The Jackson Hole Ski Patrol has one of the best avalanche rescue programs in the country, and the stars of the squad are five retrievers named Rage, Rosie, MoonPie, Bailey and Peppercorn, the new pup in training. Dogs are used because they can smell people under the snow and, with training, point their handlers in the right direction. Dogs are faster than a probe line, the conventional method for finding buried victims who aren't wearing rescue transceivers. But it isn't as simple as running down the slide path, taking a big wiff and digging. Their accuracy depends on the density of the snow and how deeply the victim is buried.
Scent percolates up through air pockets in the snow in a cone-shaped pattern.
The more dense the snow, the longer this process will take, and the deeper the burial, the wider the cone of scent will be at the surface. The dogs are trained to search in a pattern. Starting where the victim was last seen, the dog handler skis a zigzag pattern across the slide path, and the dog follows, sniffing. If the dog becomes excited or starts digging, the handler says nothing and continues moving in the opposite direction. Sometimes it's a false alarm because of surface scent left by other humans working the slope or a piece of buried clothing.