Zip lining with a GoPro HD Hero 2

In the end of July, I went on a zip line tour in Whistler, while Svetlana and Anna took the grandparents up the mountaintop in the gondola.

I never done zip lining before, so I had to consider which photo gear to take with me. I definitely wanted to take my GoPro HERO camera, but was not sure about the bulky DSLR. Upon consulting with a lady, who worked for Ziptrek, the company offering the zip lining tours, I decided that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to take interesting shots during the actual rides, so I went with only the GoPro.

Our group of six people (a couple from Vancouver, a father with twin girls from Cobble Hill, and me) assembled in the foyer of a building in the Lower Village, filled out the forms stating that we subscribed to the impending dangers and general foolishness willingly, and went to receive our harnesses and helmets from the Ziptrek hut near the Blackcomb gondola. I requested a “GoPro helmet”, which had a plate for the camera mount. It should be noted that just the part of the mount that is attached to the helmet by the sticky tape was provided. If you plant to take advantage of it, you need to bring your own part that attaches to the camera and clips to the helmet-mounted plate.

I also brought a chest mount, as I thought that the video from the helmet mount would be too shaky. The chest mount proved to be completely useless, though, because the harness would block the entire field of view of the camera. I did try it on the first line ( the entire tour consists of several lines, each with a different length, speed,and views), after which I moved the camera to the helmet. The footage was not as shaky as I expected, so a helmet mount is definitely the way to go for shooting zip lining videos.

Another thing to consider is the battery life. The entire tour lasted about three hours, but I turned the camera off between the actual rides, so it was running for about one hour. In the end, the battery was nearly drained. I did carry a spare, fully-charged battery, and although I did not have to use it, I would have had to, if the tour had been a little longer. It is easy to underestimate how power-hungry a GoPro camera is, especially with an LCD BacPac.

The result of my zip lining adventure is this video, which I edited down to about four minutes.