{"id":802216,"date":"2019-12-11T14:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T21:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/drone-likely-at-winter-x-games-in-aspen\/"},"modified":"2019-12-11T14:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T21:48:00","slug":"drone-likely-at-winter-x-games-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/drone-likely-at-winter-x-games-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone likely at Winter X Games in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Chris Corning of Silverthorne executes a trick down the tear-drop rail at Winter X Games Aspen at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen last January.<\/strong>
Anna Stonehouse \/ The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

ASPEN \u2013 Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday approved ESPN\u2019s plans to use a drone-mounted camera at next month\u2019s Winter X Games to provide better TV coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe photography from the drone is going to be awesome,\u201d Commissioner Steve Child said.<\/p>\n

The plans must still be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, which has so far only provided preliminary approval, said Vanessa Anthes, ESPN\u2019s associate director for event management. Provided the approval comes through for the event, which will be held Jan. 23 to 26, those watching on television will definitely notice the new angle, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate using it heavily on event days,\u201d Anthes said.<\/p>\n

Next month\u2019s Winter X Games will mark the second time ESPN has used a drone at the annual competition, she said. Officials minimally used the device a few years ago atop tower 14 at Buttermilk for one event, but a camera drone has not been used since then, Anthes said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Patti Clapper wasn\u2019t thrilled with the idea of a drone flying above Buttermilk Ski Area, saying it was noisy and akin to \u201ca lawn mower in the sky.\u201d She said she worried about safety issues and wanted to make sure Buttermilk neighbors were notified of the plans.<\/p>\n

The drone will \u201cprimarily\u201d fly over the competition areas, will not fly over crowds and will not fly higher than 100 feet in a specific flight area, Anthes said. Officials at Aspen\u2019s airport tower \u2014 the airport is next door to Buttermilk Ski Area \u2014 will be notified when the drone is in the air, and local law enforcement officials will be able to ground the device if they feel public safety is threatened, she said.<\/p>\n

The drone could be flying as late as 10:30 p.m., Anthes said.<\/p>\n

Board Chairman Greg Poschman said he thinks the drone noise will be negligible compared to the noise from the PA system. He said he wanted neighbors to be aware of the event\u2019s construction schedule, which Anthes said will begin Jan. 13, with full lights scheduled to start Jan. 20 for practice runs.<\/p>\n

The 2020 Winter X Games will mark the event\u2019s 19th time in Aspen at Buttermilk.<\/p>\n

Commissioner George Newman said he wants to reconsider the time donated to the event by Pitkin County Sheriff\u2019s deputies and officials for next year\u2019s event. He pointed out that officials from the Aspen Ambulance District and the Colorado State Patrol who assist with X Games are compensated by ESPN.<\/p>\n

Newman also reminded his fellow board members that the Sheriff\u2019s Office is understaffed and Sheriff Joe DiSalvo recently asked for additional resources to hire more deputies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why isn\u2019t the Sheriff\u2019s Office being compensated?\u201d Newman asked.<\/p>\n

Anthes said the decision dates back to a policy directing law enforcement time to be donated to events of community benefit.<\/p>\n

Poschman said he supported Newman\u2019s suggestion and wanted the board to take a look at the amount of the subsidy next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a real problem subsidizing this,\u201d Poschman said. \u201cI\u2019m not convinced everybody in this county thinks this is such a great idea. ESPN can pay its own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story is from AspenTimes.com<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Corning of Silverthorne executes a trick down the tear-drop rail at Winter X Games Aspen at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen last January.Anna Stonehouse \/ The Aspen Times ASPEN \u2013 Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday approved ESPN\u2019s plans to use a drone-mounted camera at next month\u2019s Winter X Games to provide better TV coverage. \u201cThe photography […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 08:36:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}