Canterbury Avalanche Search and Rescue Dogs

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Avalanche dogs, unsung mountain heroes

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 1:36p.m.

With mountains laden with snow, skiers are taking to the hills to sample some of the best conditions New Zealand ski fields have seen in more than ten years.
But spare a thought for the unsung mountain heroes who train all winter to ensure our safety if and when an avalanche strikes.
It may look fun, but heading up the chairlift for a day in the snow with avalanche dogs is serious work.
Trained in avalanche search and rescue, the dogs can find a person buried in snow within minutes.
Wiedel and four-year-old Ernie recently moved to Canterbury from Colorado, and despite being new around here, it took them just two minutes to track the scent of a person buried in a metre of snow.
Dogs are used for their speed and extreme sense of smell. Trained avalanche dogs can cover a hectare of terrain in 30 minutes.
While avalanches occur frequently at ski resorts overseas, they are less common here.
“In New Zealand it's not an annual event, maybe every couple of years if you're lucky, but you never know and you've just got to be ready for the situation when it occurs,” says Stephen Hunter, of NZ Land SAR dogs.
3 News