On a Hike or Climb: Dog or No Dog?

A powerful answer from an incredible rescue story

The concerns a dog owner should consider before deciding whether to bring their dog on a hike are best illustrated with a true story: Missy the Wonderdog from August 2012.  Missy was a German shepherd/Rottweiler mix weighing in at 112 pounds.

Here’s what happened.

Missy’s owner and a teenage companion hiked up Mt. Bierstadt, a fourteener in the Rockies. Summiting that mountain is no problem for a fit dog as there is a good and easy trail. However, Missy’s companions intended for the trio to continue beyond this mountain to traverse a difficult, steep and rocky slope 900 feet down and then up and across a Class 3 ridge called the Sawtooth. No dog should attempt that, much less a 112-pound dog that would have major trouble in those boulders and sharp rocks. A heavy, large dog is at a disadvantage in sharp, deep rocks and boulders, and 112 pounds is almost a horse in dog terms.

Missy’s paws became bloodied, and soon she refused to go further, nor would she reverse course. The owner tried lifting her to go back up to the Bierstadt summit where the descent was easier, but she was too heavy.

“At this point I made a decision that I never thought I would ever be faced with. I left her there so that my friend and I could get down, with intentions for calling Search and Rescue when we got down.”

Later in the day he called Search and Rescue, but they weren’t going to send a human crew up to save a dog, especially in that area. The next day the owner had to take a business trip and he assumed the dog was dead.

Six days later, some climbers ran into Missy, still barely alive. On a later post they described her as “having paws more like bloody ribbons of flesh and a case of dehydration so severe that her saliva was blue.” It was a miracle she was still alive. They tried to carry her down, but the terrain was too taxing. They bandaged her paws, left her with water and descended.

Unwilling to accept defeat, they logged into the 14ers.com forum for climbers and posted a picture of Missy as she lay on the rocks at 13,300 feet and asked anyone doing the climb to bring food and water for the dog. Another climber who saw the post had a gut reaction. “I knew I needed to do something, and I knew I had to do it right now.” That sure would have been my reaction if I had seen the posting.

He rounded up eight strong climbers. Armed with a GPS location from the earlier climber and a variety of oversized backpacks, they headed up to the summit of Mt. Bierstadt, a climb peaking at 14,264 feet and then descended the 900 feet of rocky terrain towards Sawtooth Ridge. That was day eight. They found Missy, still barely alive, nestled between the rocks, sheltered from the wind below the ridge.

The rescue team took 10-minute turns with the 112-pound dog on their back, climbing the 900 feet up the slippery, loose, sharp-rock slope to the summit of Mt. Bierstadt. The going was tough on the rocks, especially being top-heavy with Missy on their backs.

Missy was taken to an animal hospital where she stayed for two weeks under medical care, recuperating. The story of Missy became legendary in the local Colorado press.

Here is an excerpt from the Denver Post, September 2012:

The owner of a dog rescued from a Colorado fourteener last month after he had to abandon her to help a friend down the mountain has agreed to give the 5-year-old pooch to one of her rescuers.  The owner, 31, faced charges of animal cruelty for leaving his German shepherd/Rottweiler mix, Missy, behind on the saddle between Mt. Bierstadt and Mt. Evans.

Missy was stranded for eight days before rescuers found her bloodied and close to death on the ridge. Discussions leading to the plea bargain included talk of him giving the dog up but are not the reason for his surrendering the animal. “I don’t want to give her up, I love her, but those people risked life and limb to get her out of there and that has got to be worth something,” he said.

Dog or No Dog?

Here is my answer in the strongest possible terms. If someone plans to bring a dog on a hike, they must be prepared to care for that dog should she become injured, and if that means carrying her down the mountain for several miles, so be it. If committing to that is not possible, then leave her home. Taking a big dog up and down a severe rocky slope can cause paw cuts, rockslides, twisted, shredded or jammed legs, and then what? Who can carry a big dog other than an active-duty Navy Seal or an Ironman?

The lead rescuer wound up owning Missy, which was surely a wonderful and right outcome. The first thing he did was to rename her Lucky, and both he and the dog were lucky indeed.