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Oct. 15--For someone who spent almost four decades working every summer in the wilderness of the western United States, Walt "Wally" Wasser hasn't seen much of the forest.
"One of the things when you fight fires in summertime is that you don't have a summer life," Wasser said.
Wasser will finally have the chance, retiring this fall after 39 years as a wildland firefighter, including 33 years as a smoke jumper.
While some wildland firefighters opt to stay on as temp workers during bad fire seasons after they retire, Wasser says he is done. No more firefighting. He doesn't want to jump into the forest. He wants to walk in. At his leisure.
"I'm looking forward to retirement," he said. "I really just want to travel through the West, going camping and backpacking and stuff like that."
He's going to do stuff like play golf, hike California's John Muir Trail and train for his next Ironman race.
Bureau of Land Management spokesman Don Smurthwaite says Wasser's 395 smoke jumps are the most ever.
"Wally -- the living legend," said Jerry Drazinski, who has been smoke jumping with Wasser for 20 years. "He's a natural athlete. Some guys look like Hercules, and they seem to be the ones who get hurt. It's the tall, lanky guys like Wally that keep going."
Drazinski also lauded Wasser's toughness.
"He broke a femur one year (in the 1990s), and he came back and kept going," Drazinski said.
"A lot of the young (jumpers) look up to him. Jerry is proof that if you are young at heart, and keep working out and take care of yourself, you can keep doing it."
So why is Wasser quitting?
Mandatory retirement for smoke jumpers and all active federally employed full-time wildland firefighters is 57. Wally turned 57 in September. That being said, he is ready to stop.
"It's good they have an age limit ... fighting fire is a tough job," Wasser said. "I don't do it like the guys who are 30 and 35 years old. They can hike up a hill a lot faster than I can."
While he won't necessarily miss the work, he will miss his fellow smoke jumpers -- people who think it's fun to jump out of planes and into forest fires -- and then do backbreaking physical labor in incredibly dangerous conditions.
"That's what I'll miss. The people you work with are top-notch. You can trust a smoke jumper with anything," Wasser said. "It doesn't matter who they are or who they trained with."
Wasser began fighting fires in 1973 in California, moving on to join engine and hot shot crews in the Sierra National Forest before joining the McCall smoke jumpers in 1979. He moved to the Boise NIFC crew in 1987 and worked there until September of this year.
Wasser decided to become a wildland firefighter after watching a Walt Disney special on the subject when he was a child in the 1960s. And once he started, he never left.
"Every time I was tempted to move on, I would ask the question, 'Would I be happier doing something else?' The answer was always no," Wasser said.
Smoke jumpers parachute into remote areas to be able to provide a quick response to freshly started fires, trying to stop them before they can grow. It's a dangerous, difficult job that requires excellent physical fitness and an ability to think clearly in dangerous situations. Firefighting tools, food and water are dropped by parachute to jumpers after they land near the fire, making them self-sufficient for the first 48 hours.
Wasser said his favorite jump was at Grand Gulch in eastern Utah, where the fire site was near ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs. His worst jump was in Oregon's Mount Jefferson Wilderness area. That's where he broke his leg.
His most interesting assignment was when he spent seven weeks in Russia in 1997 as part of an exchange program, jumping and rappelling into blazes in Siberia.
Patrick Orr: 373-6619
