Smokejumpers parachute near BBR

The monstrous din of rushing wind and the roar of turbo-prop engines assault the ears as your body throws itself into the void.

The slam of g-forces grabs you as your body is racked by the slipstream of the aircraft. Then, after a series of tugs and pulls, a reassuring pop tells you your lifeline - your parachute - has deployed, and you are surrounded by an eerie silence as your tasks quickly come into focus.

You focus on a second chute just opening above and ahead of you, your jump partner, and you fix your bearings on the small opening in the heavily treed forest below that is the target you are aiming for and maybe your only safe haven in the ocean of forest below.

You have pre-planned your dual approach with your jump mate and now you zone in on adjusting your canopy to control your descent between the towering trees to your zone of the clearing. Pulling your left control shroud firmly as you fight the wind current that is now sweeping you toward the large snag at the south end, your eyes see with dismay the blue and white parachute of an earlier team mate below draped over the top of a neighboring ponderosa.

You can see your partner safely above you in good position and you now concentrate solely on your targeted section of the inviting opening as the tops of trees whir by and your feet swing into position for the bone-jarring contact that will begin your fall-ending landing roll. Just another commute to work for this team of the Redmond Smokejumpers.

Above a small clearing adjoining Black Butte Ranch on Friday, a twin-engine Shorts Sherpa disgorged 10 men and women, mainly Redmond Smokejumpers, for one of the three proficiency certification jumps that they must make every year.

Under the watchful eye of Tony Loughton, a 27-year veteran smokejumper, they put to use many of the skills that they train hard on and need to exercise daily throughout the fire season. These are the teams that are called on to jump into wilderness areas to do initial attack on fires too remote for ground-based teams to access quickly.

They jump ready to be self-sufficient for days and then hike their way out when their jobs are done. Their training far exceeds the norms of fire suppression and includes skills such as tree climbing and "let down" procedures as parachutes landing in trees tends be a routine hazard of these operations.

Dividing into jump units of two, a team of 12 will normally "jump" a fire. A very careful orchestration between the pilots, jumpmaster and team members is needed to ensure a safe operation inserting the teams into crag-ridden and snag infested areas.

Test drops of streamers testing wind currents are made, and then equipment drops arrive after the personnel are on the ground. The 35-member Redmond group is one of nine national smokejumper bases and these team members may be called anywhere in the country depending on the national fire situation.