Lake Tahoe rescue dogs train to save lives on ski slopes

At the annual Ski California Safety Day in January 2024, an English Shepherd puppy named Ripp bounded from a 5-foot-deep hole in the snow at Lake Tahoe’s Northstar resort to grab his favorite knotted rope toy.

It was a reward from his handler, Malea Jordan, for playing a game of hide-and-seek that could one day save a skier’s life.

Ripp, now 1 year old and 45 pounds, is one of the dozens of avalanche rescue dogs that patrol the slopes at ski resorts near Lake Tahoe. Every week during ski season, they practice digging people out from under the snow, starting to train at just 2 or 3 months old.

“You start off playing hide-and-seek, making sure he thought this was the funnest game in the entire world,” Jordan said. To date, none of the dogs at Northstar have had to do this for real. However, if they have to respond to an avalanche emergency — such as the one that occurred at Palisades Ski Resort in January 2024, killing one skier — every moment counts.

Every day, the dogs go through obedience training and are exposed to the disturbing sights and sounds they might encounter during a rescue.

“We really try to expose them to anything and everything we can so they’re not really fazed by anything,” said George Meres, another avalanche rescue dog handler on Jordan’s team at Northstar.

On a rescue call, the dogs may need to ride on snowmobiles or a helicopter, be surrounded by flashing lights and hear loud sirens. They can’t be distracted when every minute a person remains buried reduces their chances of survival.

Last winter, Meres and his avalanche rescue dog Hatchet attended the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue dog school in Utah, where they practiced a night rescue scenario.

“There were people there, there were sirens, there are things to try to trick the dog, really — to see how it reacted in this strange kind of environment,” Meres said.

The dogs’ training continues during the summer. Ripp went through an intensive athletics training course to ensure he’d be strong enough to dig people out of 6 feet of snow.

“I had Ripp balancing on a BOSU ball — you know, those inflatables with the flat top,” Jordan said.

Games of hide-and-seek continued, too — Jordan and other dog handlers would hide in barrels and behind other obstacles so Ripp would have to practice using his powerful sense of smell to locate people.

Now back on the slopes for this ski season, Ripp has full days ahead of him. Rescue dogs typically work five days a week with their handlers, who are all ski patrollers. From around 5 or 6 a.m. until the slopes open at 9 a.m., Ripp and the other dogs have a relaxing morning at the ski patrollers’ outposts on the slopes. Meanwhile, the patrollers look for unstable patches of snow and dislodge them with small explosive charges.

“We sweep the mountain every day to make sure that everyone’s getting home safe,” Jordan said.

During a storm, the patrollers use measurements of the newly fallen snow and their years of experience on the local slopes to predict where avalanches might occur.

“You’re throwing bombs all morning to open up the mountains, so people can have those awesome powder days,” Jordan said.

Once the patrollers open the slopes, those with additional dog-handling duties resume their training.

“This winter we’ll be starting full burials, which I’m really excited about,” Jordan said.

She will dig holes 5 or so feet deep in the snow and bury volunteers. Then, Ripp will have to run through the area to find the buried people and dig them out.

Before an avalanche rescue dog responds to a real emergency, it needs to earn a certification. A dog can earn a B-level certification when it is just a year old, as Meres’ dog Hatchet did last year. This year, Ripp is up for that qualification, while Hatchet can get her A-level certification as a 2-year-old. To pass, she must retrieve two mock victims buried at 6 feet deep at least 10 minutes prior within 25 minutes of their arrival on the scene.

In a rescue situation, time is of the essence. According to a study from Switzerland published in JAMA Network Open, people rescued within 10 minutes of burial have a 91% survival rate, which drops to 31% if they are buried for up to 30 minutes.

At the Palisades resort on Jan. 10, 2024, 66-year-old Jack Kidd was buried by an avalanche for about 45 minutes. Ski patrollers attempted CPR, but Kidd couldn’t be revived. The coroner’s report recorded that he died from suffocation.

While dogs can’t prevent such tragedies if disaster strikes, they may be the best chance of survival for skiers trapped under the snow.

Despite ski patrollers’ efforts to prevent avalanches, 123 people have died in avalanche-related accidents over the last five ski seasons in the United States, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, with six of those deaths in California.

“There are four basic ingredients you need for an avalanche to happen,” said Erich Peitzsch, research physical scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Montana. They are a steep slope, a weak layer within existing snow, and a fresh slab of snow on top of that. In the Sierra Nevada, relatively warm and wet snowfall drastically increases the risk of that slab starting to slide. The final ingredient is a trigger, such as a skier or snowboarder passing through.

At Northstar, all the avalanche rescue dogs are owned by their handlers, who raise money to cover training and insurance through a nonprofit called the Northstar Avalanche Rescue Dog program, or NAR Dogs. While being an avalanche dog handler means extra work and additional costs for those on ski patrol who take on the role, it has its own unique benefits.

Jordan loves working with Ripp every day. She skis around with Ripp on her back wearing “doggles” to protect him from the glare.

“I get to work so closely with my best friend,” she said.