Thinking Allowed: The benefits of the Papacy

When I think of St Bernard dogs one of the first images that pops up in my head is that of Tin Tin and a happy frolicking dog with a small barrel around its neck off to yank people out of the snow. I don't think I have even read that particular Tin Tin and yet this image is vivid. Incredible as it is I do feel that the image is lacking in facts. I was hoping that a visit up to where the legends all began would help answer some questions and create a more realistic image in my head. Also, we really wanted to hike around the pass. While the hike was beautiful, the museum interesting and the chapel serene, at the end of the day I was still left with a lot of questions such as 'Did the dogs save people or were they pulling out bodies?' 'How did the dogs know when they had to go save people?' 'now that we no longer use dogs to save people from avalanche what method do we use that could possibly be better?' ' Why were so many people crossing over the pass in the winter to begin with?' 'Why on a beautiful sunny day, when the parking lot was full at the Great Pass of St. Bernard, were we the only ones on the hiking trail?' Thank goodness for the Internet.

St. Bernard's Pass has always been an important place. A place of pilgrims and marauders alike moving south through the continent. A place where pilgrims and marauders alike were regularly bowled down by avalanche or frozen to death by circumstance. Hearing the need of the people, the church sent some clerics in to offer refuge and aid to travelers. This was a thousand years ago. For one thousand years there has been a continuous presence of clergy at the pass sheltering, aiding, feeding and welcoming weary travelers. The pass is closed off to the world due to snow for 8 months of the year -even today. Yet they still manage to be self sufficient enough to care not only for themselves through their long winter but the hundreds of people who end up in their realm. To me that is absolutely amazing.

So where to the dogs come in? At first the St. Bernards were used to clear paths for travelers as they were very adept in the snow and broad-chested. The dogs could sense avalanches before they came, so the priests would bring them with on walks and rescue searches to give themselves warning of impending calamity. The dogs created a new role for themselves when they began pulling people out of the snow. After that the priests started to breed them to rescue people. Two to three dogs would go out to patrol at a time (on their own) to search the pass area. Older dogs would train younger dogs. There were no barrels of whiskey, nor any barrels for that matter. If a person was found they would be dug out and one dog would lay on top of the person to keep them warm while the other went to get human help. One famous St. Bernard is reported to have saved over 40 people, and over two thousand souls have been saved in total. The last person to be saved was a nine year old boy in the fifties. So why are these miracle dogs not still working their magic at the pass?

After a few hard winters in the 1800s many of the dogs succumbed to snow. In an effort to quickly increase their number of dogs the priests tried cross breeding with large new found land dogs this eventually led to attributes making St. Bernards less suited to rescue than other breeds. Many snowy places still use rescue dogs. One dog can effectively search an area of 2.5 acres for human scent in thirty minutes. A team of twenty people could search the same area using sticks to try to locate buried victims and it would take four hours. A person buried by snow can survive maximum an hour so you do the math. Yes there are many new inventions to try to prevent avalanche deaths but none as effective as a dog.

These priests and dogs have all my respect.