1Tremper
Named in honor of Bruce Tremper, the esteemed longtime director of the Utah Avalanche Center, Tremper the golden retriever pup is the newest member of the Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) ski patrol, so he has a way to go before he lives up to the legacy of his namesake. But according to patroller Hutch Foster, who oversees the resort’s avalanche dog program, Tremper is off to a good start: “He’s a smart little dog, and I expect him to be one of our best in just a few years.” But becoming one of the best requires diligent training, which starts with an interview process of sorts before a dog ever gets the job. “Handlers will go look at a litter of pups with an evaluation test: puppies will be tested on their basic chase-and-retrieve instinct and their prey drive,” Foster explains. “The higher the prey drive, the better, because as far as a dog is concerned, a buried body is a hunt.” Tremper spent the summer going through basic training with his handler, Andrew Hennigh, and this winter you’ll see him cruising around the resort, riding the lifts and snowmobiles and acting as a goodwill ambassador. “Early socialization is the key to making a successful avy dog,” Foster notes. “You have to do this when they’re young so that training is not an issue when they get older.”
2Tremper
Named in honor of Bruce Tremper, the esteemed longtime director of the Utah Avalanche Center, Tremper the golden retriever pup is the newest member of the Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) ski patrol, so he has a way to go before he lives up to the legacy of his namesake. But according to patroller Hutch Foster, who oversees the resort’s avalanche dog program, Tremper is off to a good start: “He’s a smart little dog, and I expect him to be one of our best in just a few years.” But becoming one of the best requires diligent training, which starts with an interview process of sorts before a dog ever gets the job. “Handlers will go look at a litter of pups with an evaluation test: puppies will be tested on their basic chase-and-retrieve instinct and their prey drive,” Foster explains. “The higher the prey drive, the better, because as far as a dog is concerned, a buried body is a hunt.” Tremper spent the summer going through basic training with his handler, Andrew Hennigh, and this winter you’ll see him cruising around the resort, riding the lifts and snowmobiles and acting as a goodwill ambassador. “Early socialization is the key to making a successful avy dog,” Foster notes. “You have to do this when they’re young so that training is not an issue when they get older.”
3Piper
Piper is one of Deer Valley Resort’s avalanche rescue dogs. Her handler, Chris Erkkila, is the resort’s assistant ski patrol manager. He handpicked Piper as a puppy, rescuing her from the Salt Lake County Animal Shelter. “Deer Valley’s philosophy is that we’d always rather rescue a dog than buy one from a breeder if we can,” Erkkila says. “We’ve found that mutts can work just as well as purebreds.”
4Piper
Piper is one of Deer Valley Resort’s avalanche rescue dogs. Her handler, Chris Erkkila, is the resort’s assistant ski patrol manager. He handpicked Piper as a puppy, rescuing her from the Salt Lake County Animal Shelter. “Deer Valley’s philosophy is that we’d always rather rescue a dog than buy one from a breeder if we can,” Erkkila says. “We’ve found that mutts can work just as well as purebreds.”
5Wookie
Novelist Agnes Sligh Turnbull once wrote: “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” Nobody knows that better than Jake Hutchinson, director of ski patrol at Canyons. Hutchinson was Wookie’s handler until January 2011, when Wookie sadly passed away. But Wookie’s legacy lives on at Canyons. She remains the only three-legged avalanche dog ever to have worked in Utah, and one of the few canines anywhere to work snow after an amputation. In summer 2007, Wookie was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that is typically fatal. Hutchinson made the decision to have her leg amputated, and Wookie never missed a beat. “The day after her surgery, she tried to get in the truck to go to work,” Hutchinson recalls. After a little rehab, Hutchinson had Wookie retested to make sure she was still capable of digging with just three legs. She passed with flying colors. Wookie, who was once featured on Martha Stewart’s television show, will forever hold a place in Hutchinson’s heart. “She was a constant companion in my personal life and my partner at work every day,” he says. “I’ll never forget her.”
6Wookie
Novelist Agnes Sligh Turnbull once wrote: “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” Nobody knows that better than Jake Hutchinson, director of ski patrol at Canyons. Hutchinson was Wookie’s handler until January 2011, when Wookie sadly passed away. But Wookie’s legacy lives on at Canyons. She remains the only three-legged avalanche dog ever to have worked in Utah, and one of the few canines anywhere to work snow after an amputation. In summer 2007, Wookie was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that is typically fatal. Hutchinson made the decision to have her leg amputated, and Wookie never missed a beat. “The day after her surgery, she tried to get in the truck to go to work,” Hutchinson recalls. After a little rehab, Hutchinson had Wookie retested to make sure she was still capable of digging with just three legs. She passed with flying colors. Wookie, who was once featured on Martha Stewart’s television show, will forever hold a place in Hutchinson’s heart. “She was a constant companion in my personal life and my partner at work every day,” he says. “I’ll never forget her.”
