Mountaineering
Will drones change the face of mountaineering and freeriding forever?
The story of this incredible drone rescue mission on the fearsome slopes of K2 started a revolution and technology is now rapidly changing the way we explore mountains.
Lost and injured on the slopes of K2, Piolet d'Or winning climber Rick Allen was helpless and feared the worst – until a drone buzzed overhead and began a revolutionary rescue mission that would save his life. Little did those involved know it was also the moment technology changed mountaineering forever.
Drone pilot Bartek Bargiel was part of a team attempting to help his brother, ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel, make history as the first man to ski down K2 from its summit.
The team had been using the drone to scout and connect skiable areas on the mountain, but the moment they heard of Allen's accident, Bargiel's thoughts turned to how he could help in a rescue.
The drone gave him hope that this wasn't the end. It comforted him, proving that someone was searching for him
He quickly swung into action and flew the drone up the slope of Broad Peak in an effort to locate the missing climber, who had summited solo, but was completely disorientated after falling off a 30m cliff on the way down.
"I was falling asleep on my feet all the time, in and out of a dreamworld, when the drone appeared way over my right shoulder," Allen recalls. "I'm thinking, 'this is good news, as it means somebody knows I'm here and alive'."
But not only did the drone comfort the struggling climber, its GPS positioning meant the sighting could kick-start a rescue mission.
Get to know how paralysed ex-rugby player Ed Jackson climbed the equivalent height of Mount Everest:
Soon, two guides were making their way towards Allen and the drone was flying between the two parties to keep things on track and guide them on the safest path.
"In the late afternoon the drone re-appears," recalls Allen. "I'm moving very slowly, but I was pleased, as it meant they were keeping an eye on me. Then, as I begin to descend, I can see two figures coming up towards me."
You might not want to call an 800g chunk of flying plastic, metal and circuitry an angel, but for Allen, the DJI Mavic drone was exactly that.
Deadly disorientation
Allen was in a party of four attempting a new route on Broad Peak, but when two chose to stay at Camp 3 and his partner turned back an hour into the climb, he had to decide to back out or go it alone.
He went for it and made the summit, but then the clouds closed in and it started to get dark.
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“As I was heading down, I stepped off the edge of a huge boulder and my feet just dropped away from beneath me," Allen recalls. "My axe ripped and I fell. I landed in a huge pile of snow and went unconscious.
"When I came to, I should have just dug a hole and spent the night there, but I must have still been disorientated. I continued on, but my head torch popped off and disappeared down the slope. Then I took my rucksack off and that disappeared too."
By this point, most people in Base Camp assumed Allen had died.
The Karakoram mountain range
© Marek Ogień
However, his partner, Sandy Allan, wasn't ready to give up on him and 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 Bargiel and his drone came in.
"First of all, I flew to Rick to see who he was," Bargiel recalls. "I could see what he was wearing and what state he was in. He was moving, but very slowly. He was extremely dehydrated and exhausted."
For Allen, it was – almost literally – an unbelievable sight.
When the drone arrived, there was a point where I considered ignoring it, as I thought it might not be real!
Once the sighting was confirmed, it was only the beginning. Perilous ice cracks stood on the direct descent Allen was taking and getting a rescue mission up and running quickly was vital.
"The drone allowed us to determine his location, giving us the exact GPS coordinates," explains Bargiel. "Without that, the rescue operation would have been very difficult.
"After that, the drone helped direct the rescue team towards Rick. He started walking up, while the rescuers were walking in the wrong direction, so I flew my drone to show them which direction they had to go to meet."
Listen to the soundtrack of the K2: The Impossible Descent documentary right here:
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.
Bartek Bargiel uses a drone to photograph his brother Andrzej on K2
© Bartek Bargiel
Bigger drones can take bigger packages, though. Such as when a drone helped rescue two swimmers caught in a riptide in Australia. The custom-built drone first helped locate them and then deployed a package that auto-inflated into a safety device.
It certainly leaves no question that drones are already extremely valuable tools in wilderness search and rescue.
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."
Drones are the future and the future is now.
While that may be far off in reality, delivery of medical or rescue supplies is already a reality, as demonstrated above. Drones have also been used to find missing people, deliver food after natural disasters, or deliver a lifesaving device.
But, before they evolve in carrying capacity, Velicovich believes drones will first 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 believes drones won't replace helicopters for a long, long time.
"I've expected the current evolution, but we shouldn't use the word rescue, 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.
Helicopter rescue
© Red Bull Content Pool
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 gauge 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 Bargiel's K2 descent, the drone was crucial in finding a safe way down, helping to find a snowy line linking four known climbing routes.
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Watch Andrzej Bargiel's epic descent from K2
On July 22, 2018, Andrzej Bargiel completed the first-ever descent of K2 on skis – watch his nail-biting descent here.
Challenges exist for the moment. Drones (especially small ones like the DJI used here) don't do extremely well at high altitudes, where the thin air makes it harder to fly them. Cold weather sucks the life out batteries very quickly, too, limiting airtime and effectiveness. To demonstrate how rarely these now-popular devices are used here, 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, especially the high alpine, is a different environment. The people who are 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 mini 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.
Drones can be used to track mountaineers and skiers
© Bartek Bargiel
"When I'm out in the wilderness and people are flying drones around, it really annoys me," he admits. "They're a racket and I used to think people should take these things away. But I now have an appreciation of how valuable they can be.
"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.
"I know a few mountain rescue teams now use them up in Scotland, because they can cover so much ground in advance of a foot team making it. Plus, they're a lot cheaper than a helicopter!"
In conclusion, drones are pretty great for rescue
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."
Scaling an ice wall
© Marek Ogień
There's 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.