Experimental Avi Drone
We caught up with Olivier Gardet, from Val Thorens, who heads up an interesting new project in Les Trois Vallées. A safety drone team, developed to aid ski patrols response times enabling real-time remote first-hand knowledge of avalanche rescues.
Boasting a high-powered zoom camera, an infrared/thermal camera and the ability to relay instructions via a loudspeaker, is this new drone a gimmick or a valuable tool for when lives are on the line?
We asked Olivier to tell us about the drone, his team and how they’ve been put to use in their inaugural year of operations.
“We can fly in most weather conditions, except for mist and wind over 70km/h. When it's misty and cold the cloud freezes the drone, with ice forming on the drone making it too heavy to fly as it loses its balance. But it can fly in snowy or rainy weather.
We did a lot of testing, trying out many different drone models to figure out exactly what we needed before eventually deciding upon our current industrial model. We launched it officially in November 2019, but we’re continually learning more with every intervention, and we keep improving both our knowledge and the drones technology.
There are currently three pilots, although I’m responsible for overseeing all drone matters, I have a night pilot in Les Menuires that is available, and a third pilot who works at the slope services during the day. The aim is to train 3 or 4 more people this season to guarantee a sort of 24/7 guard. Currently, we have one drone for the Belleville valley (Val Thorens, Les Menuires and St Martin de Belleville), but we hope to eventually have one for each resort.
In February I was scoping out an area in Les Menuires, where a small avalanche had happened, when I got a call from a ski instructor in Les Menuires who saw another slide happen. It was in the Masse area there, above the slope 'Dame Blanche'.
My team quickly flew the drone over to the second slide and saw via the zoom camera that someone was trying to dig another skier out. I then coordinated the ski patrol from a distance, using first-hand information seen on the zoom camera.
We managed to direct ski patrol directly to the right spot and also help them take a safe route out of the avalanche terrain to evacuate the victim. In the end, we saved precious time throughout the whole operation.
It’s not just for avalanche recovery as we can use it for thermal and visual inspections of the lifts too.
This Spring it was used by the municipal services when there was a massive mudslide in Vallée des Encombres (the biggest one in 100 years) - the drone was used to investigate the area.
In summer the ski patrol also uses it to inspect the gas tubes above the slopes, which are often located in difficult areas to reach.
Unfortunately, as you can see in the video, the parts of the victim that are covered by snow cannot be picked up on the thermal camera. If it could do that, we would definitely not be the only ones using a drone this way, so while it's not a magical solution to locate avalanche victims under snow it is an exceptionally helpful tool and can pick up partially buried victims. “
So while not the ultimate solution, the drone is another useful arrow in the quiver of avalanche safety, but as always the best piece of safety kit is your decision making.
Ride, Connect, Stay Safe!