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Though it was marked with a terrifying tragedy, the 36th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was a success.

Pilots, festival organizers and fans balanced beautiful weather with the sad memory of a California woman killed when she fell from a balloon.

Rosemary W. Phillips, 60, her partner and two friends, all from the San Diego area, attended the fiesta and rode in a balloon Oct. 8. Phillips fell 50 or more feet to her death from the balloon when it snared in a utility line. Two of the women sustained broken legs. The experienced pilot and the third woman were not seriously injured.

"One death is always too many," said Kathie Leyendecker, fiesta spokeswoman. "Our sympathies go out to the family. But we still provide one of the premiere facilities for balloonists all over the world."

This is the first fiesta in at least four years where there have been no rain outs and there were launches every day, Leyendecker said.

And attendance likely set a record for opening day mass ascension Oct. 6 with more than 11,000 Park and Ride tickets sold, she said. Official attendance and revenue tallies will be released in a few weeks.

But the death, especially, was on the minds of just about everybody.

"It's been weird," said Jonathan Wolfe, a local pilot who flies Gloria Caeli, a fractal tie-dye balloon he made himself. "It's very somber. It certainly impacts every one of us here."

Anytime somebody is killed in a ballooning accident it shakes the whole community, said Paul Clinton, a local pilot who flies the balloon Day Tripper.

"It's sad. It's sad for the family. It's sad for the pilot," Clinton said. "It's also a sense of reality. It makes us realize we're all vulnerable. It could have happened to any of us."

The winds came up quickly on Monday when Phillips was killed. The weather was nice for the first wave of launches, but then the winds started blasting, which probably was why her balloon got stuck in a power line, Clinton said.

"Monday, after the winds picked up, I chose not to fly," Clinton said. "We still don't know what happened, but the pilot is very good - I've flown with him (Sandia Park pilot Tom Reyes) many times. I think if something like that happened to me though, and somebody was killed, it would be the end of my flying career."

Venessa Reis, a 9-year-old from the East Mountains, said even though she heard about the woman's death in school, she'd still go up if she had a chance.

"She fell to the ground and died. That's scary," Venessa said, then shrugged. "It's one of those things that happens. I still want to go up."

The death marked a stark contrast to the beautiful flying conditions, especially on Friday, when a wind effect pilots call "the Box" was working perfectly.

That effect lets pilots circle the field repeatedly using winds at varying directions at different altitudes.

"Friday was probably the best flight I had in 10 years," Clinton said. "You could drive the balloon anywhere you wanted to."

Wolfe came close to winning a new pickup truck that day, flying over the field right behind the balloonist who won the Key Grab event, he said.

"This is some of the best weather we've ever had," Wolfe said. "I had the best flight of my life this Friday at the competition. I came down the field exactly right, and ended up perfectly, but the person right in front of me got there first."

Wolfe got a second place medal for the double-drop event, where balloonists try to hit an X on the field with two bean bags.

Robert Romaneschi, an Arizona pilot who flies one of the two bee-shaped balloons, called Joey and Lilly Bee, said even though there was tragedy, the fiesta is just something he loves, and he's sure he'll be back again next year for his 24th straight fiesta.

"It's been a great fiesta," Romaneschi said. "It's always tragic when something like her death happens, but the fiesta overall has such a great safety record. An event can be so good, and people only remember the one negative thing that happens. I hope that's not the case here."