Skydiving (Check!)...Over the Swiss Alps (Double Check!!)

As part of my New Year's Trip, I went to Interlaken, Switzerland. This is a picture of me in a big field with the Alps behind me. I was there only 2 days and after Night Sledding got canceled and since the snow wasn't good at all to go skiing, I decided that I should do something to make my trip to Switzerland memorable. At the famous Balmer's Hostel, a guy and girl told me how awesome skydiving was. Their descriptions and pictures got me hooked. I finally decided that I would do it, but although I built up the courage it still required a clear day the next day and that at least one other person do it. So I started talking up the experience to some of the people I met. Although a lot of these kids were broke, one decided to ante up (via his credit card). Awesome fact was that the chain of people telling others to do it caused the group to grow to 8.

Now with enough people to do it, we faced two more problems. The cheapest way to skydive is to go out of a plane, but a ski competition in the area forced the runway to be used as a parking lot. Our only option was to pay more to jump out of a helicopter. With the already large costs, the extra cost of the 'copter didn't seem all too bad. Second problem...at our original jump time of 10 am, it was too cloudy. We were told our trip was postponed until 1 pm and that it was still a 50/50 chance that we would go. Fortunately, as the day progressed the clouds left leaving us a beautiful blue sky and perfect conditions to jump out of a 'copter at 13,000 ft.

The jumping experience:
I was blessed to go with 8 awesome people (plus two extra friends that watched) I just had met. Everyone had such a great excitement that took away any scary anxiety any of us maybe had. We got paired in two's because that's all the 'copter could hold (since we were going tandem). I was paired with a guy named Baden from New Zealand. We were the 3rd pair to go. So it was so exciting to get to see the two pairs go before me because to see their excitement when they hit the ground took away any fear that I had and just made me more excited to go. Two of us had brought our iPods and our tandem jumpers told us it was totally cool to bring em along to the sky. So I decided to bring along "Anna Molly" by Incubus and "Around the World" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers for the ride. Both of those songs make me want to jump so I figured it would make me want to jump out of a helicopter even more. The helicopter ride up was like a tour of the Alps and the ride down gave me one of the most breathtaking views and feelings in the world. All in all, it was a wonderful ride and it was worth every penny. I didn't have my camera, so I'm waiting for all my new friends to e-mail me all their pictures (including Baden's picture of me hanging out the side of the open helicopter). Good times!