SUN VALLEY, Idaho — There have been dozens of human-caused avalanches this season in Idaho and ski resorts attempt to mitigate the dangers with the goal of preventing them for visitors safety.
Avalanches can still happen, though, and that's why Sun Valley has two ski patrol members ready with specialty tools and team members.
"I have to be careful about trigger words," Mollie McLam said about her dog, Kobi. They're one of the avalanche teams for the Sun Valley Ski Patrol.
"We try and make sure as ski patrollers to mitigate our avalanches so nothing goes off that he would be needed, but he's up here and he's ready if he needs too," McLam said.
Sarah Linville and her dog, Blaze, are the other avalanche team for the Sun Valley Ski Patrol.
"Blaze is high energy," Linville said.
At least one team is on the mountain when the resort is open and they train constantly to always be prepared for the worst.
"You kinda start with what's called a runaway, you have the dog, and someone gets excited and runs away from the dog behind the building and the dog chases after them learning the command, whatever the command is," McLam said. "Then you progress it further to where the dog can't see the person running away, they have to learn how to use their nose to now they're suddenly in a hole, now there's a block in front of them, and they're like how do I get to this person?"
McLam says that's when the digging comes in and it comes naturally for the pups. When someone is deep below the snow, the dogs can't always reach them.
That's when ski patrol members will use shovels to work to get the person out to safety.
"I would reward him (Kobi) because the person is really deep and we're not going to get to him so I would actually re-start my dog and search for other people buried in this area," McLam said.
They always celebrate when the training is done. Kobi usually buries a ball and barks. Blaze likes to catch snowballs. It's also reassuring to their human partners that they are prepared for the worst case scenario.
"He holds a lot of responsibility," Linville said of Blaze. "We expect a lot of him to train him to mentally realize the scenario he's in and to know when he's working and to know when he has to calm back down to know and to know he can't be the center of attention which you know, he's still working on."
Linville says every avalanche team is different, but one thing remains the same. There must be trust, fairness, love and devotion on both sides.
Blaze and Kobi are the only active avalanche dogs right now at Sun Valley Ski Resort. They have never been needed, thanks to avalanche mitigation on the mountain.
Other dogs have been utilized in the past to help in avalanches.