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challenging weather conditions that impact visibility for a
hasty search,” Lee said. “The AirFlare detector device is small
enough to be operated by hand or even flown by a drone for
increased search area coverage, if necessary.”
A subscription to the service costs $19.95 annually for
consumers—a small price to pay for being immediately
discoverable in the event of an emergency, Lee said.
“Most ski area guests aren’t showing up with a probe,
shovel, and beacon to ride in-bounds, but the majority of
adventurers do have their phone on them at all times,” he
said. “It’s already your phone, your camera, maybe even your
backup headlamp, so why not also make it your locator
beacon?” Learn more at airflare.com. —Colin Bane

License Plate Recognition

Surveillance cameras have helped solve millions of urban
crimes. Now more and more ski areas are also using fully
networked security cameras for license plate recognition
(LPR) to discourage theft and other criminal behavior, help
track down perpetrators, and provide guests and employees
with an additional sense of security.
Courtesy of AirFlare duced the technology, there has been a significant decrease in
In the three years since Perfect North Slopes, Ind., intro-

thefts—from 40 to 50 reports per season to less than a dozen,
AirFlare is a new wilderness safety app and related search technology says the resort’s assistant GM, Jonathan M. Davis.
system that’s been catching on with outdoor enthusiasts and search “After installing the LPR cameras we caught a few key
and rescue teams in California—and is now launching nationally. players who had been finding it lucrative to come a few times
a year to take some high-dollar equipment to sell on the black
backcountry beacon drills, hiding the cellphone along the market, and we’ve stopped them, or at least put the fear of God
trail, in the trees between trails, burying it in the snow, and in them—and they haven’t been coming back,” Davis said.
even taking it to the bar. The tracking device was successful The return on investment was immediate, with the resort
consistently in directing the team how to find it. recovering 100 percent of the stolen equipment in the eight
“I want to emphasize that our approach to search and res- to 10 theft cases it sent to the local sheriff in the last three
cue is to have a variety of different techniques and not rely too years. The resort worked with a company called Vigilant
heavily on any one piece of technology or methodology, but we Solutions to install the LPR system, which consists of two
think this is a very promising part of that mix,” Sindt said. “I’ve cameras that face in opposite directions to capture license
been recommending it to other patrols, because it’s a technol- plates of incoming and outgoing vehicles on the area’s main
ogy that becomes more valuable the more widely it’s in use by road. The cameras cost about $10,000 each, along with
other patrols and by the ski and snowboard community.” another $5,000 for installation costs and to create a point-to-
AirFlare’s vice president, Denis Lee, says his team initially point wireless network for the system, and the resort pays an
began working with search and rescue teams in Los Angeles annual licensing fee of $500 per LPR camera. Davis says the
County and Portland, Ore., before expanding to work with costs were easy to justify because this isn’t just about prevent-
ski patrols. In addition to the pilot program at Homewood, ing and investigating equipment theft.
the technology is going live this season at Crystal Mountain For some time Perfect North Slopes had considered using
Resort, Wash. AirFlare is providing the detector devices for cameras to protect its property, guests’ property, or worse—
free to ski patrols and relying on annual subscription fees in the event a child went missing, Davis said. “The more we
from adventurers for its business model. thought about it, we kept circling back to the idea of an LPR,
“If you’re a ski patrol team, you’re a search and rescue because these camera systems are now so sophisticated you can
team, and you’re often looking into trees and terrain in search the footage really quickly to go from camera to camera

30 | NSAA JOURNAL | WINTER 2019