Pro Snowboarder Forgets Ice Axe, Uses Drone as a Clever Solution

"What do you do when you realise you forgot your ice axes at the car and you are 500 meters up your climb?" Xavier wrote, describing his bit of technological ingenuity. "You can go down and back up or you can call your filmer and have him strap them onto his drone and fly it you."

"Didn’t think it would work, crazy ! It made my day," he added.

While this is far from the traditional use for drones, they’ve enjoyed wider and wider adoption by various corners of snowsports. 

First and perhaps most importantly, they’ve become flying cameras, capturing footage that, a couple of decades ago, could only be achieved with a helicopter. That’s made the process of capturing aerial footage cheaper and more efficient. As a result, more movies have shots that used to be the exclusive domain of big dogs like Teton Gravity Research and Matchstick Productions.

Drones are sneaking into other areas, too. Drone Amplified is testing drones that can carry and drop explosives for avalanche mitigation. And a Japanese ski resort shared a video last year showing how drones could be used in a variety of use cases, from warning guests about closed terrain to inspecting ski lifts.

It all adds up to a simple fact: drones, probably, will be an increasingly common sight in the mountains (before you go hog wild and start flying your drone around willy nilly, though, take a peek at the National Forest’s guidelines—ski resorts typically have drone use policies, too). 

Personally, I have a bit of a vendetta against drones. I can’t stand the buzzing and, whenever one shows up while I’m outside, I feel like Big Brother’s spoiling my mountain time. No, dear drone operator, I don’t want my mediocre skiing to be featured in your edit.

Still, you can’t deny the impressive footage the little buggers can capture. And projects like the one Drone Amplified is leading could keep more mountain workers out of harm's way, so I’ll get over it. 

Someday, I may even develop a fondness for drones, particularly if they make one that can travel hundreds of miles and retrieve my ski boots when I forget them.