You know it’s spring when the hills are covered with blossoming arrowleaf balsamroot and serviceberries, and at the Methow Valley State Airport (MVSA), smokejumpers are parachuting from an orange and white plane. It’s spring training at the North Cascades Smokejumper Base (NCSB). Despite U.S. Forest Service budget cuts and firings, most of the full complement of 30 jumpers returned this year.
I have a front-row view of everything happening at the airport, living adjacent to Craig Boesel’s cow pasture, which skirts the airstrip. In March, the hot air balloons drift in from their take-off site in Winthrop. In June, glider planes are towed upwards to fly the thermals over the Methow Valley and beyond, and my least favorite, during wildfire and smoke season, is the constant “chop, chop, chop” of helicopters hauling water buckets, which disturbs the tranquility of everyone living adjacent to the airport. This year, after watching some initial jumps and never having visited the smokejumper base, I wandered down.
The NCSB is one of the smallest of nine bases, but was also the site of the first experimental jumps in the late 1930s. Smoke chaser Francis Lufkin from Auburn, Washington, is credited with initiating the program and eventually becoming a jumper himself. In 1944, the base was officially sanctioned, and Lufkin served as its manager until his retirement in 1972. The loft where jumpers prep for action is named in his honor, “Lufkin Parachute Loft.”
Twisp resident Bill Moody is famous for his contributions to wildland firefighting and smokejumping. In a News article written by Ashley Lodato in 2020, she wrote that after 60 years in professional wildfire suppression and innovation, he was awarded the International Walt Darran Aerial Firefighting Award. He spent 17 years at the NCSB as the manager and was noted for his teamwork mentality and innovation.
New to smokejumping since 2015, and now fully integrated into the program at the NCSB this year, is the square parachute called a Ram Air Canopy. Initially controversial, it has proven to perform better in high winds and is highly maneuverable. On my visit to the base, I was impressed by how easily most jumpers hit the target gravel patch on the airstrip.
At the base, I approached a group of smokejumpers eating lunch at a picnic table in the pleasantly shaded compound. I asked the standard questions, questions I’m sure they’ve been asked a million times, but they humored me, especially when I asked them to define jumper jargon. However, they were steadfast in their refusal to talk about the current crisis at the Forest Service.
The jumpers were two weeks into either refresher training for veterans or a much more rigorous six-week program for rookies. Most veterans have permanent seasonal positions that might transition to permanent positions in management. Jumpers are stationed at the NCSB for six to seven months unless they get a “boost” order, a call to help out elsewhere. It’s their choice whether to go on a boost or stay at the base to “fill the load.” Early in the season, they’ll fly to Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks, Alaska, to train.
I next talked to the base manager, Charles McCarthy, who transitioned two and a half years ago to this position after being a smokejumper since 2002. As to the Forest Service situation, he said “We don’t know anything. There are people with opinions, but we don’t know what direction things are going. Probationary employees have been let go, then hired back. The smokejumper base has not experienced this.”
He said that in the past 10 years, interest in the program has waned, and applications are down. In 1981, the first female jumper, Deanne Shulman from the McCall base, ended what had been for 42 years an exclusive all-male fraternity. The NCSB has had several female jumpers, but none this year.
I was invited to return to the base the next morning to watch a training session. First, gear is packed in the loft, a standard pack weighing 80-plus pounds. Everything is checked and double-checked. Outside, jumpers circle up before boarding the current plane, a Forest Service Sherpa, borrowed from the McCall base until their usual contracted plane arrives. After take-off, the plane circles several times and drops streamers to test wind conditions before the jumpers disembark. The gear pack leaves the plane last, adding an extra 20 pounds or more to each jumper’s load to pack out.
The NCSB is open for tours starting in May, Monday through Sunday from noon-3 p.m. Call (509) 997-9750 for information or to schedule tours.
