A pioneering alpine canine search rescue team is moving to expand its Southern Lakes skifield operations further afield, as Matthew Haggart reports.
The team's specially trained sniffer dogs could be the difference between life and death for a person trapped under the snow.
"Our objective is to save lives," founder of Treble Cone Search Dogs Matt Gunn said.
Mr Gunn has more than 15 years' experience as a ski patroller and avalanche forecaster.
He was one of the first ski patrollers to train a dog to work with him as part of his alpine duties, and during the past five years he has encouraged other like-minded colleagues to do the same.
He recently registered TC Search Dogs (TCSD) as a nonprofit incorporated society, with a view to expanding operations to provide a year-round search dog service for the Southern Lakes region.
Mr Gunn became involved in the search dog industry about a decade ago when he decided to train his border collie pup Blizzid in rescue recovery techniques for the alpine environment.
The pair became the founding members of TCSD in 2007 when Mr Gunn "retired" from his Treble Cone ski patrol position to develop the programme, which has led to the incorporation of their fledgling team.
Mr Gunn and Blizzid have been joined by Treble Cone colleagues Brendan Kearns and Callum Grant and their respective Labradors, Millie and Zeppelin.
Mr Kearns and Millie started their avalanche training together about six years ago at Treble Cone.
Millie's "incredible" Labrador nose combined with her natural mountain aptitude resulted in the pair skipping the national avalanche dog standard of novice to become fully operational as a search team in 2005.
Mr Grant began training with Zeppelin in 2008 and the pair became operational in 2009.
Mr Grant spends his summer months working as a mountain guide, mostly for overseas clients, climbing some of the Southern Alps' highest peaks.
The handling trio and their canine companions combine to provide a seven-day-a-week cover of two avalanche dogs throughout the ski season.
Mr Gunn is aiming for the programme to be extended to a year-round operation, and the organisation has the full endorsement of New Zealand LandSAR, the police and Treble Cone skifield.
Since he began as Treble Cone's first alpine avalanche dog handler in 2001, canine alpine teams have spent thousands of hours on the mountain and have responded to several avalanche callouts.
The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council also runs training for avalanche search dog teams and about 16 qualified search-dog handlers are spread about the country.
Sniffer dogs are not used only for avalanches. They can also cover a wide variety of search-and-rescue circumstances, including where people have been buried by earthquake rubble and in bush searches.
While TCSD was mountain-based, it was available and trained to cover all sorts of emergency situations, Mr Gunn said.
It had responded to nine avalanches within the Treble Cone skifield area and immediate back country of Wanaka since 2001, he said.
Often called in to check and verify no people have been involved in back-country avalanches, the team is regularly put on stand-by to cover situations such as that of Queenstown man Ryan Campbell last year.
Mr Campbell was killed in an avalanche while snowboarding outside the boundaries of Coronet Peak last August.
TCSD is on call for avalanches during the peak summer climbing season and has been put on stand-by three times for incidents in the Mt Cook National Park, Mr Gunn said.
Since TCSD became an incorporated organisation, Mr Gunn has been busy pursuing sponsorship, negotiating agreements and organising training and educational programmes for his search dog team.
