The unexpected hero on a recent rescue on the fearsome 8,000m K2 peak was a drone, which helped locate a missing climber. Will they change high alpine expeditions for ever?
Just before Andrzej Bargiel's made his historic ski descent of K2 recently,
his brother Bartek Bargiel made headlines
for another ground-breaking moment that could change the face of mountaineering
forever – using a drone to locate a missing climbing legend on the fearsome
mountain's slopes.
You might not want to call a 800g flying chunk of plastic,
metal and circuitry an angel, but for Rick Allen, the Piolet d'Or
winner who was briefly lost and presumed dead by his climbing partners, that
DJI Mavic drone was exactly that.
The 65-year-old Scottish climber fell off a 30m cliff during
a solo summit attempt on Broad Peak and most people in camp assumed he had
died. His partner, Sandy Allan, wasn't ready to give up on him,
though. Over at K2 camp, a cook from a Japanese climbing team used a telescope
to scan the face of the mountain, spotting what he thought was a
backpack.
That's where Bartek Bargiel and his drone came in. He flew
his drone in and from closer up, they realised the backpack was moving. Bargiel
took pictures, video and, most importantly, marked the precise coordinates of
the location using the drone's GPS system. This information he was then able to
relay to rescuers in Broad Peak Base Camp. Bargiel then flew back-and-forth
between Allen and the rescue team in the white glacier expanse until they found
each other and Allen was in safe hands.
What else can drones do?
The rescue raises a question: what else can drones do? At
this point, Bargiel's drone was able to help rescuers locate Allen, but not
much more. However during his brother's summit bid, a member of their own team,
experienced mountaineer Janusz Gołąb, got stuck at a high camp with significant
back pain, leaving him unable to descend on his own. In the past, the solution
would have been to send someone up to help him get back down – a long and risky
proposition. This time, Bargiel attached a small package to the drone and
delivered Gołąb the medical supplies he needed to then descend on his own.
Watch Andrzej Bargiel's epic descent from K2
Bigger drones can take bigger packages, though. Watch the
video clip below of a drone helping rescue two swimmers caught in a riptide in
Australia. The custom-built drone first helps locate them and then deploys a
package that auto-inflates into a safety device. It certainly leaves no
question that drones are already extremely valuable tools in wilderness search
and rescue.
Drones are the future, and the future is now
Brett Velicovich
American drone expert Brett Velicovich, a
former military operator known as the 'Drone Warrior', believes the
possibilities are nearly endless. "It's all about blade size, power and
battery life," he says. "Those are the limitations. But there's a
video of YouTuber Casey Neistat being lifted off the ground while
snowboarding."
While that may be far off in reality, delivery of medical or
rescue supplies is already a reality, as demonstrated above. Drones have been
used to find missing people, deliver food after natural disasters or deliver a
lifesaving device, but before they evolve in carrying capacity however,
Velicovich believes they'll evolve in artificial intelligence.
"A UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] is actually still
manned, it's just the pilot is in a different place," he says. "Soon
enough, drones will be able to identify and help someone in need without anyone
piloting the drone. Drones are the future, and the future is now."
Helicopters are here to stay
Although he's got no problems with drones, ace alpinist and
helicopter pilot Simone Moro offers up an opposing view that
drones won't replace helicopters for a long, long time. "I've expected the
current evolution. But we shouldn't use the word rescue, but rather support.
Right now, all drones are using four or more rotors to stay balanced so a drone
that could lift a person might actually be bigger and more expensive than a
helicopter," he says.
That's without even touching the regulatory side. To do a
real rescue, you have to follow aviation rules and regulation. "Everything
becomes more complicated, forbidden, expensive and difficult," Moro says.
"At the moment, drones are – and will remain for the next few years – an
instrument to support a rescue, but won't replace a helicopter."
Then there's line scouting
Emergencies aren't the only reasons to have a drone in the
air. For mountaineers, big mountain skiers and snowboarders they're an
excellent tool to scout lines up close. In fact, world-class freeriders
like Xavier De Le Rue consider quadcopters an
indispensible tool, flying drones to gage the width of rock passages
and the height of cliff jumps, the superficial impression of the snow cover and
to identify rocks, trees or other significant landmarks. In the case of
extremely dangerous routes, like Andrzej Bargiel's on K2, a drone was used to
scout lines ahead of his exploit and in real time, helping Bargiel find a snowy
line linking four known climbing routes to get safely down.
Challenges exist for the moment. Drones (especially little
ones like the DJI used on this recent alpine rescue) don’t do extremely well at
high altitudes, where thin air makes it harder to fly them. Cold weather sucks
the life out batteries very quick, too, limiting airtime and effectiveness. To
demonstrate how rarely these now-popular devices are used here, Bartek Bargiel
set a record for the highest known flight for a consumer-level drone during the
K2 expedition.
Eyes in the sky: cool or creepy?
The wilderness – and especially the high alpine – is a
different environment. The people who going to those places have never been
ashamed to say the escape from modernity and technology is part of the appeal,
even as technology becomes an increasingly normal part of the mountain experience.
The high-pitched whirr of a miniature flying machine with a
camera couldn't be a more perfect symbol of what many mountaineers are trying
to get away from. Allen felt that way himself. "I had a big aversion to
recreational drones in beautiful places, intruding on my experience," he
says.
"However, I now see huge potential in mountain rescue scenarios, as
they can be so easily transported and deployed for a local search if the
visibility is reasonable. I was glad to see this one!
"The drone was a great encouragement, as I figured it
was not there by accident, which meant someone on the glacier knew I was alive
and would tell my team. I wasn't looking for a helicopter rescue, I was pretty
confident I would get to Camp 3 eventually, but I just wanted them to know I
was alive and moving."
The drone was a great encouragement
Rick Allen
In conclusion, drones are pretty great for rescue
Rick Allen is pretty much convinced. "I see drones as a
very valuable tool for scouting new routes on big mountains. It could reduce
some of the uncertainties," he says. Will it be a crutch for less
experienced climbers, leading to more problems on the mountain? "I
wouldn't say that, because it would still leave unknowns, like the snow
condition," continues Allen. "There are plenty of more insidious
crutches that can get folk into trouble. Better information is usually a good
thing."
There is one thing his guardian angel drone failed at
however – letting his team-mates know he had a plan to get out on his own.
"I was pretty confident I would get to Camp 3 eventually," says
Allen.
"My plan was always to climb up and rightwards in order to be able
to descend to Camp 3. I told the drone, but, of course, it had no
microphone!" We'll have to wait a little longer for the tech to catch
up.
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