I have a friend who frequently hikes up mountains with a group of like-minded people. Often, he'd ask me to join him on one of those hikes. On my part, I'm not really too keen on exerting so much effort, I guess I'm not just really wired that way. But I'll admit that there are times when I see his photos of the view from the top, and I sometimes think about joining up just to be able to take photos, too. I tell him that and he'd laugh and say that while that's all well and good, he thinks that I might also be able to appreciate the climb itself.

Yeah, no. (Credit: aatlas via Pixabay)

I mean, I'm not a totally lazy man. I'm fine with nature walks, going up hills and stuff, but to do straight-up climbing for hours? Sorry, not really for me. But don't get me wrong. I appreciate the view from the top, and as a metaphor, I also appreciate the idea behind the adage "it's not about the destination but the climb". I love reading anecdotes about people from very humble beginnings strive and work hard to succeed in their own industries. I have great respect for the effort they put in.

Here's a good success story from Rovio (Credit: Adioma)

But in this case, I'm talking about the literal destination, the actual view from the top of a mountain. For me, it's really all about that, so it absolutely thrills me to see Gravity Industries making strides with their jetpack invention. I mean, look at this:

That's a 25-minute climb that the jetpack did in about a minute and a half. Amazing! If ever this makes it to the mass market, I'm definitely interested to snap up one of these for awesome photos from mountain tops. Of course, safety is another discussion altogether, but let's shelve that for another day.

I'm pretty sure my friend is too much of a purist to resort to these, himself (and he really seems to appreciate the strenuous journey), but for hobbyist photographers like me, or, well, people looking for an easy commute, this is definitely a tech I'm keeping my eyes on!

[Originally posted on Read.cash]