Alberta-made child-tracking device effective at mountain ski areas

Jasper's Marmot Basin is now using skiKrumb, an Alberta-made, radio-based GPS system being used at resorts and ski schools across British Columbia.

An Alberta man’s invention to help locate children at ski resorts is coming to Jasper.

The skiKrumb is a radio-based GPS system that can track a child while they’re on the slopes.

The company says the rechargeable, car fob-sized device is an alternative to tracking apps that can fail when cell service drops or batteries freeze.

It costs $20 to rent one at Marmot Basin in Jasper National Park or $199 to buy one.

SkiKrumb creator Keith MacIntyre, who originally hails from Westlock and is an alumnus of Edmonton’s University of Alberta, was inspired to create the device after he lost his son at the Jasper ski resort for 45 minutes a decade ago.

“I talk to thousands of parents, and anyone who skis a significant amount has had some incident,” MacIntyre told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday. “Whether it’s five minutes or two hours, that’s too long to be separated from your child.”

MacIntyre’s technology, which is available at some ski resorts in British Columbia and is coming to Marmot Basin, uses radio frequencies rather than the ones used for mobile phones to help deal with the difficult terrain at mountain ski areas.

A parent can put a skiKrumb in their child’s pocket and keep track of them via a mobile app.

“Even if you have very good cell connectivity, it’s not covered on the hill everywhere,” MacIntyre said. “Devices like AirTags (Apple product) aren’t intended for people -- you need to be within 30 feet of an iPhone for that to work -- so we use radio instead of cell to transmit. My record transmission from this is actually over 125 kilometres, so we get into more nooks and crannies than other technologies can, and parents, for example, can see their kids live every 10 seconds on a 3D map.”

He said the technology has other uses, too, such as for hiking and keeping track of children in general.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti