Helicopter Avalanche Control

The easiest way to break up heavy snow buildup

Fair Lifts Helicopter Services

Helicopter Avalanche Control

air Lifts Helicopter Cargo Services

The easiest way to break up heavy snow buildup

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Helicopters Can Help Clear Dangerous Snow Masses

Are you tired of relying on traditional methods for avalanche control that may not always be effective? Upgrade your avalanche control toolkit with the ultimate solution: helicopters.

Helicopters provide a highly effective and efficient method for triggering controlled avalanches, even in the most remote mountainous locations. With their ability to transport your team and their equipment quickly and safely, helicopters offer a reliable option for avalanche control that can greatly reduce the risk of larger, more dangerous avalanches.

As an avalanche specialist, you understand the importance of keeping the mountains safe for winter sports enthusiasts and travelers. By utilizing helicopters for avalanche control, you can stay ahead of the game and provide the highest level of safety for those who venture into the mountains.

Don't let outdated methods put you and others at risk. Upgrade your avalanche control methods today with the power of helicopters. Contact us to learn more about our services and how we can support your team in keeping the mountains safe.



Why Choose Helicopters from Fair Lifts for Your Avalanche Control Needs

Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil

Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil ready for snow duty.

When it comes to managing avalanche risks, helicopters offer a host of advantages. But the benefits don't stop at the capabilities of the aircraft. Choosing Fair Lifts for your helicopter avalanche control projects brings additional advantages that set us apart:

Accessibility: Helicopters can reach remote and rugged mountainous areas that are often inaccessible by other means. This allows for effective avalanche control in areas that would otherwise be difficult to manage.

Efficiency: The speed and mobility of helicopters enable rapid response times, allowing for quick deployment of avalanche control measures. This efficiency can be crucial in preventing larger, more dangerous avalanches.

Versatility: Helicopters can carry a variety of equipment and personnel, making them versatile tools in avalanche control. They can be used for deploying explosives, transporting avalanche control teams, conducting aerial surveys, and more.

Safety: By using helicopters from Fair Lifts, avalanche control teams can maintain a safe distance from potential avalanche zones when deploying explosives or conducting snowpack analysis. This significantly reduces the risk to personnel. Furthermore, we provide $5,000,000.00 in aircraft liability insurance, ensuring peace of mind for our clients.

Precision: Helicopters offer precise control over the deployment of explosives, allowing for targeted triggering of avalanches. This precision helps to minimize the risk of unintended consequences.

Operational Continuity: In adverse weather conditions that may hinder ground operations, helicopters can often still operate, ensuring continuity in avalanche control efforts.

Environmental Impact: Helicopters leave a smaller footprint compared to many ground-based methods, making them a more environmentally friendly option for avalanche control.

Dedicated Project Management: Each client is assigned a dedicated project manager who oversees all aspects of the operation. This ensures smooth communication, efficient coordination, and a personalized service tailored to your specific needs.

North American Coverage: Our extensive helicopter network covers mountain ranges across the United States and Canada, ensuring we can serve you wherever your avalanche control needs may be.

Choosing Fair Lifts for your helicopter avalanche control needs means choosing a partner committed to safety, efficiency, and excellence. We understand the unique challenges of avalanche control and are equipped to provide the highest level of service to meet those challenges. Contact us today for a free quote and discover the Fair Lifts difference.


Mastering Avalanche Control: Techniques for Safety and Efficiency

The Power of Nature

The Power of Nature: An Avalanche in progress.

Avalanche control is a complex task that requires a combination of techniques to effectively prevent, mitigate, or reduce avalanche risks. These methods are crucial for safeguarding winter sports enthusiasts, mountain travelers, and communities residing in avalanche-prone areas. Here are some key techniques used in avalanche control:

Explosive Deployment: One of the most prevalent techniques worldwide, explosives are used to trigger controlled avalanches, thereby reducing the risk of larger, more dangerous ones. These explosives can be hand-tossed, launched, or dropped from helicopters, depending on the specific needs of the operation.

Artillery Use: Artillery cannons provide another method for delivering explosives to precise locations, triggering controlled avalanches. This technique is commonly used in military bases, ski resorts, and along highways.

Snow Fencing: Constructed to limit snow accumulation in specific areas, snow fences are a proactive measure to reduce the risk of avalanches. They are particularly useful in areas prone to frequent snowdrifts.

Snow Bridges: Installed in areas with a high likelihood of avalanches, snow bridges are designed to prevent snow from breaking away and sliding down slopes, providing an additional layer of protection.

Snowpack Analysis: Conducted prior to an avalanche event, snowpack analysis involves assessing the stability of the snowpack and identifying weak layers that could trigger an avalanche. This crucial information guides the selection of the most appropriate avalanche control techniques.

Helicopter Assistance: Helicopters play a multifaceted role in avalanche control. They deliver explosives to inaccessible or remote locations, transport avalanche control experts and their equipment, conduct aerial surveys, and assist in search and rescue operations.

Avalanche Control Towers: These automated systems are installed in high-risk areas to trigger small, controlled avalanches. They offer a high degree of success with minimal residual risk and are an emerging technology in the field of avalanche control.

Employing the right combination of these techniques is essential for ensuring the safety of those venturing into avalanche-prone areas. With the added advantage of Fair Lifts' helicopter services, avalanche specialists can enhance their effectiveness in preventing, mitigating, and reducing the risks of avalanches.

