The annual fundraiser on behalf of the group Wasatch Backcountry Rescue is slated for this Thursday.
The gathering known as the Backcountry Bow Wow is set for March 12th, at O. P. Rockwell’s on Main Street, with doors open at 7 p.m and music starting up at 8:30. Wasatch Backbountry Dog Handler Stacee Johnson and Katie Lips,, from the Park City Ski Patrol, say the party will include prizes, opportunity drawings and a silent auction.
And Johnson said there will be, of course, rescue dogs on hand. They have about a dozen on the slopes, ranging from four months to 11 or 12 years old.
“They are Black Labs, most of em—Labrador Retrievers, not just black. There’s yellow, there’s one Golden Retriever. We like those kinda dogs because they are fabulous searchers, as well as really friendly, great to be around people like big resorts and all that.”
The Rescue program trains avalanche response teams. Johnson said it takes about two years to train a dog
“My dog Jasper, we just passed our A-level certification, which means that we can be called out into the backcountry for rescues if needed.”
Last year, she said, the dogs were called out three times.
Tickets are $15 for the event, available on their Facebook page.
The proceeds are split between Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and the Park City Ski Patrol Johnson and Lips explained how the money helps each group.
“(Stacee) WBR hosts an annual dog training that brings people from across the country to get trained, as well as it helps us to be sent to different dog schools that are in Canada, Switzerland, cross-country as well. (Leslie) And then what do you do with your funds? (Katie) So, on the PCP side of things, we use this money to cover the cost of putting on community events, and our operational costs—so registration for things like the Fourth of July parade. We use it for public educational events. We had a State of the Snowpack talk earlier this year that was a big hit. And even some of the mundane things like printing the contracts that go in the shacks.”
Katie Lips from Park City Ski Patrol and Stacee Johnson from Wasatch Backcountry Rescue.
