Hiker Missing Almost a Year Found After AI System Identifies Helmet

CNSAS uses AI to find missing hiker’s helmet in just hours

Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (CNSAS) leveraged AI to locate the helmet of a hiker lost on Monviso’s north face after 10 months. The drone operation covered 183 hectares with 2,600 frames taken from 50 meters up.

The mission would have taken humans weeks or months to analyze manually. Instead, AI identified pixel-color anomalies in the images within hours. The entire search, discovery, and recovery took less than three days, interrupted only by bad weather.

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The hiker, 64-year-old Nicola Ivaldo, was found near a hanging glacier at 3,150 meters on July 31, their bright helmet standing out in the rugged terrain.

CNSAS pilot Saverio Isola said the images were captured in five hours using two drones on July 29, and AI flagged suspicious spots that afternoon.

“It was the AI software that identified some pixels of a different color in the images taken on Tuesday,” Isola explained.

Fog delayed follow-up efforts until early next morning. The team confirmed the helmet with drones and passed coordinates to rescue coordination for helicopter recovery.

“We woke up at 4 am to reach a very distant point with good visibility on the channel where the red pixels had been detected, and we used the drone to see if it was indeed the helmet,” Isola said.
“Then we took all the necessary photos and measurements, sending the information to the rescue coordination center, which was then able to dispatch the Fire Brigade helicopter for the recovery and police operations.”

The operation combined CNSAS’s 5 years of drone experience with 18 months of AI color and shape recognition development. The tech would have been useless without expert human teams.

“It’s a human achievement, but without technology, it would have been an impossible mission. It’s a team success,” Isola said.

Data from the missing hiker’s cellphone helped narrow the search. The coordinated effort is a big win for AI-assisted mountain rescue missions.