RADAR THE RESCUE DOG

The true story of Radar – Whistler’s first avalanche rescue dog – has inspired a former ski patroller to write a book that teaches children how to be safe in the snow. ‘Children become lost in the winter wilderness all too often,’ says author Janet Love Morrison, who has years of experience as an alpine caretaker and a member of the ski patrol on Whistler’s mountains. She hopes her book, Radar the Rescue Dog , will help children make better decisions when they are out skiing or tobogganing. She says, ‘I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to create mountain-safety awareness, and if we teach the children, perhaps there won’t be so many search and rescue operations with adults.’ The book also aims to teach children the way to stand up to peer pressure and the reason to respect nature — life lessons they can use even when they are not outside playing in the snow. ‘One of the most important themes of the book is to stand in your power and to learn not to allow someone to influence you to do something you don’t want to do,’ says Love Morrison. Illustrator Zuzanna Riha Driediger says children and adults need to know how to recognize a dangerous situation. She says, ‘The book teaches the respect of the mountains and the respect of the wilderness. It also makes you recognize a scary situation and let you know what to do with that.’ Driediger brought the story to life with her illustrations of Radar, a beloved icon in the Whistler ski community. She has also worked with search and rescue dogs in Whistler. ‘Dogs are amazing through the power of their nose. They have an amazing ability to detect a person if they’re buried underneath the snow,’ says Driediger.