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Camaraderie, sense of purpose drive these committed volunteers
Wyoming K-9 SAR black Lab Sophie digs out the photographer, serving as an avalanche “victim,” from a snow cave during training on Pine Creek Pass west of Victor, Idaho.
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An avalanche probe striking a body has a distinct feel. Not solid like a root or jarring like a rock. A body feels “spongy,” says Amanda Soliday, training officer for the nonprofit Wyoming K-9 Search & Rescue (SAR). “If you ever did it,” she says, “you’d just know.”
Ray Shriver knows. One of the most experienced dog handlers in the unit, in 2002 he hopped out of a helicopter in the Sheep Creek drainage to check yet another avalanche for any sign of missing skier Michael Dollarhide. A set of ski tracks entered one side of the slide and exited the other. But, at the toe of the avalanche, Teton County SAR team member Mark Muser spotted a water bottle. Both men knew that finding Dollarhide’s body had become a race against the sunset.
Shriver released his German shepherd, Kita, who put her nose down and went to work. Soon Kita started digging frantically. Ray poked his probe through the snow, and it came down firm but giving. Dollarhide was resting four feet below, face down and pointed downhill, his skis under and behind him like anchors.
Apparently he had skied across the face and stopped on his return to sit, eat, and water up. He must’ve been terrified when the mountain gave way, must have swum for all he was worth to try to stay above the surface of the snow. But telemark bindings do not release and his skis dragged him down.
Dollarhide was Kita’s fourth “find,” a shock to Dollarhide’s family and friends but a necessary step along the trail of grief that meanders through the wilderness of acceptance and closure.
The entire article can be read in the Winter 2012 issue of Jackson Hole Magazine.
Reader Comments:
I just received word that we lost Ray doing what he loved to do, yet in the most beautiful place in the world.
Once we start this journey of Search and Rescue, we cannot quit, it is a magical gift given to few, yet a burden as well.
Our bodies fail as we get older, our beloved K-9 partners die, still we continue in some form or function.
I sincerely feel that Ray paid back his old survivor debt long ago, and maybe some of ours too.
I am honored to have had the privledge of knowing and working with Ray Shriver and all the Search Teams his life has touched.
Yet another loss for the Jackson Hole community.
d. lehman
2/15/12
I just received word that we lost Ray doing what he loved to do, yet in the most beautiful place in the world.
Once we start this journey of Search and Rescue, we cannot quit, it is a magical gift given to few, yet a burden as well.
Our bodies fail as we get older, our beloved K-9 partners die, still we continue in some form or function.
I sincerely feel that Ray paid back his old survivor debt long ago, and maybe some of ours too.
I am honored to have had the privledge of knowing and working with Ray Shriver and all the Search Teams his life has touched.
Yet another loss for the Jackson Hole community.
d. lehman
2/15/12