STEVENSVILLE — What’s that coming to Stevensville skies this spring? A bird? A plane? Superman? It is Skydive Missoula, a new company planning to take flight when the weather warms up.
Every year, millions of people skydive in the U.S. Now, jumping in the big sky is getting closer to home. Skydive Missoula is ramping up to bring big dives back to the Bitterroot for the first time since the 90s.
When Luke and Beth Short, the owners and operators, moved to Missoula years ago, they missed having a place to dive.
“When we came here to the Stevensville Airport and saw the incredible beauty of the mountain wilderness that we have here, it just seemed to us like the most idyllic place that we could even imagine a drop zone being,” Luke Short said. “It was just magic. We knew right then and there that we wanted to start Skydive Missoula at some point.”
Watch the story below:
Skydiving is much more than a sport for the couple — it's how they met and fell in love. They even broke a world record together.
“We were the largest group from the highest altitude. A group of eight of us jumped from 33,154 feet. Up where the jets fly,” Beth Short said of the record, which was recently broken. “They had to stop air traffic for us and it was a very long, very fast free fall.”
Now, they’re preparing to soon start the engines for skydiving and a flight school out of their Stevensville Airport hangar.
“We're gonna be offering tandem skydives and student skydives. Basically, we will take someone from nothing to their skydiving license if that's what they want to do,” Beth Short said. “We're really hoping to fill a need that seems to be here in Missoula for people who want to do this sort of thing.”
Skydive Missoula plans to have a variety of options for everyone, from beginners to long-time jumpers like the Shorts. The couple hopes to make the sport more accessible and understood.
“There's something for everyone, and this is a beautiful place to do it,” Luke Short said. “In a nutshell, it's the very safest aviation-related activity that you can do. It's safer than commercial flying. It's safer than a champagne, sunset hot air balloon ride.”
Mostly, the couple told MTN they wanted to share the sport they have loved from the jump.
“Nobody forgets their first jump. It’s something that, forever afterwards, you're always going to be looking toward the sky and thinking of that day and that experience. What I remember about that jump most specifically is that it's kind of difficult to remember anything except for that thrill. That pure thrill and the smiles and the exhilaration,” Luke Short said. “We’re gonna keep the blades turning so that we can get as many people up there experiencing that thrill that we love as possible.”
Come spring and warmer air, Skydive Missoula will be hitting the skies and dropping into the Bitterroot.
“If anyone thinks, ‘Oh, I can't possibly learn how to skydive.’ If I can do it, anybody can do it,” Beth Short said. “I always tell people, if you think that you would enjoy skydiving, you probably will. So you should come out and give it a try, even if you're scared.”
