Alta ski patrol dog celebrates 15th birthday

SALT LAKE CITY — On July 17, one Alta ski patrol dog celebrated his 15th birthday. 

According to Lexi Dowdall, Alta Ski Area’s communications manager, Banjo is the resort’s longest-tenured ski patrol dog. The golden lab fully retired last year, but still spends plenty of time on the resort. 

“Prior to that, he was working with our ski patrol team about half-time,” Dowdall said. “In the last few years, Banjo has started to go a little bit deaf.” 

Since Banjo began losing his hearing, he could not continue working as a ski patrol dog. They rely heavily on their strong hearing and keen sense of smell to help find victims who have been involved in avalanches or other terrain-related accidents. 

“He was getting so deaf, it was hard for him to hear commands,” Dowdall said. 

Oftentimes, ski patrol dogs retire at age 11 or 12. According to Dowdall, Banjo is “quite old for a lab,” but his enthusiasm for the job convinced patrollers to keep him on the mountain longer. 

She shared a story of Banjo jumping onto a ski lift at Alta one summer. 

“At one point in summer … when lift maintenance teams were just doing some chair lift maintenance and the chair was actually spinning, he just left his handler and booked it to the chair lift. [He] hopped on,” Dowdall said. “We had to yell and figure out where the lift maintenance guys were to evacuate Banjo off the lift.” 

Although he is retired, Banjo still spends time at Alta Ski Area. Toward the end of his tenure, he served as a leader of the pack, providing a “leader of the pack energy.” 

Nowadays, he spends time in the resort offices.

“I would say at this point in time, he’s mostly patrolling the office for treats or pets,” Dowdall said. 

Ski patrol dog careers

Five avalanche dogs work with Alta Ski Patrol. According to Dowdall, four of them are currently certified, while the fifth is in training. 

At the beginning of their lives, ski patrol dogs are hand-picked from reputable breeders. 

“We rely on those breeders to ensure we have dogs that are up to the task of the work that we throw their way,” Dowdall said. “We typically adopt the puppies pretty early in their puppyhood.” 

When a new patrol dog is being selected, a primary handler must also be nominated. The chosen ski patroller will choose and raise the dog, while also playing a lead role in their training. 

Handlers select dogs that show a strong desire to play and tug on things. 

According to Dowdall, Alta ski patrol dogs are often named after people involved in the area’s history or stories. But Banjo was different. 

He was adopted from a breeder in Minnesota, who gave him the name. Dowdall said resort personnel felt the name suited him, so they kept it. 

Training is a team effort

“The whole ski patrol will pitch in because it’s very important for the dog to be able to take commands from anyone,” Dowdall said. “But it will have a primary handler.” 

Following adoption, puppies begin rigorous, multi-year training. To become a ski patrol dog, they must complete certification. 

While the dogs do work within resort boundaries, they also work in the backcountry, helping search and rescue teams locate avalanche victims. 

Patrollers sometimes don’t have enough information to locate a victim after an avalanche. In those cases, they bring in a ski patrol dog. 

“Their first primary goal is to identify the scent of a human. But then their secondary goal is to identify that scent of a human beneath the snow surface,” Dowdall said. “That’s why training takes so many years.” 

Alta plays a strong role in avalanche dog training

Dowdall said ski patrol dog training is part of Alta‘s history. In the 1980s, the resort built a program, becoming one of the first ski areas in the U.S. to do so. 

Nowadays, Alta hosts a clinic and certification event each year. 

“It’s so much fun to be up here when dogs from all over the nation and Canada are traveling here to Alta,” Dowdall said.