A Smokejumper’s Life Between Leaps

By New West Editor, 9-19-07

This summer in Montana, dozens of wildfires consumed hundreds of thousands of acres of parched land. Yet thousands more were left unaffected by fire, partially due to the initial and rapid response of the people who make up one of the West’s most romanticized and revered professions: Smokejumpers.

It’s easy enough to see where the fascination with smokejumping stems: Tough, dirty firefighters, padded up for flight, readying themselves to jump into a forest afire. But, when you get personal, you see there is so much more to smokejumping than just the adrenaline, the sweat and the bravery. It’s what happens before the jumps, after the jumps and between the jumps that captured NewWest.Net photographer Anne Medley’s attention.

During the height of fire season in August, Anne hung out with Missoula-based rookie smokejumper Carrie Johnson as she prepared to jump. Click the image for a multimedia glance into Carrie’s life as a smokejumper.