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Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.

This story has disturbed me so deeply that I am trying to put it to rest in my feeble little mind. You have helped me a lot. My initial impression of this guy was that he wasn’t too bright. Not only should he not have taken his dog, but it seems to me he shouldn’t have been there either. He probably didn’t know what the heck he was doing. Maybe fear of another climb added to his ignorance about going back. That really makes no excuse for his poor judgement on all fronts. He really doesn’t need to have a pet at all. After all, he’s not 12...he’s 30.

The dog is ok thanks to a lot of brave climbers and I will try to quit wrestling with the why. Thanks for letting me get a glimpse into the mind of a climber. (as well as a dog lover) I will now let you enjoy the rest of your Sunday without incessant questions. :)

BTW, The Diamond looks really lethal. Be careful, it’s a jungle out there. :)

Well, he probably was playing it safe in bailing out when he did. You generally want to be below treeline by noon in Colorado in July and August so you don't face the threat of lightning strikes from pop-up summer thunderstorms. I've turned around on a hike when I saw thunderheads starting to build earlier than expected. If you are going to climb a long 14er hike like Longs Peak, you typically start at 4am in the morning so you can reach the top by 10am and get back down below treeline by noon.

But the Catch-22 is that he was delayed because he was having so much trouble getting his dog across the Sawtooth. If he was smart, he would have realized pretty quickly that it wasn't going well and retreated back to Bierstadt and back down the good trail. Instead, he went all the way to the low point of the Sawtooth, where he faced a climb back up to either Bierstadt or Mt. Evans, or a scramble down steep rocky terrain with an already-injured dog.