Avalanche dogs: up close with the canine lifesavers as they train with their masters in the French Alps

If you’re trapped beneath tonnes of snow by an avalanche, a dog is your best chance of being rescued. We catch up with 15 of them and their masters in training

A dog can cover in 30 minutes an area of snow it would take 20 people with long poles four hours to search – vital when survival is a race against time

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Guy Anciaux and his avalanche dog, seven-year-old Fly, undergo training. A dog can search in 30 minutes an area of snow it would take 20 people four hours to cover. Photo: Jean Michel Morlot/ANENA

Published: 10:30am, 12 Jan 2020Updated: 6:34pm, 12 Jan 2020

I am buried beneath a metre of snow above the ski resort of Les Deux Alpes in France in a cold, silent, friendless world. Suddenly there’s a scuffling sound, followed by a pair of black paws frantically excavating the snow, as Icare the avalanche dog bursts through to my rescue.

Fortunately, this is just an exercise – part of a two-week training programme for avalanche dogs and their handlers organised by ANENA, the French national association for the study of snow and avalanches. Were it for real, Icare could very easily be the difference between life and death for an avalanche victim.

He is here with his handler, Rudolf, and 14 other dog teams from various parts of the French Alps and the Pyrenees to train to become effective life-saving units for avalanche victims.

The training programme takes place right beside the ski lifts and pistes on Les Deux Alpes’ Glacier du Mont-de-Lans, at a literally breathtaking altitude of more than 3,000 metres. Skiers can watch the exercises as they ascend the slopes on ski lifts and then stop for a longer view of the action when they ski back down.

The aftermath of an avalanche in the hamlet of Le Fornet, in the French Alps ski resort of Val d'Isere, in January 2018. Photo: Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP via Getty Images

Unlike most ski resorts, some of the easiest slopes to ski in Les Deux Alpes are on the glacier – which also offers magnificent views over the jagged peaks of the Ecrins National Park, as well as high-altitude dining at the Refuge des Glaciers – so everyone from novice to expert can get to see the dogs at work.