Most avalanche mitigation work in Utah uses World War II technology with heavy artillery like howitzers, a cannon-like projectile to trigger slides.
But a New Jersey-based company has found a way to modernize the process.
Drone Amplified deploys drones that allow ski patrol and transportation agencies to fly over high-risk zones and drop explosives from a safe distance.
In March, the company launched a new electronic ignition system in Alaska that Vice President of Business Development Dan Justa said has one big technological advancement.
“The big piece of technology that we solve is we do air blasts. So the MONTIS system has an electronic system,” he said on KPCW’s “Mountain Money” March 23. “So instead of it just being a pull fuse, where you drop it and two minutes later explodes, we do all the calculations on our drone so that when you drop the charge, it will blast at a predetermined height.”
Justa said the pressure wave from the blast gives patrollers a better energy spread. The drones also place humans further away from deadly blasts and slides.
He said the drone systems can also be more cost-effective than installing avalanche towers, like the ones in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.
“You can imagine, a steel structure is not cheap, and then putting a steel structure on the side of the mountain, also not cheap, and then maintaining said steel structure on the side of the mountain, the cost just keeps growing,” he said.
The company also uses its drones to conduct prescribed burns by dropping ping pong-sized balls filled with ignition chemicals from the air.
Listen to the full interview with Drone Amplified on Mountain Money here.
