Fledglings

As longtime professional climbers who eat, sleep and live the sport, Cedar Wright and Matt Segal are used to being competent, comfortable and at the top of their game.

Then they get into paragliding, and what starts as a toe dip turns quickly into a consuming addiction, as well as a lesson in what it’s like to be bumbling, naïve, gung-ho beginners. Tree landings, sketchy moments and junkshow launches become part of the new normal.

With only six months of flying under their belts, and professional flier Matt Henzi as a sensei, Wright and Segal embark on an audacious objective: to climb and fly off Orizaba, the third-highest peak in the America’s and the highest in Mexico.

What ensues is disaster-style climbing, iffy weather, broken gear and a lesson in jumping into the deep end and being forced to swim.