Dramatic dog rescue

It was a bad Saturday at Snoqualmie Pass near Seattle. Two separate avalanches involved over half-a-dozen snowshoers. 2 are dead, one of whom is still missing. Several injuries and very narrow escapes. The SAR heroes were busy.

One of the dead was a solo hiker whose dog apparently alerted a nearby party -- also caught in the avalanche -- and they somehow managed to find her under 5 feet of snow and dig her out. This took 45 minutes. She was alive, but perished during the evacuation. During all this confusion, the dog went missing.

Next day, Sunday, was much better weather. A group of hikers was told about the missing dog by sherriff's personnel at the trailhead. Late in the day, someone thought they heard a dog barking in the distance. Without hesitation at the end of a long day, they followed the rescue trail to Red Mountain and rescued Blue, who'd spent a cold, hungry, forlorn and presumably terrifying night without his best friend.

The spectacle of strangers rescuing a stranger in distress is heroic, yet sort of expected when it's a human. When it's "just" a dog, it's simply gratuitous, and no less heroic.

If you look at the map in this trip report, you'll see that they went a long ways out of their way to do this:

Rescue of "Blue"

[Disclaimer: I lifted these photos without notification or consent from nwhikers.net; I presume they won't mind.]

Their first sighting of Blue:

The rescue team:

The "Blue" rescue team!

A small comfort after a tragedy:

These are very popular hikes an hour from Seattle; many of the photos posted on Al & Gwynnie's page were taken there. This hits me hard, because Joy was obviously a kindred spirit. I looked at her blog, and she and Blue had done a lot of the same things I've done with Gwynn & Al.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on April 16, 2013 at 3:51pm

So very sad but glad that at least Blue survived. I thought of you, John, when I saw this news story. So glad you are safe!

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on April 16, 2013 at 6:00pm

WOW...gave me goosebumps!

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Permalink Reply by Linda on April 16, 2013 at 7:01pm

Very sad but I am glad they rescued Blue.

I think many people will do whatever they can to help "just a dog." How many stories have we heard of firemen going in and bringing a dog or cat, how the EMTs will preform life saving measures on the animal. And it's not just professionals that will go that extra mile..I truly think most people are kind and caring and will do whatever they can to help an animal in distress.