7Stella
Handler Bert Pacal of PCMR and his dog, Stella, take their seat on a bus. They’re heading to Alta Resort for the annual Wasatch Backcountry Rescue (WBR) training program. According to Pacal, “If you happen to get buried in an avalanche, you want Stella there. She is always ready to work.”
8Stella
Handler Bert Pacal of PCMR and his dog, Stella, take their seat on a bus. They’re heading to Alta Resort for the annual Wasatch Backcountry Rescue (WBR) training program. According to Pacal, “If you happen to get buried in an avalanche, you want Stella there. She is always ready to work.”
9WBR Training
Each year about 40 avalanche dogs and their handlers come together for the WBR training program, a four-day course that separates the puppies from the big dogs. This continuing education event helps handlers and dogs hone their snow skills. Teams are exposed to deeper and more difficult burials and are often required to find multiple victims over a large debris field.
10WBR Training
Each year about 40 avalanche dogs and their handlers come together for the WBR training program, a four-day course that separates the puppies from the big dogs. This continuing education event helps handlers and dogs hone their snow skills. Teams are exposed to deeper and more difficult burials and are often required to find multiple victims over a large debris field.
11Life Flight & Air Med
Most dogs are a bit skittish about helicopters at first, but a chopper is often the best or only way to reach a slide in the backcountry. Both Life Flight and AirMed medical helicopters generously donate their services to help the dogs get comfortable being airborne.
12Life Flight & Air Med
Most dogs are a bit skittish about helicopters at first, but a chopper is often the best or only way to reach a slide in the backcountry. Both Life Flight and AirMed medical helicopters generously donate their services to help the dogs get comfortable being airborne.
13Abby
Abby, a Level A avalanche dog, stands on alert at a Canyons ski patrol lodge. Avalanche dogs are certified at either Level A or B: Level B dogs are ski-area operational, which means they’re only eligible to search within their home ski resort; Level A dogs are avalanche search-and-rescue ready, meaning they are available to respond outside of their home resort and can serve as backcountry search-and-rescue responders for the local sheriff agency. According to Jake Hutchinson, Level A dogs are particularly invaluable. “All the resorts share resources,” he says. “If any resort has a slide, they’ll almost always call another resort’s dog teams for help. We all work together.”
14Abby
Abby, a Level A avalanche dog, stands on alert at a Canyons ski patrol lodge. Avalanche dogs are certified at either Level A or B: Level B dogs are ski-area operational, which means they’re only eligible to search within their home ski resort; Level A dogs are avalanche search-and-rescue ready, meaning they are available to respond outside of their home resort and can serve as backcountry search-and-rescue responders for the local sheriff agency. According to Jake Hutchinson, Level A dogs are particularly invaluable. “All the resorts share resources,” he says. “If any resort has a slide, they’ll almost always call another resort’s dog teams for help. We all work together.”
15Piper
“She’s a completely different dog at home than she is at the resort,” Chris Erkkila says of his pound-puppy Piper. “When we get to work and she has her vest on, she’s on alert. She knows she has a job to do, and she’s ready to spring into action. At home, she’s a regular goofy dog. She plays with my other dog, sniffs the garbage, takes naps. To her, working the snow is the most fun she ever has, and that’s the key for an avalanche dog to be successful. They have to see their job as fun and rewarding.”
16Piper
“She’s a completely different dog at home than she is at the resort,” Chris Erkkila says of his pound-puppy Piper. “When we get to work and she has her vest on, she’s on alert. She knows she has a job to do, and she’s ready to spring into action. At home, she’s a regular goofy dog. She plays with my other dog, sniffs the garbage, takes naps. To her, working the snow is the most fun she ever has, and that’s the key for an avalanche dog to be successful. They have to see their job as fun and rewarding.”
There’s no question that Park City is a dog-friendly town, so much so that it’s often referred to as “Bark City.” Some locals even wonder whether there are actually more dogs than people here. Surely because we love our canine companions so dearly, many local dog owners have a penchant for putting their pooches on a pedestal, no matter how questionable their behavior. But there are some dogs in the Park City area that objectively merit such adulation: dogs like Piper, Wookie, Stella, and Tremper. These four fantastic fetchers are just a few of the avalanche rescue dogs employed by Park City’s three mountain resorts, all of whom have been trained to help sniff out and dig out avalanche victims. They include a puppy in training, a “Heinz 57 mixture” rescued from the pound, a three-legged pooch who beat cancer, and a whole litter of other lovable labs. Last winter, Park City Magazine took a peek at their lives on the front lines of mountain safety.
Published in the What's Your Sign issue of Park City Magazine.
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