How a Homegrown Company Is Reinventing Avalanche Control

For nearly eighty years, keeping Canadians safe from avalanches has meant soldiers firing Second World War artillery into mountain slopes, helicopter crews dropping explosives from open doors, and technicians hiking into start zones with charges on their backs. It is dangerous, expensive, and as Canadian as it gets. But a company from New Brunswick just proved there is a better way—and the testing happened in one of the most iconic landscapes on the planet.

In early February 2026, AVSS announced it had completed its first round of live, on-mountain avalanche control testing in Jasper National Park, Alberta. Using its Precision Avalanche Management System, the company flew drones carrying proprietary SnowDart explosive devices into active avalanche paths and triggered controlled releases—without putting a single person in harm’s way. The testing was conducted under a Transport Canada Innovation Solutions contract, and the results mark a turning point for both avalanche safety and the Canadian drone industry.

A Tradition Written in Snow and Gunpowder

The gold standard for Canadian avalanche control is Operation PALACI, the Canadian Armed Forces’ longest-running active military operation. Every winter since the early 1960s, soldiers from the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery have deployed 105-millimetre howitzers to seventeen gun positions along the Trans-Canada Highway through Rogers Pass, British Columbia. The pass receives twelve metres of snow annually and has over 130 avalanche paths crossing the highway—the highest avalanche rating of any major road in North America. Every hour it is closed costs the economy an estimated three million dollars.

Operation PALACI is extraordinary, but the fundamental tools have not changed much since the program began. Where artillery cannot reach, Parks Canada uses fixed Remote Avalanche Control Systems or helicopter-dropped charges. Helicopters are grounded in poor weather, RACS cover only fixed locations, and hand-delivered charges put technicians dangerously close to unstable snow. Avalanche Canada’s Fatal Avalanche Incidents Database, released in December 2025, documents 1,063 deaths across 559 incidents since 1782. The ten-year Canadian average is nearly eleven fatalities per year. The terrain is vast, the danger is real, and the need for new tools is urgent.

A Canadian Solution for Canadian Terrain

AVSS was founded in 2017 and built its reputation on ASTM F3322-compliant parachute recovery systems for commercial drones, now distributed through more than 70 partners worldwide. In 2020 the company turned its expertise in airdrop dynamics toward avalanche control, developing the Precision Avalanche Management System. PAMS combines autonomous flight planning software, a precision drop system, and the SnowDart—a low-cost, eco-friendly explosive that triggers controlled surface and air blasts in avalanche start zones. After each mission, the system collects performance data that helps technicians plan future operations with better intelligence than ever before.

The choice of Jasper National Park for live testing carries real weight. Jasper is still recovering from the devastating July 2024 wildfire that burned over 32,000 hectares, destroyed more than 800 units of housing, and caused an estimated 1.23 billion dollars in insured losses. Testing avalanche technology in a community that knows firsthand what natural disasters can do sends a clear message: this is about protecting Canadians in Canadian terrain with Canadian innovation. Transport Canada contracted AVSS specifically to assess the technology for rail corridor management, and AVSS has secured additional federal funding from FedDev Ontario for a multi-year commercialization project. Three hundred more live tests are planned over the next 60 days.

A Signal for the Industry

AVSS’s achievement reflects what happens when Canadian regulators, federal agencies, and homegrown companies work in lockstep. Transport Canada granted the nationwide SFOC for the SnowDart system in August 2025, just ahead of the November 2025 regulatory updates that introduced Level 1 Complex BVLOS certification and the RPAS Operator Certificate framework—changes positioning Canada as a global leader in advanced drone regulation. As of December 2025, Transport Canada reports over 116,000 drones registered, nearly 149,000 pilot certificates issued across Basic, Advanced, and Level 1 Complex categories, 368 active RPAS Operator Certificates, 269 drone flight schools including 68 Level 1 Complex training providers, and 1,328 flight reviewers nationally. Canada’s drone industry is hitting its stride.

Drones will not replace howitzers at Rogers Pass or the brave crews who operate them. But when a drone flies into a Jasper avalanche start zone, drops a SnowDart, and triggers a controlled release with nobody in the helicopter and nobody on the slope, that is a capability gap filled. It was designed, built, tested, and approved right here in Canada, by a Canadian company, for Canadian conditions. As AVSS prepares for commercial deployment to ski resorts, mining operations, rail corridors, and international markets through its global dealer network, the message is simple: when it comes to solving hard problems in hard places, Canada does not just compete—we lead.