At the annual Ski California Safety Day in January 2024, an English Shepherd puppy named Ripp bounded from a five-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.
Malea Jordan and her avalanche rescue dog Ripp train by playing hide and seek in this demonstration on Ski California Safety Day on Jan. 26, 2024 at Northstar California in Truckee, Calif. (Photo by Katey Hamill/ Northstar California Resort)
Ripp, now one 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 two or three 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.
Rescue crews work at the scene of an avalanche at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, near Lake Tahoe, Calif. The avalanche roared through a section of expert trails at the ski resort, killing one person, injuring another, and burying two others. (Mark Sponsler via AP)
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,” explained Meres.
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 six feet of snow. “I had Ripp balancing on a BOSU ball — you know, those inflatables with the flat top,” said Jordan.
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.
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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,” said Jordan.
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,” said Jordan. She will dig holes five 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 two-year-old. To pass, she must retrieve two mock victims buried at six feet deep at least 10 minutes prior within 25 minutes of their arrival on the scene.
George Meres and his avalanche rescue dog Hatchet on the slopes at Northstar California Resort in Truckee, Calif., on March 24, 2023. (Katey Hamill/ Northstar California Resort)
In a rescue situation, time is of the essence. According to a study from Switzerland published in JAMA Network Open, people rescued within ten minutes of burial have a 91 percent survival rate, which drops to 31 percent if they are buried for up to 30 minutes.
At the Palisades resort on January 10, 66-year-old Jack Kidd fell victim to these brutal statistics after being 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.
Malea Jordan and her avalanche rescue dog Ripp train on the slopes of Northstar California on April 11, 2024 in Truckee, Calif. (Photo by Katey Hamill/Northstar California Resort)