AI Solves the Mystery of Missing Italian Climber

August 11, 2025

At the end of last month, Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (CNSAS) used drones and artificial intelligence to locate the body of Nicola Ivaldo, a 64-year-old man who went missing in September 2024. The climber disappeared on 3,841m Monviso, the highest peak in the Cottian Alps, on the border between France and Italy.

Thanks to clues from Ivaldo’s cell phone, the search focused on the mountain’s treacherous north face, 183 hectares of steep terrain and hanging glaciers. On July 29, drones equipped with high-resolution cameras captured 2,600 images in just five hours, covering terrain too dangerous for human searchers.

Then an AI software analyzed these many images in a single afternoon, singling out a cluster of red pixels that turned out to be Ivaldo’s helmet, still on the deceased man’s head as he lay face down in the stark landscape. By July 31, the team confirmed the find at 3,150m in the steep and narrow Perotti Canal on the north face of Monviso. A helicopter recovered Ivaldo’s remains within three days, despite fog and bad weather.

This mission underscores the transformative power of combining drones with AI on mountain searches. Explorersweb