December 23, 2024 00:23 AM

Ski Resorts Using Drone GoPros to Lure Thrill-Seekers

Louis Gresham, co-founder of Cape Productions, stated that the eighteen months old company has joined forces with eight resorts in the United States and one in Canada.

Video is just about the new currency. Everybody needs pictures of themselves, Gresham said, referring to the popularity of GoPro adventure cameras and phone applications like Vine, Snapchat and Instagram. Every one of these companies is attempting to give individuals tools to better show themselves.

At U.S resorts, Cape Productions is required to charge in the middle of $100 and $200 for a photograph shoot that incorporates three runs. Within 48 hours, clients get a one-and-a-half-to two-minute, professionally altered video that includes aerial and landscape footage, music and shots from stationary cameras.

Cape Productions, which is sponsored by more than $10 million in investment, got full consent from the Federal Aviation Administration in October to fly the drones, which cost about $4,000 each and are about the measure of a huge crow.

Gresham added that only one drone would be in the air at a time on one assigned run, and to the extent security is concerned, it would be improbable whatever other skiers or snowboarders would be in the shot.

At first, the drones are expected to take flight in December at Homewood Mountain Resort and Squaw Valley in northern California, both of which are on private area. Yet, it could take more time to get authorization to fly them at different U.S. resorts, a large portion of which work on public land and would require U.S. Forest Service endorsement.

Steve Hurlbert, a representative for Colorado's Winter Park Resort, which sits completely on open land, and, as most ski resorts bans the utilization of drones, said everything is dependent upon endorsement by the Forest Service. It's still too soon to know whether drones will be included at the resort.

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