SYNOPSIS

Lech in the Austrian Arlberg region, today a sophisticated international skiing resort, for centuries one of the poorest regions of Europe where Christian Wolf’s forefathers fought hunger and the often harsh environment. One threat remained to this day: Avalanches.

Wolf himself is a man of many talents: He cleans the snow of his home village’s streets, runs a family pension and a one-man sawing mill in a secluded part of his home valley. One man, three jobs and a great passion: His avalanche dog Roy. The Belgian Shepherd became part of the Wolf family when he was just ten weeks old and right from the start Christian started to practise potential life saving skills with him. More than 450 hours they work together to make Roy fit for the work on avalanche fields. Christian knows from experience it takes years of joined practise to get a dog ready for the enormous stress in an alpine emergency situation.

In the documentary we experience Christian and his dog Roy training in deep snow in their home village and together with some of the best other Austrian dog teams at an annual meeting up of rescue teams near the Swiss border. Test persons get buried in snow with the camera right beside them. Unusual warm weather conditions make the work particularly difficult. Snow conditions change every day and sometimes even the greatest of experiences does not save the rescue crew from tragedy: Only days before their joined practise session, one of the most experience members of their squad himself died in an avalanche few kilometres away.

In addition to the challenging work with his dog we meet the people most important to Christian: His mentor Toni Tummler who brought him to the squad and has numerous of thrilling stories to tell. And of course Christian’s family: We meet Christian’s wife and mother for lunch and feel his deep rooted ness and connection with his home village and its surrounding mountain world.

The final climax of the documentary shows Roy and Christian facing the ultimate emergency simulation: Latched to a twenty meter long rope hanging down from a helicopter, Roy and Christian hover onto an alpine avalanche field. Both know they only have fifteen minutes to save a life.