Photo by Mary Forney/Lake Powell Chronicle Balloon riders hover above the Glen Canyon Dam during the balloon regatta on Friday.

(Note to readers: This is a first-person account of reporter Mary Forney’s first flight in a hot air balloon.)

My journalism career reached new heights on Nov. 6 as I stood in a basket tied to a giant parachute, and hung around in the air for a few minutes near the Glen Canyon Dam.

Participating in the Page-Lake Powell Hot Air Balloon Regatta was a liberating experience because I am terrified of heights. I am always the person who freezes on steps or ladders when there is open space between the tiers. While my siblings were having fun at Niagara Falls riding in a glass elevator, I was standing in it with my hands over my eyes and crying.

My apprehension of heights has kept me from enjoying many of life’s adventures. When I was growing up, there was a community tree house in the woods behind my house that I was too afraid to climb. My older sister and the neighbor children would scale up there and periodically, I would try to follow. I would reach the second or third wooden plank nailed in the tree while everyone cheered me on, but then I would panic, back down, and run home in tears. My dad finally built me a fort on the ground because he got tired of my crying.

For the complete article see the 11-11-2009 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 11-11-2009 paper.

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