Mt. Bierstadt is less than a day’s hike, so there’s no need to prepare for an overnighter. You encounter bad weather, you go down. But I guess hindsight is perfect for the chest thumpers here.
From the same article:
Anthony Ortalani made immediate contact with the Sheriff’s office asking for help with rescuing his dog.
Response:
The sheriff’s department also has a rescue team, and other hikers told them about Missy being stranded on Mount Bierstadt during the weekend. However, the rescue team was unable to respond because it is solely reserved for human rescues.
“We can’t specifically send a rescue effort for a dog,” Safe said. “We have a designated rescue team. In the last two weeks we have had six rescues, one a day on the weekends, for people. It is tough terrain out there.”
So what? He sat on his butt for 8 days, whining about his “blisters” while his dog was suffering and slowly dying. It was HIS responsibility.
“in the last 2 weeks we have had 6 rescues. It is tough terrain out there.”
This doesn’t sound like a hindsight issue to me. Anything can happen when climbing...broken bones, getting lost, etc. Going unprepared is just not a good idea. I don’t even go on a road trip without “emergency” provisions. And even more so if I take my dogs along. They are my responsibilty.
It really wasn’t the Sherriff’s office responsibility. He took the dog with him. He hiked up that mountain with the dog. It was his responsibilty to get her back down. He could have hiked his happy rear end back up there to verify she was indeed dead or save her. She was immobile. She would have been close to where she was left.
So this chest thumper would have had serious doubts about how he would treat me in a similar situation.
I do salute your bravery in this post on this thread. The guy is a few fries short of a happy meal and someone needs to take up for his poor judgement.
The stupid bastard got up there himself once, he could’ve done it again.
He made the choice to travel “rough terrain”, the dog did not.
It went where it was taken.
That makes him solely, entirely and irrevocably responsible for what happened to the dog.
He doesn’t deserve to own a pet maggot.
Stop making excuses for the inexcusable.