GPS Tracking Helps Keep Track of Kids at Ski and Snowboarding School
4 Mar 2014Winter may be almost over, but it isn’t stopping kids in Colorado from skiing and snowboarding due to the persistent snowstorms in their area. And while spring skiing is nearing, kids get tracked using GPS technology at a local Colorado ski and snowboarding school.
Where 10 of 15 students out of a class of 800 may be separated from their ski instructor on a crowded and busy day, now learning to ski and snowboard at Steamboat Springs Ski Resort is putting parent’s mind at ease as their children are now tracked by using global positioning systems (GPS).The personal GPS trackers are through a system called flaik, which is pronounced like flake in the word “snowflake.” It is a small tracker that is strapped to the student’s leg and can send alerts if the student goes out of bounds. The ski and snowboard instructor is able to set a certain distance based on the level of the current class. Beginner classes have a much shorter alerting distance than more advanced students.
Supervisors and instructors use mobile computers to watch the student’s whereabouts when on the mountain, looking for any unusual activity. If they see a student away from the rest of their class, not having any movement for a while, or going further than they should, they can send for help. The GPS tracker also gives their exact location, making it easier to find them. This is important if they become lost or get hurt while skiing and need help right away.
Paul Reuter, a supervisor at the Steamboat ski resort, says during their busiest times, a handful of students do end up getting separated from their class and instructions. It is usually 1-2 percent of students who become lost or separated.
The flaik system lets the supervisors and instructors at the ski resort help find their skiing and snowboarding students as soon as they notice something amiss. This is not public knowledge, but students are given a unique code when they enter the school to log into the flaik GPS website. Here, there parents are also able to keep up with their location, movements, the difficulty level of their trails, vertical feet, and their speeds.
Due to all of this extra information the trackers provide, Steamboat also provides flaik systems to other skiers and snowboarders for $10 a day. This lets people of all ages at the ski resort track their times and keep a record of their activity throughout the day on the mountain.
Steamboat ski and snowboarding resort isn’t the only one using the flaik GPS tracking system either. Some of the other participating resorts include Pts Peak in New Hampshire, Winter Park and Copper Mountain in Colorado, Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont, Alpine Meadows and Homewood Mountain Resort in California, and some International resorts including Meribel and Courchevel in France, and Whistler-Blackcomb in Canada.
This is just another example of the important safety features GPS tracking technology offers.
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