Meet the Avalanche Dogs + Handlers
Meet the Avalanche Dogs + Handlers
Drew Clendenen is the Patrol Supervisor and has been on the team 11 years.
Shasta is a 6-year-old Golden Retriever. She is a Field Golden, and is bred to be smaller, have shorter fur and have a strong prey drive for hunting and search work. Crushing pow laps is her favorite thing to do besides search work, and she loves exploring all around Mt. Bachelor. Shasta loves people and interacting with them once they ask permission from her handler. She spends summers in Northern California and Wyoming running on the beach, swimming in rivers, backpacking and eating apples in the apple orchard.
Alex is our Operations Lead at Mt. Bachelor Patrol and has been part of the team for 10 seasons.
Ruddy is a 5-year-old Border Collie. He is from a cattle ranch in Idaho where most of the dogs are bred for herding. He has found joy and success in search work with the help of his high energy drive. His favorite activities include searching, fetching, tug-of-war, and hiking the ski and bike trails. Ruddy is up at Mt Bachelor year-round with his handlers patrolling bike trails in the summer.
Joshua Bowden has been on the team for 10 seasons.
Cashew is a 4-year-old Field Golden Retriever as well, and works and plays at Mt. Bachelor year-round. In the summer, when she's not working the bike park, paddle boarding the Deschutes river is her favorite thing to do. Cashew loves balls, sticks and digging! She also loves winter and deep pow runs down the uphill route.
Tyler Buwalda has been on the patrol team 9 seasons.
Jetty is a 3-year-old Golden Retriever. He is also a Field Golden and has a strong prey drive for hunting and search work. When not working on mountain training for search and rescue, he can be found hanging out by the Deschutes river surf break, playing fetch or lounging outside in the high desert sun.