There’s a reason Randy Foland made it look easy as he steered his orange and purple parachute into a small clearing in a black spruce forest.
He’s been here before. Like the other 65 smokejumpers training this week, Foland was working his way through the five pre-season jumps he’s required to do before he can be assigned to a wildfire. Later this spring, a class of nine rookies will get a chance to qualify for the first time, but everyone in this group is a smokejumper.
As a 16-year veteran smokejumper for the Alaska Fire Service and a training coordinator, Foland has more experience than most.
He has skydived more than 300 times. He’s also jumped 400 times on his own for fun.