ON PATROL WITH RUBY THE AVALANCHE DOG

By Lara Kirkner

IT CAN BE TOUGH TO BE THE ONLY GIRL CHARGING IT in a group of boys, but June Mountain’s Ruby, the ski area’s first official avalanche canine, takes it all in four-legged stride. Working side by side with Mammoth Mountain’s male avalanche dogs during the 2006 avalanche slide off Climax, Ruby proved she could hold her own.

Ruby is your typical, wriggly, eager-to-please Labrador retriever, who will bring you her stuffed toy duck, but won’t just hand it over without getting you to play with her first. Her arrival to June Lake and her keen skills, however, are anything but ordinary.

The nearly five-year-old lab found her way into the hearts of the Diem family when their youngest son Justin was being home schooled after a serious bout with cancer. Justin was looking for a dog he could train to hunt with him. After getting to choose the pick of the litter from Powerhouse Labs in Fallon, Nev., Justin got his wish and the Diems got Ruby.

“Justin worked with her a lot when she was really young,” said Eric Diem, speaking for his son who is now away at college, along with the Diem’s other son Jared.

When Ruby was about six months old, Eric and Justin had her up at June Mountain where Eric is the Ski Patrol Director.

“I said to Justin, let’s bury you and see what Ruby does,” Eric explained. Up for the challenge, Justin left Ruby indoors while Eric buried him in a snow cave.

“When I let her out it was like, ‘Where is he? Where is he?’” Eric explained. “She found him in about 30 seconds and that’s when I knew she would be good at [avalanche rescue].”

Since then Ruby has worked hard to become Outdoor Emergency Service Certified. She is registered with the Mono County Sheriff’s Department in order to assist in any local rescues. The 2006 slide was her first on-call avalanche experience, and according to Eric, she wasn’t intimidated at all.

“She did great even though she was still a puppy then,” he stated.

Just last year Ruby got a call on her home mountain when there was an avalanche on the face of June. Due to the snow conditions and the threat of slides on its own mountain, Mammoth wasn’t able to send any of their dogs to help, so Ruby searched the slide on her own. No one was caught in that particular slide, but it was great practice.

Avalanche dogs are critical elements of ski areas, according to Eric. A dog’s nose can detect more smells at one time and at a further distance than human noses can ever imagine. When searching for victims of avalanches or other types of fallen debris, time is critical. Having a dog on your side could mean the difference between someone who is buried living or dying.

“There’s a sense of security when you have these dogs sniffing through the snow,” Eric recalled of his experiences working with his dog, who he claims is also his baby.

“She’s the only dog I have ever allowed to kiss me on my lips,” he chuckled.

Sally Burns was training dogs in search and rescue as well as avalanche rescue a few years after Eric started working at June Mountain in 1978. Eric worked directly with Burns and her dogs in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The experience made him realize just what the dogs are capable of doing.

“Sally’s dogs Trapper and Slider were avalanche certified but they weren’t official June Mountain Ski Patrol dogs,” Eric explained of Ruby’s landmark title. Today, Cody Burns, Sally’s son, works with Eric and is interested in getting an avalanche rescue dog of his own, Eric said.

Crediting the great support and collaboration at both ski areas as the reasons why the avalanche rescue dog training programs are thriving in Mono County, Eric explained that Mammoth patroller Sean Macedonio works closely with top-notch dog training programs in Tahoe, Calif. when training his dog, King. He then shares the inside pointers he picks up with Eric.

“It’s great because they show Sean what to do and Sean trickles it down to me,” Eric, who isn’t always able to attend the out of area clinics, said.

Currently Ruby is working on article searches. According to Eric, the dogs first learn to look for the scent of humans and items such as a scarf with Eric’s scent on it, separately. The article searches take the training to the next level. Eric buries gloves and hats, as well as a human or mannequin in a snow cave, in scattered areas around a central location. The goal is to get Ruby to smell around and still go for the human scent first. It’s part of her intensified training as she gets ready to be tested for recertification in Outdoor Emergency Service, and so far she’s doing great.

“She just has a natural talent for this,” Eric said, as the big, friendly dog bounded around anxious to show off her toy - her reward for a job well done.

Keep your eyes open for Ruby and Eric if you’re skiing or boarding June Mountain this season and feel free, as long as there’s no emergency in progress, to go up and say hi.