Rescue Team’s Special Dogs Search for Snowboarder : Avalanche: Efforts to find 24-year-old Costa Mesa man in massive Mt. Baldy slide area will resume today, weather permitting. Officials say there’s still hope.

Taking advantage of a break in the weather, a rescue team took three dogs up the steep, snowy slopes of Mt. Baldy on Thursday, hoping to find Michael Pilotti, a 24-year-old Costa Mesa man who has been buried in an avalanche for two days.

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But during the two-hour search of the massive slide area, the specially trained dogs were unable to detect the human scent through drifts of snow up to 20 feet deep, authorities said.

“The dogs located nothing,” said Deputy Sheriff Raymond Brannum.

The search was called off at 3 p.m. when the sun broke through the thick cloud layer shrouding the mountain, for fear that the melting snow might trigger new avalanches. The search will resume today, Brannum said, if an avalanche expert with the U.S. Forest Service determines that it is safe.

Thursday’s search was postponed until late afternoon because the snow conditions were considered treacherous. In preparation, explosives were set off on the slopes to encourage any overhanging snow and ice to fall before the search began.

During the search, Brannum said, only the three dogs and their handlers were allowed into the avalanche area. Eight members of the San Bernardino County sheriff’s volunteer search and rescue team waited on the perimeter, scanning the ridges for any signs of avalanches and standing ready to move in if the dogs began digging and barking.

Despite the length of time Pilotti has been trapped, Brannum said, rescuers still believe there is a possibility he may be found alive, depending on the severity of his injuries and whether he has a pocket of air to breath.

On the positive side, authorities said, Pilotti was warmly dressed when he and a companion went snow boarding Tuesday in an off-limits area of Mt. Baldy that was fraught with avalanche hazards.

“We can only cross our fingers and hope,” Brannum said.

He said that, if the search resumes today, the dogs, a golden retriever and two yellow Labradors, may receive some assistance from rescue team members, who will probe the snow with 12-foot metal poles. With the poles, rescuers hope to find Pilotti or at least release his scent to the surface and help the dogs track him.

“The deeper the snow, the harder the dog has to work,” said Sally Timms, a members of the California Swiss Search Dog Assn., whose 5-year-old Labrador, Jethro, is part of the Mt. Baldy search team.

Timms said Jethro, like other dogs that are state certified for disaster work, is “trained to search for any human scent.”

Another of the dogs, a 4-year-old lab named Misty, successfully helped to find a man who was buried in the rubble of the Northridge earthquake, Timms said.

The dog handlers and members of the search and rescue team are volunteers. Several said Thursday that they are anxious to resume the search.

“The family is waiting for him. We have got to find him,” said Erin Mathews, 19, of Upland.

A sheriff’s spokesman said Pilotti’s parents flew in from New York and spent Thursday in briefings with the search and rescue team to learn how the search is being conducted and what options remain.

Despite the sobering event, Mt. Baldy was a popular spot for skiers and snow surfers Thursday.

One of the snowboarders, Seth Bolton, 25, of Dana Point, said he was acquainted with Larry Beard, Pilotti’s 32-year-old companion and boss who escaped Tuesday’s avalanche. He said Beard was “respected for his experience with surfing and snowboarding. “

It’s common for skiers and snowboarders to go out of bounds, Bolton said, but not, as Pilotti and Beard did, in the middle of a snow storm.

“I’ve done exactly what he’s done, but not on a day like he did. . . ,” Bolton said. “I don’t know what they were thinking. “