<\/p>\n
For five Telluride Ski & Golf employees, their most valuable asset is their nose.<\/p>\n
They are Lady Bee of Hemlock Hollow, Wiley, Mona, Sadie and Stella. And they are avalanche rescue dogs.<\/p>\n
Gary Richard has served as the avalanche rescue dog coordinator for Telluride Ski & Golf since 1986 after he traveled to Jackson Hole and learned of their program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in a Class A area where we have a lot of avalanches and we\u2019re pretty steep,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a need for avalanche dogs so we decided to try it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dogs undergo lengthy training in order to locate buried victims in the event of an avalanche.<\/p>\n
First, they are scent trained to locate buried articles of clothing, before moving on to locating a person, and within a year-and-a-half of training, the dogs are able to locate multiple buried people, searching avalanche paths that are often several miles wide.<\/p>\n
The most common breed of the current five avalanche dogs is Labrador Retriever, but the newest addition, Stella, is a Border Collie\/Blue Heeler mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as the dog has a nose and the handler has the patience to train the dog, it can happen,\u201d Richard explained. \u201cAny kind of dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the dog,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s the handler too. And the handler has to be able to take care of himself in the backcountry. It\u2019s equally dangerous for a human as it is a dog, so it\u2019s quite a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard prefers lighter dogs that he can carry if necessary. Running long distances on packed snow can hurt the dog\u2019s paws, so if needed, he can pick them up and ski with them. He lifts his yellow lab by her harness as he explains.<\/p>\n
Her name is Lady Bee of Hemlock Hollow, but Richard generally calls her Lady Bee for short.<\/p>\n
The five-year-old pup works five days a week at Telluride Ski & Golf, riding the chair lift up with Richard or another handler at 8 a.m. to position themselves for any avalanche calls.<\/p>\n
Twice a week they go through avalanche drills, one simple, but one in deeper snow covering a wider path.<\/p>\n
Into early February, there hadn\u2019t been any avalanche rescues yet this season. But Richard said that mid-February has historically been the time when backcountry avalanches seem to release.<\/p>\n
He and Lady Bee have been training for the upcoming avalanche season, so they\u2019re prepared. And Richard says Lady Bee is quick to get ready because she can identify emergency situations from the mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can tell just through our voices when something serious is going on and she just starts whining, \u201c he explained. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s not even an avalanche.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when you have a big accident on the mountain and the tone of everybody\u2019s voices gets different, she picks up on that,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd it\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, Bee, just settle down, this isn\u2019t us this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lady Bee and fellow avalanche dogs not only serve as rescue dogs on the mountain, but also assist in emergency situations in surrounding counties.<\/p>\n
Richard said that the crew has performed searches in La Plata County and Montezuma County, and specifically mentioned rescues at Shark\u2019s Tooth Peak, Paradise Bowl and Burro Mountain.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, he noted, searches outside the resort are generally recovery missions, as helicopter crews have to fly to Telluride to pick up the rescue crew and then fly back to the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time they come and get us to go there, we\u2019re not looking for a live retrieval, we\u2019re looking for a body,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we have them on the ski resort is because this is the best chance,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf someone says, \u2018my friend got buried in an avalanche on the ski resort,\u2019 they could say where and we could be out the door in minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Richard, and the buried party, would rely on the nose of Lady Bee or one of the other avalanche dogs to lead them to the rescue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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