{"id":2452139,"date":"2019-12-12T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=317497"},"modified":"2019-12-12T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T12:00:00","slug":"aspen-history-dog-days-of-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-history-dog-days-of-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen History: Dog days of winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"848\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/history-atw-121219-1-1024x848.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/history-atw-121219-1-1024x848.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/history-atw-121219-1-300x248.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/history-atw-121219-1-768x636.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/history-atw-121219-1-1536x1271.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/history-atw-121219-1-2048x1695.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>One 9&#8243; x 9&#8243; b\/w photo of Chopper the avalanche dog finding Highlands ski patrolman Art Smythe during training. Published in the January 27, 1983 Aspen Times, Page 1-C.<\/strong><br \/><em>Chris Cassatt<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cThe avalanche dog is back on the slopes,\u201d announced The Aspen Times on Jan. 27, 1983. \u201cChopper is a two-year-old black lab and golden retriever mix, with intelligent eyes and a willingness to learn. He has been with Highlands ski patrolman Chris Kessler since he was a puppy barely five weeks old. Kessler is convinced that the long and consistent bond has aided in Chopper\u2019s training. At first the training was a game for Chopper \u2014 although Kessler knew better. Kessler, 26, is a native of Aspen, and has served on the Highlands patrol for five years, working as a Highlands ski instructor before that. So Chopper is familiar with the territory. The dog responds to hand and voice signals issued by his trainers. \u2018Seek,\u2019 to Chopper, means a chance to do what he enjoys most. The avalanche dog experiment has so far proved so successful that the Highlands patrol is contemplating training another dog as a backup. As Kessler pointed out, given the peculiar snow conditions of this winter, avalanche hazard could be higher than usual. And while they hope they never have to call Chopper to duty \u2014 he\u2019s ready when they are.\u201d The image above shows Chopper the avalanche dog finding Highlands patrolman Art Smythe during training, 1983.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/magazines\/aspen-times-weekly\/aspen-history-dog-days-of-winter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One 9&#8243; x 9&#8243; b\/w photo of Chopper the avalanche dog finding Highlands ski patrolman Art Smythe during training. Published in the January 27, 1983 Aspen Times, Page 1-C.Chris Cassatt \u201cThe avalanche dog is back on the slopes,\u201d announced The Aspen Times on Jan. 27, 1983. \u201cChopper is a two-year-old black lab and golden retriever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 02:42:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}