Avalanche Dog

Photo credit: Copper Ski Patrol

The Summit County Rescue Group took to Facebook on Saturday to share a video of one of the avalanche dogs from Copper Ski Patrol in action. 

The demonstration simulates how canines can be crucial members of a rescue team if an avalanche buries a person.  

"Mountain rescue teams and ski patrol teams across the country utilize K9s for their sense of smell. Scientists guess the dog's sense of smell is somewhere between 10,000 to 100,000 times more acute than ours. Buried in snow, stuck in brush, underwater, you name it! A properly trained search dog can sniff them out and find them long before us humans can," the Douglas County Rescue Team said in a Facebook post earlier this month.

Avalanches are measured by their relative size and destructive force on a scale of 1-5. A level one destructive force avalanche is relatively harmless, a level two destructive force slide could bury or kill a person, level three could bury a car, level four could destroy a building, and level five could cause changes to the landscape. 

This season, there have been three avalanche related deaths in Colorado. 

When avalanche conditions are considered risky, backcountry travel should be avoided. If you do travel to these areas, you should have and know how to use an avalanche-rescue transceiver, a probe pole, and shovel. 

For more information on avalanche conditions in Colorado, visit the Colorado Avalanche Information Center website. It's also important to pay attention to weather and travel alerts posted by the National Weather Service.

STAY INFORMED: Sign-up for the daily OutThere Colorado newsletter here

Newsletters

Get OutThere

Signup today for free and be the first to get notified on new updates.

(0) comments

Welcome to the discussion.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.