Avalanche Rescue Dogs

Avalanche Rescue Dog Program History
Crystal Mountain’s Avalanche Rescue Dog Program has supported avalanche response for nearly 30 years. From the beginning, Crystal’s professional ski patrol has trained dedicated search dogs to expand the patrol’s rescue toolkit. These dogs are trained to locate human scent beneath the snow, with most training and operational work taking place at Crystal. Once fully certified, teams may also be deployed to backcountry responses throughout the Cascades.

Crystal’s dog teams are members of Back Country Avalanche Rescue K-9 (B.A.R.K.), a partnership of professional ski patrollers and avalanche rescue dogs that includes Stevens Pass and Alpental. B.A.R.K. teams train alongside local county search-and-rescue and Sheriff’s deputies to support responses to remote avalanche incidents. Each team pairs an experienced patroller with a highly trained working dog raised and developed through Crystal’s program. Over the past three decades, multiple generations of dogs have contributed to avalanche search and recovery efforts.

Alisha and Kio
Alisha Bator is a professional dog trainer with 10+ years of adventure guiding and international programming experience. This will be her 8th season on ski patrol and her 5th year in the dog program.

Kio is a 4-year-old English Shepherd, turning 5 this December. She is fully certified and originally from Los Angeles, but we have had her since she was 8 weeks old. In winter, she loves sliding down the snow on her belly, and come summer, she turns into a true river rat.

Charlie and Iggy
Charlie has been patrolling Crystal since 2016. He began raising Iggy in Crystal Mountain's avalanche-dog program in February 2018. She came from Eromit Labrador Retrievers in Canada, a breeder known for producing exceptional search-and-rescue and avalanche dogs.

These days, Iggy is a senior member of our patrol dog team. She completed her most recent recertification test at Stevens Pass this past winter.

Charlie and Iggy work year-round at Crystal. When the snow melts, Iggy trades avalanche work for summer trails and alpine lakes around the mountain: always moving, nose to the ground, and, as always, a friendly face for our guests.

Cudi, Forest, and Annabelle
Forrest (12th year patroller) and Annabelle (5th year patroller) are Cudi's primary handlers. It's uncommon for avalanche dogs to have two primary handlers, but Forrest and Annabelle raise Cudi together. After many years of working with CMRD and being the secondary handler for other avy dogs, Forrest planned to train his own avalanche dog. Annabelle had been working with CMRD for several years and was also excited to raise a new puppy, so the couple chose Forrest!

Cudi is a two-year-old black field lab from Wisconsin. She comes from a line of duck hunting dogs that have gone on to become avalanche dogs at other resorts.Cudi’s unique opportunity to work with two primary handlers gave her more training time. She passed her operational certification last season before she turned two. This season, she’s aiming to earn full certification, and we think she’ll crush it. In the summer, you’ll find her as a swimming machine, a frisbee fiend, and snoring hard after all the action.

Melina and Indy
Melina Martin is entering her third year on ski patrol. She joined to spend her winters on skis while gaining hands-on experience in emergency medicine. A Bellevue native, she grew up skiing primarily at Alpental and always viewed Crystal Mountain as a special trip.

Before patrol, Melina worked at a local wildlife rehabilitation center, where she helped care for sick and injured marine mammals, mostly seals. Leaving that work behind was a difficult shift, since it combined three of her favorite things: skiing, emergency medicine, and animals.

Indy is her Golden Retriever and is currently in training to become an operational avalanche rescue dog that can be dispatched at Crystal. Over the next season, Indy and Melina will focus on movement drills so he learns to run with her while she skis, along with progressive search training. That work includes live “igloo” drills with Melina and other volunteers, increasingly complex igloos with interior walls, and eventually full burials and article searches using buried items of clothing worn by patrollers.

Micah and Emmy
Micah Mansfield is entering his third season on ski patrol at Crystal Mountain. He grew up in Bellevue, Washington, and worked in a hospital before joining patrol. He also has a background in guiding and outdoor education, which has shaped his passion for working in the mountains and helping others experience them safely.

Emmy is Micah’s tri-colored English Shepherd. She was born on April 12, 2025, in Kamiah, Idaho, and was bred by Kathryn at Lamb’s Rest. At 4.5 months old, Emmy is still very much a puppy, but she is already beginning her path toward rescue-dog training. She has an older brother from the same parents who is currently working as an avalanche rescue dog at Northstar Resort in Tahoe, and Emmy is expected to follow a similar track. Energetic and affectionate, she is curious, motivated, and quick to learn.

What to do if you see an Avalanche Dog at Crystal
You may see one of Crystal’s Avalanche Rescue Dogs while you ski. These teams train year-round, so you might spot a dog loading a lift, running alongside a handler on skis, or participating in a search drill.

To help keep the team safe and set the dogs up for success, please give them plenty of space. Do not approach, call to, bark at, or otherwise distract a working dog. Skiing too close is a serious safety concern. Slow down when passing a team and leave a wide buffer. A collision, or even a ski edge contacting a dog’s leg, can cause an injury that may end a dog’s working career.

How can I support the Avalanche Rescue Dogs?
Crystal’s dogs are part of Cascade Mountain Rescue Dogs (CMRD), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports the training and care of rescue dogs preparing to respond anywhere in Washington State.

One way CMRD raises funds is through seasonal dog shirts. Each year features a new design created in partnership with our handlers and local artists. Shirts are available for purchase in the Ski Patrol Aid Room.

We’d love to hear from you!
www.cmrescuedogs.org
cm.rescuedogs@gmail.com

Highly trained patrollers and their dogs