Our visit to the smokejumpers base in Missoula

After I shared about our potential route a few days ago, a friend from college shared her dad's blog (http://drivecrosscountry.net/) which was written when they were traveling several years ago.

Route E looked similar to the beginning of our trip (from: http://drivecrosscountry.net/Places_to_see/Places.html)

... and his write-up made me aware of the smokejumper base in Missoula (from: http://drivecrosscountry.net/Places_to_see/RouteE2.html)

... so we decided that if the timing worked out, we would visit Missoula and the Smokejumper base there. I had read that they did tours at 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, and 4pm - in addition to the visitor's center displays (https://www.fs.fed.us/fire/people/smokejumpers/missoula/center.html). We figured that we would want to make the 3pm tour to have time afterwards to see the displays.

We got to the visitor center at about 2:40pm - plenty of time to see the displays.

The Smokejumper base

A map displaying the fires that the smokejumpers from this base have jumped into this year.

The gear that the smokejumper would wear when jumping. The pack on the floor is the gear bag after he is on the ground, packed with the items that he has taken off and stowed for eventually packing out.

The clothing that the smokejumpers wear on the ground (under their jumpsuits) are fire retardant materials. You might notice that the mannequin in this display is female. Both women and men work as smokejumpers, and the same requirements apply for anyone in the program.

The pulaski, used for clearing to bare mineral earth.

At 3pm, one of the smokejumpers, Adam, collected us from the visitor center and we started our tour of the base. Anything I indicate that Adam told us in the remainder of this post is what I heard and remember... which may or may not have any similarity to what he actually said!

The first area that we visited was the fabrication area. Since there are only about 400 smokejumpers, it is not commercially viable for a company to make the gear that they need, so they sew it themselves. The fellow there in shorts and longish hair is one of the smokejumpers who was working at a sewing machine when we came up. The items in the basket on the floor are some of the jump overalls that have recently been made. They have large pockets into which commercially acquired pads (like hockey pads or football pads) can be placed. The purpose of these overalls are to protect the smokejumper from hazards that they may encounter during the jump - like tree branches. Once they are on the ground, these external garments are packed away into their pack-out bag that is folded up in the gear that they carry in with them.

More of the fabrication (sewing) area. I asked our guide if everyone participated in each of the types of tasks that need to be done, or whether each person made stuff for his or her own use, and he said that they work on items that can be used by everyone. There might be a point where it is determined that they need "5 overalls in size large" and whoever is available gets to work on it.

Adam told us that their positions were temporary - they work for 6 months and then they are laid off. Since he is in training, he gets additional hours, but by his second year, he will likely just have work for May-October. He said that there are a few who are fulltime staff. He said that most folks either have other jobs that they go to in the winter months, or they make enough during the May-October time to be able to just do odd jobs during the off season.

This was an example of the meal items that go into the packets that are dropped to the smokejumpers - shelf stable, dehydrated items, water in containers.

This is another pack that might be carried or dropped to them - in this case, with a cross-cut saw.

Some of the items they may take in - if the forest area where they are going does not allow gasoline powered items, they take cross-cut saws instead of chain saws. The yellow bladder is used if they are near a water source (river, stream) where they can get water and use it to spray on hot spots during the mop-up activity. Adam told us that, when the fire is considered controlled/out, they go through the area on hands and knees feeling for any areas that are still warm in order to ensure that there are no hot-spots that could later flare up.

Then we went out onto the tarmac and one of the jump planes was available that we could get into. We entered from the back, but Adam cautioned us to gather near the front so it wouldn't tip back onto the tail from our weight.

The white areas were seats that the smokejumpers would use and buckle in when enroute to the fire.

The packages on the other side are supplies ready to go up if there is a call. Each food box supplies one smokejumper for one day.

Adam was at the back door of the plane demonstrating the steps that he would go through as he was preparing to jump out of the plane.

Dwayne stayed on and got some additional pictures with fewer of the folks on our tour.

Looking toward the front.

Looking out the front door. Adam told us that each flight has 2 "spotters", senior smokejumpers who do the decision making for the drop. They know the general area, but the plane circles the area and they drop "crepe rolls" to determine wind speed and direction and to decide where the jumpers should jump from. They then give the orders to the jumpers telling them when to leave the plane to help ensure that they land at the drop area that the spotters have selected.

The plane we went on...

A view from the front...

Another of the smokejumper planes...

A third smokejumper plane. Adam said that we were lucky to be able to see 3 planes on the ground. I don't know how many they have in total, but I got the idea that they aren't as busy this year, certainly nowhere near as busy as last year's fire season.

The "lockers" (they didn't have doors or locks) - each smokejumper has all his or her gear here ready for use. There were two teams of eight identified at the entry to the locker room. When the alarm goes off, the members of currently-designated team 1 have 4 minutes to get their gear on and be on the plane and rolling down the runway.

Our guide, Adam, walking through the locker area.

Parachute rigging area. These chutes were probably drying before they would be taken into the next room for packing.

Parachute packing area - the long straight tables are for the round parachutes, but they are transitioning over to square parachutes which are folded/packed using L-shaped tables at the end of the room. The young man sitting on the table in the dark clothes and the woman at the end were packing square parachutes. The guy closest to us with the maroon shirt was packing a drogue chute - the one that provides stability when coming out of the plane and causes the large parachute to deploy.

Adam told us that they learn to pack parachutes, and must pack 20 perfectly - as determined by an experienced person who checks the parachute after packing. After they do 20 perfect packs, the next one they pack is for themselves to use in their next jump. There are then additional requirements before a new jumper is allowed to pack chutes for others. I think he also told us that initially it can take a few hours to pack a chute, but as they gain experience, it takes about 30 minutes.

Outside the visitor center were good wishes and thank you's to the smokejumpers from many of the visitors!

We enjoyed our visit to the smokejumper school/base and highly recommend a visit if you're near Missoula, Montana!