MASS ASCENSION

Yeah, it sounds like some Catholic ritual but in actuality "Mass Ascension" is the term used when over 500 hot air balloons rise into the sky at the annual International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

I just returned from another wonderful visit with my soon-to-be seven granddaughter. Charley, her dad & I spent four days during her fall break just hanging out, playing, watching movies & having fun! Friday morning we decided to take a ride out to the Balloon Fiesta site & see what was going on.

We found this balloon hovering really low over the street. I took this photo out the front window just before our car literally drove right under the balloon. We all opened our windows, yelled "hi" & waved at the pilot who waved back!

This balloon looked like it was landing just to the side of the road. You can just get a glimpse of these trees in the lower left corner of the above photo.

That was such fun that we checked out the schedule for the weekend where we discovered the "Mass Ascension" on Saturday morning at 7 AM. The three of us decided to go for it & Darrin bought us tickets. You can drive but they recommended one of the four bus transportation locations that bypass all the traffic into the field. These events usually attract over 80,000 spectators.

If you are not a morning person (like me), you have to really suck it up since they suggest arriving by 6 AM which we did after getting up at 4:30 AM. The place was packed with spectators as the early "dawn patrol" balloons go up first to check the wind speed & direction.

Since the burners are ignited every few seconds to keep the balloons rising these photos were really hard to get. I tried to anticipate when they would crank up the flames to get these photos. I also have about 20 that are pretty much black.

We were bundled up in the chilly New Mexico morning. Charley had the great idea to go over by this balloon that was using its burner to heat the inside air enough to ascend. She was right! It was really warm since we were just a few feet away.

Dawn was just beginning to light up the sky as the first balloons rose into the air as people yelled & cheered. These two are a little hard to see but I dubbed them "Breakfast of Champions" - the orange one is Krispy Kreme donuts & the black one is Dos Equis beer.

They say that around 500 balloons take part in the mass ascension from the huge field. It takes close to two hours for the several waves of balloons to go up since each has to be inflated with fans, then heated with burners & finally allowed to take off into the sky. I was amazed at how thousands & thousands of people just wander around engulfed by hot air balloons in various stages of inflation. The crews simply find a spot & constantly ask the spectators to move over while they spread out the cloth of each balloon. You are definitely up close & personal!

For about an hour we were literally surrounded by balloons. It was fascinating to watch the crews go through the steps to inflate & fly the balloons. But I came to the conclusion that it was a hell of a lot of work to ride this thing up into the air with no ability to steer it or control it other than to give it more heat to rise. Fun to watch but I think I'll pass on flying in one.

After the balloon is laid out on the ground, it is inflated with a giant fan before the burner is used to heat the air enough to stand the balloon upright. 

These are my favorite photos of the sunrise as hundreds of balloons continued to ascend into the New Mexico sky.

These Rainbow Ryder balloons apparently travel around giving balloon rides at various events. 

I am still amazed at how all these balloons with almost no ability to control them don't hit each other. I suppose that they are all at the mercy of the same wind. They all have chase crews in pick up trucks that follow them along roads & ultimately arrive to haul the pilot, basket & balloons back to the field.

Here we are thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. We had lots of snacks for Charley but that breakfast burrito tasted really, really good when we all sat on the grass to finally eat breakfast as we watched the final groups rise into the air. And my hip did pretty well - I only needed minimal help to get up off the ground!

This shows you just how close the spectators are to all the action.

There are all sorts of shapes, sizes & colors of balloons. Here are some of our favorites.

The elephant was a favorite of kids of all ages. There was also a cow, a zebra & Darth Vader but they were either blocked by other balloons or wouldn't cooperate turning around for my photo op.

I liked the shape of this one & wasn't sure if it was a carousel or something else.

Charley said that this was a princess elephant. It was really big & took forever to inflate.

All of us loved this Black Widow spider attached to the side of this balloon. Charley had watched the opening day on TV & had a great time seeing the balloons in person that she saw on TV.

There were several balloons such as this fish that were just on static display, too.

All but the static display balloons were finally airborne. Here is our sweetie with a full tummy, all warmed up & enjoying the balloon necklace & butterfly wand that Gaga bought for her - of course. She was a real trooper & we were so proud of her!