Springtime in Utah

By: Jesse Hall

By KAVU

May 23^rd, 2023

Seasons are changing!

At the end of every winter, we start to crave those hot summer days.... and warm summer nights.

And, the best way to find them a little sooner is to head south. "To The Desert"!

This year was no exception. After a record-setting snow year with over 75 feet at the ski areas, we were more than ready! Don’t get me wrong, I love skiing tons of powder more than anything..... but there’s something about throwing your sleeping bag right on the ground and watching shooting stars while you fall asleep that is priceless.

The Southern Utah desert has been known to the B.A.S.E jumping community for its smaller cliffs and beautiful parachute rides, but with progressing technology and skills, the shorter cliffs are becoming good for wing suit flying as well. Typically wing suit flying is done off large, thousand foot walls, with a few thousand feet of mountain below, often only legally found in or around around Europe.

It’s kind of crazy when you can be on top of a cliff with someone who’s going to open their parachute right away, and the person next to them is going to fly a wing suit all the way to the landing area before they deploy their parachute. This trip was a prime example of this new use of the area, each cliff we went to had some of the group in wing suits, and some without... everyone getting a taste of what they enjoy most!

The highlight of the trip was probably one of our sunset jumps. The light was on fire! And, so was the KAVU energy! We even had a friend take us to the top of the cliff with his helicopter, so we could make it there just in time for last night.

A lot of the hikes take a couple hours, so it’s hard to squeeze all the fun into one day. But, if you get a "magic carpet ride" to the top, it makes things a lot easier.