Cover photo courtesy Erica Aamodt
By Amy McCaffree
Furry, four-legged Silver Mountain ski patrol members always arrive for duty excited for the day ahead. Loki and Roger, Silver’s first two certified avalanche rescue dogs, work a set schedule on the mountain, along with their patrol handlers. With days off for mental and physical rest, Loki’s handler, Erica Aamodt, says, “If you asked them, they would probably love to be on the mountain every day.”
Aamodt, now in her eighth season patrolling at Silver, got Loki in 2018 when he was eight weeks old and trained him to be a “regular” search and rescue (SAR) dog. After all, as a Weimaraner, Loki isn’t the typical breed to become an avy dog.
“The K9 team leader at the time encouraged me to think about training Loki for avalanche rescue. In my personal life, I enjoyed backcountry skiing and was interested in learning more about avalanche safety and rescue. All of those interests came together when I had the opportunity to start training Loki,” says Aamodt. “Silver Ski Patrol was supportive of the idea, so I started bringing Loki up to [the mountain] where we started learning skills such as riding the chairlift and traveling safely around the mountain. Over the next few years, the program took shape, and we added Roger to the team in 2020.” Loki, now seven years old, is the region’s only all-season certified SAR dog. (He wears sweaters to support his love of snow.)
Roger, a five-year-old Labrador Retriever, reports for duty with handler Drew Mahan, Silver’s Avalanche Dog Program Director and longtime ski patrol member (now in his 16th season). “[Avy dogs are] a morale booster for the whole patrol,” says Mahan.
Some of Mahan’s many director duties and responsibilities include organizing training drills for the dogs and recruiting volunteers to hide in snow caves; overseeing the progress of each dog and handler; collaborating with regional partner programs on training and clinics, including the Northern Rockies Avalanche Canine Rescue group (NRAC); and arranging for Silver’s handlers and dogs to attend training opportunities outside the Inland Northwest, such as the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue Dog School at Alta/Snowbird, in Utah.
Silver’s youngest avy dog is Cedar, an eighteen-month-old Lab, and her handler is Izzy Davis, who is in her fourth season with Silver Ski Patrol. While working as a lift operator in Breckenridge, Colo., Davis says, “I would see all the dogs and handlers skiing around and knew it was ultimately what I wanted to do. I’ve always had a strong bond with animals and a deep love for skiing, so working with an avalanche dog merged both those interests.”
As Cedar, Roger, and Loki got established on the mountain, a fourth human member of the training team was Steve Janke. Janke came to Silver Mountain Ski Patrol from Alta, in Utah, after many years working as a patroller and avy dog trainer and handler. Alta is renowned for having the oldest avalanche dog program in the U.S. Although not returning to Silver Ski Patrol this winter, Aamodt says that Janke, as a secondary handler, spent “countless hours passing along his wealth of knowledge.”
A Day in the Life of an Avy Dog
A typical duty day for Silver’s avy dogs begins with a gondola ride with their primary handler. After the patrol team’s morning meeting, the dogs will either catch a ride on a snowmobile to their duty station for the day or sometimes ride up a chairlift with their handler.
“As the dogs move around the mountain, their handlers are constantly thinking of their dogs’ safety. One of the biggest hazards to the dogs are ski and snowboard edges, which can seriously injure a dog if a dog gets sliced by an edge—this is why our handlers ask that guests never approach the dogs or try to call them over,” Aarmodt explains. Avy dogs are off-leash, but wear a red harness marked with a ski patrol white cross and a dog is always accompanied by a ski patrol-handler wearing an official ski patrol red coat.
“Another long-term hazard is the increased wear and tear on a dog’s shoulders from running down steep terrain. For these two reasons, handlers mitigate these risks as much as possible using safe travel skills such as snowmobiles, skiing gentle terrain while the dogs run, and carrying the dogs down steep and/or crowded terrain.”
For practice, patrollers dig snow caves to set up training problems. A volunteer will sit or lay inside the cave with a dog toy, the cave opening covered with snow blocks. “Once everything is set up, a handler will give their dog the command to search for human scent under the snow,” says Aarmodt. “As a dog narrows down the source of the scent, they will start digging and will dig down all the way into the snow cave, where their subject is waiting with a toy. As soon as the dog digs into the cave, they get to grab onto the toy and play a game of tug with the subject. To the dogs, this is the best kind of hide and seek game!”
Patrol duty concludes after the dogs run alongside their handlers as they sweep the mountain and ensure all guests have made it off the mountain safely, Aarmodt says. “Once their uniforms are off, the dogs get some free playtime, and then make their way back down the gondola with their handlers.”
Certified Snow Dogs
It takes two to three years for an avalanche rescue dog to become fully certified. “We like to say that we are constantly training our dogs—every interaction we have with them has the opportunity to shape and reinforce behavior,” says Aamodt. “Some days are more focused on obedience and safe traveling skills, and some days are more focused on difficult rescue drills.”
In addition to being certified ski-mountain avalanche SAR dogs, Loki and Roger are both backcountry certified by NRAC, which is a great benefit to our region because this certification qualifies them to assist with SAR emergencies at any regional ski mountain as well as participate as a canine-handler SAR team when requested by a county sheriff’s office.
Aamodt’s strong partnership with Loki is what she most enjoys about being a handler. “We’ve done a lot together—riding in helicopters, rappelling from chairlifts, and looking for people under challenging circumstances—and we have a close bond. Most of all, it is the knowledge that our partnership has the potential to save someone’s life someday.”
Learn more about Silver’s Avalanche Dogs on Instagram @silver_mountain_avy_dogs.
Amy McCaffree is a Senior Writer for OTO and alpine skis with her husband and their two children. Follow Amy on Instagram @adventure_amy_spokane or TikTok @pnwadventureamy.
