The Aspen/Snowmass Avalanche Rescue Dog Team manages avalanche rescue operations on four mountains in Colorado— Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk. Avalanche risk intensifies with heavy snowfall, common in the Rocky Mountains, and these highly trained and motivated avalanche dogs are critical to rescue efforts.

Just as their human counterparts are challenged with finding gear to meet the temperature, visibility, and safety requirements needed to complete life-saving missions, these rescue dogs are challenged with the need for gear that can do the same. Each dog on the Aspen/Snowmass Avalanche Rescue Team is supplied with a Ruff Wear Web Master™ harness.

The Web Master Harness, like many of Ruff Wear’s products, was designed using input from rescue teams across the nation and built to withstand the severe conditions encountered by avalanche rescue dogs. “When Jane is on the mountain, she lives in her Ruff Wear Web Master harness,” comments Ali Wade, Program Director for the avalanche team.

It takes a special type of dog to have the drive and obedience to become part of the avalanche rescue team, but as Ali notes, a dog is still a dog. The key to training and certifying a dog for avalanche rescue is making it fun. For Ali’s dog Jane, it means the reward of a game of fetch with her bright red Ruff Wear Lunker™.

Ruff Wear sends our thanks to these extraordinary teams and the important missions they accomplish. Keep on fetching, Jane!