Are Pakistan's Other Drones the Future of Extreme-Sport Cinema?

In a place that’s become synonymous with all the moral, ethical, legal, and political quandaries posed by the robo-lords of the new “bugsplat” warfare, the thought of insect-like drones buzzing over northern Pakistan may not immediately take on celebratory, almost redemptive tones.

But over the summer a Swiss expedition used small RC helicopters to gather groundbreaking footage of mountaineers on Great Trango Tower, one of the world’s most technically demanding climbs in one of the world’s most imposing mountain ranges, the Karakoram. A joint project between Mammut, an outdoor clothing and equipment company, and Dedicam, a small-drone firm specializing in video, the mission followed world-class climber David Lama and Peter Ortner, his climber partner, scaling Trango. It was no small-fry backyard flight – the sheer-granite spire rises over 19,685 feet (6,000 meters) above sea level near the northern side of the Baltoro Glacier.

This sort of thing has long been the preserve of manned helicopters, and it will for the most part stay that way, at least for the moment. Cinema drones are still a novelty in adventure photography. But when it comes to shooting skiers, big-wave surfers and other extreme sport athletes, manned helicopters are actually not at all ideal for filming what’s otherwise too difficult to just shoot from the ground. Filmmakers rattle off a litany of groans over the clunky, thumping rotorcraft. Helis are expensive, for one, and set in particularly dizzying scenarios can endanger both those in the air and on the ground. But their rotors also typically kick up dust, snow and wind that can blind a climber, and throw her off balance.

No drones were used in shooting K2: Korakoram: The First American Climb, a 1975 doc by Emmy Award winner Laszlo Pal

The cheaper and safer alternative? Drones. It’s the exact same pitch you hear slung around at weapons expos and in the corridors of power. Spend $30,000 on a small-size unmanned aerial spy system, not millions on a hulking craft from yesterwar. And if the thing crashes, who cares! At least you’ll know none of your guys were in harm’s way.

Still, those involved with July’s expedition questioned whether their quad- and hexa-copters could handle the punishing conditions. The air is incredibly thin at such high altitudes.

“We didn’t know how the flight controls would work with this and the propellers and motors,” drone operator Remo Masina tells the AP.

Masina deployed two drones at Trango – one with four propellers, the other with six – and remotely piloted the pair with a handheld console from the ground. Goggles provided views from each drone’s imaging payload. Which both held up, apparently. Another of the team’s biggest hurdles was simply spotting the climbers. By tracing the trek’s planned route, Masina raised the drones up the mountain until spotting the trio, by then nearly a mile away. The resulting shots are unprecedented.

As Corey Rich, a Lake Tahoe-based photographer and videographer who was part of the project, puts it, “People are going to see footage from the Karakoram that no human being has ever seen.”

Peter Ortner, Corey Rich and David Lama atop Trango Summit, Karakoram mountain range, northern Pakistan July 2012 (via AP / Remo Massima)

It’s a striking example of Pakistan bearing both the problems and promises of the coming droneworld. The country has experienced the brunt of U.S. drone strikes, of course. Earlier this year the AP published an investigation that reported at least 194 people killed in 10 separate missile strikes over the preceding year and half. According to the 80 Pakistani villagers that the AP interviewed, militants accounted for 138 of the dead. Civilians and cops made up the remaining 56 victims. If anything, the frequency of these strikes has only ratcheted skyward. To hear Rich recount the stock-stilled awe of the villagers over the “other” drones is at once hopeful and poignant. “We were trying to do this shot that showed this quaint village,” he says. “But every single person in the shot is standing, stopped in the street, looking up at the helicopter.”

Heli-drone prep at Trango base, July 2012 (via AP / Footloose Fotography)

Reach this writer at brian@motherboard.tv. @thebanderson

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