(snowboard scraping)
- It's pretty interesting because, you know,
when you're traveling around the mountain
with the avalanche dogs,
people are always really excited and they're yelling like,
"Oh, the avalanche dogs!"
And you know, they're trying to get their attention.
But the reality is, is they're here to do a job.
And when they're out on the mountain, they're working.
They are here to rescue you
if you were caught in an avalanche.
(man screaming)
- [Narrator] While most avalanches happen
in the back country,
they can happen on any mountain,
including here at Mount Bachelor.
And if that worst-case scenario is to happen,
the avalanche dogs are the first responders.
- [Drew] They're like just a member of our patrol.
They show up with us in the morning,
they get their uniform on just like us.
And they ride the chairlift up with us.
And they're here all day.
It's a rough life.
(man laughing)
- [Narrator] Even with daily efforts
to mitigate potential avalanches,
around 3% of avalanche fatalities
in the U.S. have involved guests skiing
or snowboarding inside the boundaries of ski resorts.
Today, many of the major ski resorts
in the U.S. have avalanche dog programs.
Mount Bachelor started their program in the 1990s.
- We've got three aging dogs and kind of one new young pup.
So, we're definitely at a transition point.
- We brought Shasta on, she's a new pup.
Riggins is almost 10,
the two Goldens, Banyan and Mango, they're eight and a half.
So, we're gonna be rebuilding the team
over the next few years.
It takes about two years to fully train an avalanche dog.
The first year the focus is a lot on just basic obedience.
Learning to travel around the mountain.
Riding chairlifts, riding snowmobiles.
Getting used to the guests calling for them
and teaching them not to, you know,
run towards the guests and maybe get hit by their skis.
The second year, we really focus on the game
of finding someone buried in the snow
and it really is hide and seek for them. It's a game.
- [Narrator] It could take ski patrollers
hours to locate someone buried
in a field of avalanche debris.
It can take a dog only seconds to pick up the scent.
- [Betsy] We're training them to find with their nose
what they can't see on the surface.
- [Narrator] The speed at which a dog
can locate a person buried in the snow
and help dig to them out is a matter of life and death.
- Get him outta there.
- [Narrator] If someone buried in an avalanche
is found within 15 minutes,
they have a 90% chance of survival.
But if the rescue takes more than 35 minutes,
their chances of survival drop to 30%.
- Super important for things to happen quick, right?
So you got someone trapped in the snow.
They've got just minutes of maybe available oxygen.
Dogs are an important tool for us
to be able to find someone quick.
- [Narrator] But for the dogs in training today,
this is just a fun game.
- [Betsy] And when they do find that person,
they get to do their favorite thing, which is play tug.
- Good boy, good boy.
Oh, good boy, Banyan. Good boy.
- You know, if you don't sound like a crazy idiot,
you're not doing it right.
That's like super high pitched praising the dog.
- Get him outta there, buddy.
Yeah, good job, Banyan!
- One thing that's funny is people always are like,
"Oh, I would've thought it would be a Saint Bernard."
You know, it's just that image of the Saint Bernard
with the cask of Brandy or whatever coming to rescue you.
- [Narrator] Using dogs for alpine rescue
has a long and fascinating history,
dating all the way back to the 1600s.
High in the Alps, between Switzerland and Italy,
is the St Bernard Pass.
It was here that monks raised dogs to help locate
and save stranded travelers.
Legends tell of the many alpine rescues
these dogs performed.
When skiing first came to the United States,
so too did mountain rescue dogs.
This rare film shows St Bernards training
on Mount Hood in the 1930s.
But it's not just St. Bernards
that make great avalanche dogs.
- Generally avalanche dogs,
you want the dog to be a retriever that's really playful.
That's why golden retrievers, black labs,
yellow labs work well.
- [Narrator] Shasta is the 16th dog
to join Mount Bachelor's Avalanche Dog Rescue Program.
And today is a big day, her first first training drill.
She'll start by watching the older dog Banyan.
- What you got there, Banyan?
Get 'em out of there. Get him out, go on buddy.
Go on, get him out of there! What do you got?
- Oh, Banyan, good boy! Did you find me?
Good boy, good boy.
Good job, Banyan!
- [Narrator] Now It's Shasta's turn.
Shasta, what's this?
You're gonna come find me, Shasta?
What's this, huh? What's this, what's this?
- [Narrator] The first step is to get Shasta
used to the idea of running into a snow cave to play,
without the digging part.
That'll come later in her training.
- She's in a snow cave, sniffing around.
And we've got a tug toy that she's holding onto.
And we're playing a little tug of war.
She's not scared at all.
This is exactly what we wanna see.
- Alright, ready Riggs? Okay, go load up.
- [Narrator] As the puppy, Shasta, starts her first season,
Riggins is nearing the end of his career.
- His first day on the job he was a seven week old puppy.
He rode around in my jacket on the chairlift.
So, yeah, he's been here 11 seasons now.
You know, I have such a strong bond with Riggins.
We've spent so much time together.
I know all dog owners have a strong bond with their animals,
but I don't know, it's just something different.
It's just at another level.
My husband always gets mad and says
the dog gets more kisses than he does.
It's a little bittersweet, you know.
When I see the gray on his beard and, you know,
he's getting older and he's about to turn 10.
He's probably only going to be an avy dog
up the mountain for another year or two max, you know,
and it's sort of an end of an era for me.
I remember being so young in the program
and so gung ho and wanting to train my dog
and just wanting so badly to be a part of that program.
And now I'm kind of passing that on to the next generation.
- Good girl, Shasta.
- You know, watching Drew step into a new role
and bring on his own avy dog.
And you know, it's, it's very heartwarming
when you see that, you know, you know that it's okay,
it's time, you know, it's okay to move on.
You know, we spend all this time training, these dogs.
Years, training them.
And the goal in the end is that he never has to be used
to find someone buried in an avalanche.
The goal is that he just continues to do
drill after drill, after drill.
And he retires having never
had to be deployed to rescue someone.
The whole point of the program,
is for that one time that we need them and we'll have them,
and we'll be able to deploy them
with the goal of saving someone's life.
- You find me? Good boy!
- [Narrator] It's the end of another long day
at Mount Bachelor, and after the lifts close,
the ski patrol and the avy dogs have one last duty,
sweep the empty runs to make sure
everyone has gone home safe.
- [Drew] You know, at the end of a long day,
getting a nice view of the mountains
and being with your dog, that's a good way to end it.