Courtney and his wife Jen moved to Methven in November, 2007.  They have spent numerous months here in the past, but are now here for good.  Courtney is entering his 15th season as a ski patrolman.  Two of those seasons have been at Mt. Hutt with the balance occurring at Copper Mountain in Colorado.  Snow science and avalanche mitigation (fancy terminology for blowing things up) started to get a bit blasé, so he finally decided to buy a dog.  Actually his wife made the decision.

Ernie is a spoiled, loveable, playful 4 year old yellow Labrador.  He has the most toys of any dog we have ever met.  However, when it comes to work, he is all go, whether it is sniffing out an avalanche victim, flushing a game bird, kissing a trout, or retrieving a duck.  He was brought onto the ski field at Copper Mountain to learn the ropes in 2005.  Since then they have both traveled extensively to hone their skills together as a team.  The Big Ern is looking forward to his first year at Mt. Hutt.  We think he is just glad to be out of quarantine (picture a white collar jail for dogs).