Last week, we hosted our 6th annual C-RAD Winter Course at Vail Mountain in Colorado. It was a whirlwind five days of classroom learning, dog obedience training, avalanche rescue scenarios and more. Over 30 dog teams from Colorado and surrounding states joined us, in addition to 13 avalanche technicians, plus instructors from the U.S. and Canada.

Ski patrollers at avalanche dog course with dog Row of participants with dogs at avalanche dog course Ski patrollers on chairlift with dogs

For the first time, we dedicated a full day to avalanche technician training. “Techs,” as we call them, are integral to avalanche search and rescue. Stay tuned for an in-depth look at the technician role on the blog, coming soon!

Dog and handler doing training with avalanche probesAvalanche dog plus handler walking together in the snowAvalanche tech digging in snow during training

Thank you to everyone who joined us, especially those who traveled long distances to share their knowledge and insights with us. This training is invaluable for us to continue to further the C-RAD mission. See you next year!

Avalanche dog taking a break from digging in the snowAvalanche dog with goggles on a snowmobileGerman shepherd avalanche dog running through snow