to me rarely anyone takes the time to view it in ways they never have.

Originally from Fairfield, Conn., I spent most of my years skiing on the East Coast hills of Vermont. Leaving high school and thinking of nothing but snowboarding, I made the trip to University of Denver. Since, Denver has been my alma mater and yet, for the past year or so, I have lost sight of my surroundings here in the mile high city. The foothills no longer have that eye-opening effect on me; the grandeur of Denver’s best architecture doesn’t make me stop in awe anymore.
In an attempt to regain that which I had lost, I decided to get an eagle-eye view of the greater Denver area. As it turned out, getting into the air was easier than expected. Using Mile-Hi Skydiving, Adventure Paragliding and Mile High Gliding I was able to get a taste of what it’s like to be a mile above the Mile High City. It’s a one-way trip, right?

To get started, I gave Mile-Hi Skydiving a call and arranged a time to throw myself out of a plane. “Easy enough,” I thought. People have been jumping out of planes since World War II and besides, the technology has definitely improved. I arrived at the hangar expecting to find a small gathering of instructors and a bush plane. Instead I found about 50 people, instructors, students, and professionals alike, preparing for their jumps that day. In one of the three hangars skydivers packed their chutes, and in another, teams of jumpers practiced aerial maneuvers. I was in the third hanger, signing my life away, as large trailers towed groups of skydivers toward the plane that would return without them.

Veteran skydiving instructor David Billings (who has logged 2,000 jumps since 1999) greeted me with a wide grin and concise instructions to prepare for the plunge. “When we’re just about to jump, we’ll walk to the edge and I’ll count to three. When we leave the plane keep your hands on your shoulder straps till I tell you otherwise,” he explained.

Within minutes I was in a jumpsuit sitting shotgun in the plane, making my way to almost 2.5 miles above the ground. David clipped us together about halfway up, running over the jumping method one more time and teaching me what to pull when it came time to deploy the parachute. At 17,500 feet it was time to jump.

One by one people dropped carelessly from the plane as I waddled forward and stepped to the edge, watching them fade from sight below. My heart pounded and my chest tightened with eagerness as Billings gave the countdown. I gasped as my weight disappeared from under me. We flipped in the air for a few seconds, but as we stabilized, there lay the most spectacular view I have ever seen. The mountains loomed in front of me as the earth seemed to curve away from sight. I could see the sun beating down on Denver in the distance with I-25 lying across the earth like a black river. The view was mine to keep and I felt euphoric, not a care in the world.

The feeling disappeared when David led my hand to the ripcord. I pulled, praying the chute opened correctly. An entire second passed, slowed by my anticipation to stop falling. I nearly had a heart attack when finally our bodies jerked to a near-dead stop. The entire flight down, my knees shook with adrenaline, memories of the experience crashing before my eyes.

Look mom, no engine!
On a clear Sunday afternoon I made arrangements with Mile High Gliding to experience flying a glider, a lightweight airplane without an engine. The pilots at Mile High Gliding are diehard gliding enthusiasts, eager to share their experiences with anyone, including parents and children. I immediately felt at home as I arranged the flight that I would be taking. I settled on the City Flight, a scenic tour over downtown Boulder lasting about 20 minutes. As I waited for a glider to return with its passengers — a father and son — I chatted with my pilot, Sean Mackinder. “The glider we’ll be flying in,” he said, “was a low-altitude spy plane used for following drug runners in boats. Obviously we took the engine out and lost the excess weight. If we’re lucky, we’ll find some rising columns of air called thermals and gain altitude so the flight doesn’t end too quickly.”
Sean led me onto the runway, and with the help of two other pilots we pushed the glider into position to be towed into the air. With a quick rundown over the controls and gauges, the tow cable was attached and we were being pulled across the tarmac by the tow plane. The glider took flight, following the plane as it made circles to a height of 2,000 feet above ground.

With a sudden pop, the cable was released and the glider was free. I could feel and hear the aircraft decelerate as we dropped in altitude a bit to gain speed. Looking through the glass canopy I could see the city of Denver far in the distance, extending from the ground like an anthill. Halfway through the ride Sean let me take control. It was absolutely exhilarating. I could feel the force of the wind against the flaps as I pulled and pushed against the stick. As we made some turns, the wings dipped to the left and right providing a gorgeous view of the University of Colorado campus and the foothills beyond. The ride was so peaceful and quiet I felt “naked” flying above the earth without the drone of engines engulfing me.

Para-what?
Having always dreamed of soaring over the earth without an engine, or for that matter, with wings beneath me, I was particularly excited to do a tandem paragliding flight. Paragliding involves a canopy or airfoil similar to that of a skydiver’s. This canopy, however, is designed to create more lift, allowing pilots to stay in the air for hours on end without the use of an engine.

To make this experience happen, I made the drive along I-70 to Glenwood Springs, scenically located between Aspen and Vail. It was there that I met Pine Pienaar, the owner and operator of Adventure Paragliding. With more than 11 years of teaching experience and more than 3,000 safe tandem flights, I felt very comfortable going for a ride over the Rocky Mountains with him at the helm.

Within seconds of shaking Pienaar’s hand, I was in his truck for the ride up to the launch area. As we drove the muddy switchbacks to the top of the ridge surrounding Glenwood Springs, the native South African explained that he started paragliding in ’93 and started Adventure Paragliding 10 years later. “To put my age in perspective,” Pienaar grinned, “My students jokingly call the local paragliding club the ‘geriatric soaring society’ since most of us are 55 or older. It really is a sport or experience that anyone can get into.”

Here I was again, putting my life into another person’s hands, yet I couldn’t have felt safer. His friendly demeanor and confidence whisked away any fears I had. Minutes later I was in a harness, standing in front of Pienaar on the edge of a mountainside. It was a rush that even skydiving didn’t give me.
We ran forward and felt the canopy fill with air, pulling us back a step. Within moments my feet had left the ground and the mountain dropped away beneath me. We soared over the tree tops as Pienaar navigated his way into strong thermals carrying us higher and higher above the earth. It was almost as if I was floating on air.

With the ride coming to an end, Pine asked me to grab a hold of my harness as he demonstrated the speed and power the canopy could produce. I could feel the g-forces push against me as he sent us into a high speed turn. The feeling was incredible. Back on the ground I asked Pienaar what kept him in Colorado. He pondered, stared off into the distance and smiled. “Sharing the experience with first-timers,” he explained. “I always get a kick from their reactions when they see the majestic fourteeners in the distance.”

Try it out!
Mile-Hi Skydiving
229 Airport Rd., Hangar 34G
Longmont 80503
Tandem jump: $189
303.759.3483
mile-hi-skydiving.com

Mile High Gliding
5534 Independence Rd.
Boulder 80301
Glider flights: From $79 to $179
303.527.1122
milehighgliding.com

Adventure Paragliding
P.O. Box 1992
Glenwood Springs 81602
Tandem flight: $139
970.274.1619
adventureparagliding.com