Lost Prairie Boogie starts tomorrow

The 44th annual Lost Prairie Boogie gets under way Saturday with about 250 skydivers and their families expected to attend.

The event is being sponsored this year by Meadow Peak Skydiving, which is in its first year of operation, while Skydive Lost Prairie will continue to operate the skydiving school and tandem jumps for newcomers to the sport.

“It’s sort of the Christmas season” for the school, said Skydive Lost Prairie co-founder and owner Fred Sand. “People will come out and do that tandem jump during this event.”

Sand said typically there are more than 200 people who show up for tandem jumps during the 10-day event that concludes on Aug. 1.

Most skydivers stay for the duration, camping out near the Lost Prairie airfield.

“There are people here already. They started arriving here Tuesday and they will be the last ones to go,” Sand said. “Some of them will make five, six, seven jumps a day. Some folks make up to 80 during the event.”

Some participants plan their summer vacations around the event, venturing out to Glacier National Park and other nearby recreational destinations.

This year’s jump meet will feature two Super Otter airplanes from Arizona that can carry up to 23 skydivers each. The Otters can climb to 13,000 feet in about 10 minutes and be back on the ground within seven minutes to pick up another load of skydivers, Sand said.

The planes likely will be put to work for some free-fall formation skydiving that may involve up to 46 skydivers. But that won’t be enough to challenge the state record free-fall formation of 53 skydivers.

The annual jump meet was first held in 1967 out of the Kalispell City Airport, and Sand’s first year of involvement was in 1971. He recalls the airfield at Lost Prairie in the Marion area west of Kalispell started as a rough airstrip across a pasture in the late 1970s and it was gradually improved in the years that followed.

“The peak years were around the early 1990s when the economy was more flush,” said Sand, noting that the highest turnout during that period was 575 skydivers.

In recent years, it has averaged about 220 to 250 skydivers, he said.

The event is open to spectators with no admission fee. Tandem skydives from 13,000 feet cost $249, and those interested to book an appointment by calling 858-2493.

For more information on Skydive Lost Prairie and the Boogie online, look for:

http://www.skydivelostprairie.com