We'd Be Lucky to Have These Cute and Heroic Ski Patrol Pups Save Our Lives

Emily Schroeder
·2 min read
ski patrol dog digging through the snow
ski patrol dog digging through the snow

Courtesy of kerrshee / TikTok

Proving dogs are man's best friend yet again are these heroes of the mountain, aka ski patrol dogs—highly trained canines who use their sense of smell to locate people buried under the snow. Life-saving but also cute pups? Sign us up.

We get to see the pups in action in this TikTok video posted by Kerry Sheehan, a ski instructor at Mount Bachelor in Bend, Ore. In a series of training exercises, the ski patrol dogs each race to piles of snow to unbury a stranded staff member. The first clip includes the caption, "Rating ski patrol dogs unburying people," then shows a black Labrador sprinting to locate their charge.

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"Fast, straight through the snow, priorities on the toy," overlays the footage while "Eye of the Tiger," plays in the background. The dog's speed and sense of smell help to quickly locate and uncover the snow-enveloped person who holds a dog toy—sweetening the deal for the doggo.

Besides the heroic rescue, the best part of this scene is the short clip showing the dog digging so fervidly that only his tail is seen sticking out of the white snow, their entire body buried underneath. The dedication is fur real!

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The next two clips revealing another superman pup—resident golden retriever Mango—with a caption reading, "Faster than humans, fluffiest ski patrol dog, fast boi." Sheehan rated each dog's rescuing ability, and each earned some impressive grades:

  • 483 million out of 10

  • 4.8 billion out of 10 (wow!)

  • 440 million out of 10

In the comments section, Sheehan says, "We were doing demonstrations for the kids in ski school." She posted the video Nov. 24, and it's since amassed over 162,000 views.

One commenter asked if her dog could do this type of rescuing. Sheehan said these rescue dogs were selected and trained as puppies because they had the "right traits." According to this article, the training is pretty rigorous and the dogs each need a dedicated handler who is typically a member of a search and rescue team. Some can even ride chair lifts!

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Sheehan adds this impressive stat: "Ski patrol dogs can search 2.5 acres in 30 minutes—the same would take a human four hours." These are guardian angels on earth! And if you're anything like me and interested in learning more about the heroic TikTok puppers, Sheehan answers some of the most commonly asked questions in this clip.

Thank you rescue dogs—we applaud your hard work and are super thankful for your dedication to us humans! You can unbury us anytime.