Grayson King wanted an easy way to check a hill’s slope before skiing down the hill. He says that slope angle is one of the most critical measures in knowing whether or not a slope can avalanche. Knowing the slope angle will greatly increase the safety for backcountry skiers.
King’s solution is the PoleClinometer, a sleeve that fits over ski poles and tells the user the angle of the slope. Two different methods are demonstrated on the Kickstarter campaign video, either looking across the slope or directly down the slope.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1368073986/poleclinometertm-the-ski-pole-inclinometer-sticker
A heavily detailed instruction page shows use instructions and goes on to teach the relationship between bed surface inclination and % of slab avalanches. The avalanche data was taken from the Canadian Rockies and first printed in the pages of Snow Sense.
The fit page shows which poles will work with the PoleClinometer and which will not allow the sleeve to properly fit. This is notable because doing the marketing and current product study to understand where your product will work and where it will not is a critical product step that is too often missed in development.
PoleClinometer is a unique solution built to enhance the safety of backcountry skiers. The product is built for a very small user base but elegantly and permanently solves the problem of not knowing the slope of a hill.
Seeing a project that is fully developed and having the development process displayed is wonderful. In the campaign video, the campaign text and the product website the development along with the method behind the design decisions is discussed.
The Kickstarter campaign ends on Monday, Febuary 2, 2015. The project has blasted by its $1000 goal and will definitely be funded. PoleClinometers are expected to ship during the month of February so that skiers can use the product this ski season.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1368073986/poleclinometertm-the-ski-pole-inclinometer-sticker