Le Figaro Nice
It snowed for a whole part of the day in Isola 2000 (Alpes-Maritimes) on Thursday.
The ideal time to carry out an avalanche rescue exercise in conditions that are certainly difficult, but could not be more realistic.
And this is indeed the challenge taken up by the agents of the Alpes-Maritimes detachment of the Republican Security Company (CRS) of the Alps.
Experienced police officers, accustomed to complex interventions in mountainous environments.
Objective of the day: to help seven victims caught in a (fake) avalanche in as little time as possible.
Among them, four police officers from CRS 6, volunteers to be buried alive in white cavities previously dug, and three models.
“Each with an assigned role.
In this case that of two skiers equipped with avalanche detectors, two people on snowshoes equipped with Recco pellets and finally, two people without equipment,”
explains Captain Boris Poix, of the CRS Alpes Maralpine.
“It’s the kind of exercise that we do very regularly
,” he adds.
Read also Potential danger, visual pollution… The delicate reconversion of abandoned ski lifts
A saving of precious time
The difference is that for the first time, rescuers were helped in their mission by cutting-edge technology: drones.
“The CRS have a set of proven methods for finding victims, the most effective of which remains the avalanche dog.
Then there are tools such as the avalanche victim detector and Recco pellets, which are found in ski equipment, shoes in particular, and which can be detected from the surface
, recalls Captain Poix.
However, these methods always take time to deploy, and that is our worst enemy.
The life expectancy of a person caught in an avalanche is 16 minutes on average.”
Equipped with a thermal camera, the machine detects the heat of a human body caught under approximately one meter of snow.
CRS Alpes
These so-called “traditional” methods require, in fact, being on the ground, in an area that is still unstable and prone to an overavalanche.
The drone flies over the area and poses no risk, either for the victims or for the rescuers.
Equipped with a thermal camera, the machine detects the heat of a human body caught under approximately one meter of snow.
“The depth at which most victims are statistically found.”
All in record time.
“It is not, of course, the drone that will look for the victims, but it saves precious time, that is obvious.
Especially since it has the ability to fly at altitude even when the weather conditions are very poor
,” observes Boris Poix.
Read also In the middle of school holidays, these ski resorts threatened by lack of snow
A revolution ?
A revolution for mountain rescue?
“No, I won’t go that far.
But a complementary technique, that goes without saying
,” he further agrees.
On Thursday, this unprecedented test in any case proved very conclusive.
“We located two of the seven victims in less than a minute
,” says the police officer.
Soon, several of the agents of the CRS Alpes des Alpes-Maritimes will take their pilot's license.
For now, officials are calling on drone operators from the Nice judicial police.
It was with their help that the body of a hiker, aged around fifty and reported missing after a snowshoe outing in Isola 2000, was found on January 22.