It’s not often that a short weather window lines up, especially in Alaska. Todd Ligare and Sammy Carlson showed up to ski with Black Ops Valdez on the tail end of a big storm, with a few days to film before high winds ripped through and trashed surface conditions. Stability, soft snow, and clear skies are just about all you can ask for up there, and the team lucked out big time. 

“Prototype” is six and a half minutes of dreamy, high-speed Alaskan powder skiing, shot with an FPV drone that gives the audience a front-row seat to the action. Drawn to the immersive feeling the FPV footage provides, Ligare says he intended to use more shots from other angles the crew was shooting, but once the team started editing it was clear that the FPV shots would give the viewers a unique and captivating experience. 

It was Ligare’s first time skiing with the FPV drone following him, and the drone pilot, Kadison Pelletier, had shot skiing—a prototype of sorts, one that felt experimental for the whole crew.  

You never know what you’re going to get, but sometimes that works out just fine.