Auto following drones could change the climbing scene

Imagine connecting a device to your harness that instructs a camera equipped drone to automatically film you from five meters above your head. The number of videos exploiting drones has dramatically increased in the last few years. This has been observed mainly in bouldering as it is still hard to follow a climber on a 30 m long route. The Airdog can also be the perfect tool for you and your trainer to analyse your training and progress on projects. One drawback is that the battery capacity is just 10 - 18 minutes at the moment and then it takes one hour to recharge it. One possible solution for this is to wait to turn it on until you have come to the hard spectacular sequence high up on the route and then you can turn it off and the Airdog returns back to the base. Another setback is of course the price, 1 699 Euros, plus the additional cost of the camera. Here you can purchase the drone for 1 000 Euros, which includes a camera and ability to recharge the battery in an hour while still at the crag. Someday, the norm at a crag may be existence of several hovering drones at any time. This is easily a prospect some will welcome and others will dread. 8a has been in contact with the producers who informed us that a demo will be conducted at Railay before its market release in February.