Drones carrying loads of up to 15kg in the extreme environmental and altitude conditions of Mount Everest

June 8 (Portaltic/EP) –

DJI has completed the first tests of delivering loads of supplies for climbers of up to 15 kg using drones and in the Mount Everestbetween Nepal and Tibet, thus resisting the environmental and altitude conditions that this area presents.

The technology company has partnered with the Nepalese drone company Airlift, the video production company 8KRAW and the Nepalese mountain guide Mingma Gyalje Sherpa to carry out a trial of transporting survival supplies.

Completed in April, this procedure has marked a milestone in aviation by being able to move up to 15 kg of cargo with DJI drones in the extreme weather and environmental conditions that occur on Mount Everest. This is where temperatures fluctuate. between -15 and 5ºC and there are wind speeds of up to 15 m/s.

Specifically, the DJI FlyCart 30 model was used to deliver three oxygen cylinders and 1.5 kg of other supplies from the mountain base camp to base camp 1, located between 5,300 and 6,000 meters above sea level. Upon returning from the tour, waste was transportedalso successfully.

Before launching this project, a series of tests were carried out with the device to check if it could withstand these adverse conditions. These include tests of hovering without load, wind resistance, low temperatures and weight capacity with gradually heavier loads.

The difficulty of this round trip transportation between base camp and camp 1 is that both are separated by the Khumbu Icefall. This is one of the most dangerous stages of the climb to the mountain that, although in theory helicopters can travel, they rarely do, because It is dangerous and has a very high cost.

According to DJI Senior Director of Corporate Strategy Christina Zhang, “The ability to safely transport equipment, supplies and debris using drones has the potential to revolutionize mountaineering logistics and facilitate garbage cleaning tasks.

HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

This discovery, therefore, can change traditional procedures in the mountains since this activity of transferring supplies such as food, ropes or gas bottles has always fallen to local ‘sherpas’, who risk their lives in these operations.

They spend between six and eight hours a day walking through the aforementioned icefall. “If we are not lucky [durante la travesía]If it is not the right time, we lose our lives there,” explained Nepalese guide Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, who works on this mountain, located between Nepal and Tibet.

Unlike the time these experts spend moving loads from one camp to another, DJI has indicated that its drones can do the same task in twelve minuteswhether day or night.

In addition to mountain professionals, the use of drones in these terms also benefits the environment, taking into account that they can be used to move the garbage that climbers leave on Everest.

It is worth remembering that DJI FlyCart 30, launched globally last January, offers transportation solutions adapted to the needs of local users and has already been used to plant trees on steep slopes in Kapon or to assist in rescue tasks in fires recorded in mountains of Norway.