Gadgetory

when I last seriously snowboarded about a decade ago the only technology I had with me was a third-generation iPod since then technology has hit the mountain in a big way people make every run with their smart phones in their pocket there's gear everywhere from Google glass like devices to Bluetooth gloves but the thing you see most on the slopes now is action cameras GoPro and others made it possible to capture every move every run and show it all to the world and everybody got on board with that one skier using action cameras to his full advantage is also at the top of his game Tom Wallisch is a professional skier with gold medals in the X Games and the winter Dew Tour and he probably would have been an Olympian in Sochi if it wasn't for an ACL injury Wallisch was originally discovered in 2007 thanks to a home video competition called the super unknown you film that with a sony VX 2100 a big expensive camera that used digital video tapes now he uses nothing but the newest and greatest the GoPro Hero 4 Black Edition we headed out to his home mountain in Park City Utah to see how a real pro uses a GoPro it's progressive sports because it used to be ski and snowboard movies would come out every fall and you'd have to watch it see it in the fall and be like oh that's what trick he learned last year now it's instantaneous you know you'll see pro snowboarder will be out here he does it cool trick he filmed it himself it's on YouTube the next run and some guy in France at the same time can be snowboarding to be like oh my god I can't believe that guy just did that I'm gonna learn it right now the progression of it is just so fast hey want to take a look at how you set up filming and run these GoPros you got here definitely so any walkthrough you guys okay well I've got a handheld mount in my pocket I love this three-piece design for you know getting your friend capturing footage of your friend or capturing a little selfie you know getting a little photo of yourself video of yourself I keep that in my pocket for whenever I'm skiing just busted out but kind of my most important camera definitely is the helmet cam it's the one you'll see the most of on the hill everybody's got something on the helmet I'm gonna set one up here that sticky mount I got a lighter in my pocket it's a little trick of the trade I've learned over the years and if you heat it up a little bit even your helmet and the sticky you're gonna have a much better chance of getting it to stick on there because it's just a little warmer it's cold out here or snowing you want that stick to stay on there you're not really pushing on there it's where all those big muscles I've been working on come into play get my camera back right up I borrow that too I'm gonna try it yeah then give it give it a run I don't have those skiing muscles but this tech journalist much of these those keyboard muscles walk me through like what's the first thing you do once you get on the lift yep sometime connect and control a GoPro get in there we got the preview coming up and I can kind of see what we're seeing with it see what our shots are like and then you can open up and just look through and check out all your shots is me grind and spin in I'm pretty stoked with that I'll save it and then from there I mean I could get that right up on YouTube Facebook Instagram we got 28 30 seconds remaining and it's like 174 megabyte file it's pretty crazy how fast the wireless is the amount of stuff that you're posting and how easy it is for people to see all this people know who you are you've won a lot of really big competitions how does that affect your day to day here on the mountain with social you know showcasing where you are what you're doing I mean maybe somebody's not skiing at Park City that day and they they see that you're there they see this photo immediately and they're like I got to go I'm over at the canyons but I got to go to Park City and they come over and and see you in our sport especially I mean skiing and snowboarding if people aren't really training at these closed off facilities you go to the park you're gonna see me and that's what makes it so cool you know you see all these pros and everybody out there it's accessible you can go shake hands get an autograph you know get a photo with the person get it on your social and you know I see it then everybody's so interconnected it's crazy do you usually pump some music while you're working or do you like to just kind of ride and let the scene take over just like to ride I'm mostly on no music and listen to the sounds of nature kind of guy do you have any goat cheese when you do listen that a lot of hip-hop I mean I'm a big 90s hip-hop fan but yeah I don't know I bounce all over the place who knows it could be the new Beyonce track let me psych that day who knows to say yeah maybe that'll inspire you to get that extra operation just get a little funky with yes action cameras are expanding the social interaction on the main slopes but there's still a whole other side of the downhill winter sports world that stays away from the lips backcountry skiing out in the wild the biggest worry isn't sharing your sickest trick it's staying alive keeping yourself safe can be a tedious process but avataq is a company that's come up with a smart way of helping you make sure it happens the company born out of MIT has created a product that can measure the snowpack in the backcountry and can instantly share the data to a network called a banette access to that kind of knowledge can literally mean the difference between life and death it's really a communication device we're trying to get people to talk to each other and share information we're out here in the snow and beautiful day but we really can't see beneath the snowpack but if you take some tests and share that information broadly it'll help people make better decisions and how does this device get that information out to other people it's web connected so Bluetooth syncs to your phone there's also GPS enabled so as you're putting it through the snow it basically is just measuring all the hardness and also measure slope aspect and then geo tags it and then send that live to our web platform so now your fellow community you can see a lot more information very quickly and the head of snow safety could be looking at the computer overseeing a map and seeing where where the people are at okay so obviously we're the early season snowpack here which is often the most dangerous time of year what we're looking at is about six centimeters of a very very hard hard layer here it's been baked in the Sun and hasn't snowed in a while here and then you kind of go into little little softer and then sugar and this is what we're looking for this is why we're not over there skiing that it's because the snow is sliding on the very old snow that fell in October what you want to look for is do I have a hard layer over a soft layer do I have something that is going to shear off and cause some instability if you see a very light layer you know that you have a problematic situation on the other side of that what would be an ideal situation that you could look at with this device and say okay we're good to go here we're looking for Needy powder we're looking for nice soft layer and gradually getting harder to the base there's been a lot of great evolutions and technology and we've been you know skis are lighter and we have incredible ways to stay on top of an avalanche how to breathe underneath an avalanche how to dig people out of avalanches the fact of the matter is that's after mistakes were made and how do you survive an avalanche is the end result how to avoid an avalanche is what technologies should be working with so now I've seen how a pro uses the same action cameras that many of us already own and how creative hardware mixed with social networking can help save lives now how do I apply some of this new technology PS and accelerometer to gauge your speed altitude and vertical jumps if you're good enough for that apps like trace snow snow crew and even runtastic s-- winter sports I'll track your path just like a running app does but most of them can apply it right to the specific run on the mountain that you're visiting which lets you compare against your friends or strangers things like who hit the fastest speed or who made it down in the shortest amount of time there's Tekken almost everything you wear on the slopes - most helmets now come with audio inserts and can be connected via bluetooth or an aux cord and to control the music there are a number of Bluetooth accessories my favorite of which were the Bear Tech Bluetooth gloves they're not cheap but they work really well just tap the power button on your thumb to unlock them and your thumb becomes a remote each finger has different controls like play pause fast-forward and rewind and it can even answer calls for the most impressive thing you can take with you this ski season comes from Recon instruments ski goggles with a heads up display they work almost exactly like Google glass except the battery lasts longer the colorful display sits below your vision and the experience is tailored to show you information you want on the mountain you can check your speed and altitude in real time follow detailed resort maps to see what run you're on or find the nearest chairlift see the notifications from your phone and even locate your friends if you're all hooked up through the same app it all works the remote that you can stash in your pocket or hook to your helmet strap and it is by far the coolest tech you can bring with you on the mountain every part of your day can be captured and analyzed just like the rest of your life purists will say it all ruins the experience that too many people are skiing distracted or care too much about taking a selfie during a run I didn't mind at all and I can't wait to see what comes next you