Up to 1000 avalanches go down every year in the Swiss Alps and and causing severe damage. The dog handlers with their trained avalanche rescuedogs makes an important contribution to the search for buried people.
Break in an untouched deep powder snow slope, far from the tumult and the crowding at the lifts ..., a dream of every Freestylers.
But this dream holds many dangers. Up to 1000 avalanches go down every year in the Swiss Alps and and causing severe damage. Up to 120 people are buried in avalanches per year. Alone in winter 2014/15 33 people were killed.
The dog handlers with their trained avalanche rescuedogs makes an important contribution to the search for buried people. Until a dog is ready for use it takes time, patience, perseverance and a long-standing practice which the dog handlers exercise in their spare time.
For one day I accompanied the avalanche dog group under the direction of Nicole Dammann in Melchseefrutt Switzerland with my camera.
The dogs are trained with positive motivation, toys or feed. Only with a lot of fun at work the required endurance can be obtained.
To show what a excellent work the dogs are doing, the eagerness with which they searching… what it feels like to be found from a dog if one is trapped in an avalanche… I have put myself in a small cold ice cave which was closed with snow to let me search by the dogs. Knowing that the cave was marked and I had not to be afraid to be not found.. the situation was still very cramped. As the first light shone through the small hole broken with the dogs paw it filled me with relief. An unforgettable experience when the dogs dig through the snowpack and wagging its tail to get special treat ☺.
In reallity the teams are confronted with very difficult conditions and risk their own lives.
With these photos I can give some recognition to all the dog handlers and their dogs which they definitely deserve!