Eurocopter AS350

Eurocopter AS350 equipped for high-altitude winter work

Explosives in Helicopter Avalanche Control: Safety and Selection

In helicopter avalanche control, explosives are often deployed by hand from the aircraft. Given the inherent risks, it's crucial that these materials are handled with utmost care. Here are some commonly used explosives:

  1. Trinitrotoluene (TNT)
  2. Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN)
  3. Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX)
  4. Tetrytol
  5. Ammonium nitrate
  6. Nitroglycerin

The choice and quantity of explosives used vary based on factors such as location, terrain, and weather conditions. Safety is paramount, with collaboration between official government offices, local ski resorts, and property owners to ensure the well-being of the avalanche control crew, locals, and tourists alike.


Enhanced Avalanche Control with the DaisyBell® System

DaisyBell Avalanche Control System Mounted to an AS350

DaisyBell Avalanche Control System Mounted to an AS350 Longline

At Fair Lifts, we're dedicated to providing the most effective and efficient solutions for avalanche control. One such solution is the DaisyBell® system, which we offer as an option on certain helicopters, including the Eurocopter AS350. This advanced technology is designed to trigger avalanches in high mountain areas, enhancing the safety and effectiveness of avalanche control operations.

The DaisyBell® system can be transported by helicopter to the ideal position for triggering an avalanche. It works by emitting precise, programmed blasts using mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen, moving snow and triggering avalanches in a controlled manner.

Here are some key features and benefits of the DaisyBell® system:

  1. Ideal for Exceptional Winter Conditions: The DaisyBell® system can cover several avalanche chutes, depending on the actual snowfall reported, making it ideal for exceptional winter conditions.

  2. Safety and Precision: The DaisyBell® system is controlled by a single operator in the helicopter, ensuring complete safety without the need to handle explosive charges. A viewer shows the helicopter pilot the exact distance between the DaisyBell and the snowpack in real time.

  3. Heli-Transportable: The DaisyBell® system is considered a non-explosive cargo transport operation by aviation authorities, making it easy to transport via helicopter.

  4. Autonomy: The DaisyBell® system has the autonomy for up to 70 blasts, making it a reliable solution for avalanche control operations.

  5. Reduced Regulatory Limitations: The DaisyBell® system reduces the limitations and contraindications related to the laws that regulate the storage, transportation, and use of explosives.

  6. Cost-Effective: The DaisyBell® system has no consumable elements apart from gas, resulting in reduced costs to use and maintain the system.

By choosing Fair Lifts for your avalanche control needs, you gain access to state-of-the-art solutions like the DaisyBell® system. This, combined with our highly trained partners and extensive North American aircraft coverage, ensures that your avalanche control operations are as effective, efficient, and safe as possible.


Helicopter-Assisted Construction of Avalanche Control Towers

Eurocopter AS350

Eurocopter AS350

The advent of new technologies has made avalanche control safer and more efficient than ever. One such innovation is the avalanche control tower, now being installed not only in the Swiss Alps but also across the mountainous regions of the United States and Canada.

Avalanche control towers are designed to automatically trigger small, controlled avalanches. A coded command is sent from a control center to the deployment box's control system. Once the explosive is dropped, it's ignited by two igniters, setting off the explosion after a delay. These towers offer the highest degree of success with the smallest residual risk.

The towers utilize explosives with high detonation speeds, producing N-shaped waves of pressure that enhance the distance and effectiveness of the explosion. They can be installed in higher locations as there are no critical or moving parts that can be exposed and worn down by weather. Compact in design, they take up minimal space and rely on solar power or wind generators for operation, avoiding the need for vulnerable supply lines.

The role of helicopters, particularly those provided by Fair Lifts Helicopter Services, is crucial in the installation of these towers. Our heavy-lift helicopters are used to install avalanche control towers in remote areas with high risks of dense snowfall. Not only do these towers protect lives by preventing dangerous snow build-up, but they also reduce the need for staff to handle dangerous explosives directly.

The design of the towers allows for simple installation and maintenance. The mobility of the deployment boxes means that our helicopters can dismantle and reload the towers without hassle within hours. With Fair Lifts Helicopter Services, the construction and maintenance of avalanche control towers become a streamlined, efficient process.


Choose Fair Lifts for Your Next Avalanche Control Project

When it comes to avalanche control, every decision matters. The safety of winter sports enthusiasts, mountain travelers, and communities in avalanche-prone areas depends on the effectiveness of your avalanche control measures. That's why you need a partner you can trust, a partner like Fair Lifts.

At Fair Lifts, we understand the unique challenges of avalanche control. We offer state-of-the-art helicopters, highly trained pilots, and a dedicated project manager for each client. Our extensive helicopter network covers mountain ranges across the United States and Canada, ensuring we can serve you wherever your avalanche control needs may be.

Helicopters provide accessibility, efficiency, safety, and precision in deploying avalanche control measures. Whether it's delivering explosives, transporting avalanche control teams, conducting aerial surveys, assisting in search and rescue operations, or installing avalanche control towers, our helicopters and crews are up to the task.

With $5,000,000.00 in aircraft liability insurance, you can have peace of mind knowing that we've got you covered. And with our commitment to safety, efficiency, and excellence, you can rest assured that your avalanche control needs will be met with the utmost professionalism and expertise.

Don't let the challenges of avalanche control overwhelm you. Choose Fair Lifts for the most reliable and effective method for avalanche control. Contact us today to book a helicopter for your next avalanche control mission and discover the Fair Lifts difference. Call us at 1-800-318-8940 now for a free quote on your avalanche control project!


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