Dexter Sears drove a team of dogs owned by Dr. Joseph D’Avignon of Lake Placid, who was the first person to give dogsled rides on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid. Sears worked as a dog handler and caretaker for D’Avignon, but shortly before the Olympic dogsled race, D’Avignon tried to find a Canadian musher to drive his dogs for him. He tried several applicants, but the dogs always responded better to Sears and he was chosen to drive in the Olympic race. Sears built his sled out of ash lashed with rawhide and trained his dogs by running them on a path to Wanika Falls, later part of the Northville-Lake Placid Trail. In January 1962, a US Air Force B-47 jet crashed on Wright’s Peak near Lake Placid and Sears and his brother led sleddog teams up the mountain on a search and rescue mission.
United States