Dog rescued on Mt. Bierstadt

I need to know the name of the vet clinic that Missy is at so I can go see her and re-reimburse them for helping her, and if I am fortunate enough, to bring her home.

I am at a complete loss of words. My gratitude for the people involved in this is without measure.

Missy was hurt during an attempt at crossing the Sawtooth. It was Missy, a friend and I. Her paws got bloodied up right in the belly of the sawtooth. I was assisting her with the climb using ropes and a harness for a while but she kept getting hurt worse. A few kind hikers stopped and offered some assistance but incoming weather pushed people off of the saddle. My friend and I realized that we could not get Missy up the saddle to Evans or Bierstadt safely so we decided to bail off of the saddle into the valley between the two mountains to escape the incoming clouds. We were lowering her for a while with ropes from boulder to boulder but she was hurting herself worse against the rocks sprawling out and catching them with her legs. Eventually she just stopped standing or moving at all and I knew she was pretty badly hurt. I picked her up on my shoulders and was hopping from boulder to boulder but I couldn't keep her on me. I dropped her once and I almost fell once too and I realized that I couldn't carry her off of the mountain. At this point I made the decision that I honestly never thought I would even be faced with. I left her there so that my friend and I could get down safely with intentions of calling S&R when we were off of the mountian. We both spent about two hours trying to move her up and down the mountain and were pretty exhausted. Neither one of us wanted to hike up the saddle with the cloud cover growing so we continued down into the valley and hiked back to Guanella Pass Rd. It was a lot farther than we thought it would be, and we got lost several times. A group of hunters showed us the way out and gave us a ride back to our car. Thank you to them as well.

I called the 911, the sheriffs office and search and rescue and I was told that it was to risky for them to send rescue crew up there for a dog, which was upsetting but understandable. I'll admit that while trying to get off of the the mountain I was not as concerned because I was focused on making it safely off of the mountain, but once I was safely at my car I was overwhelmed with the loss, and the decision to leave her there. The next couple of days was absolutely horrible wondering about her, if she was alive, or if she died. Thinking about her suffering was awful beyond words. Many confidants comforted me by saying that she was probably gone from injury. All I can say is that I am relieved that she is okay, I am ashamed that it was not me that started this thread, I am ashamed that it wasn't me who got her off of the mountain, I underestimated the good will and resolve of the hiking community of Colorado, and I am eternally grateful to all of you and to 9news. I humbly beg the forgiveness of the community and most of all my Missy Girl. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.Top --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

aortolani14 ProfilePrivate messageE-mail aortolani1414er Peak List Not Entered Posts: 20 Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 4:05 amReport this postReply with quoteRe: Dog Found: Mt. Bierstadt! by aortolani14 » Tue Aug 14, 2012 5:13 am

I am reading through all of these threads, and I am just in awe of how heroic and amazing everyone is that did this. I also see all of the anger and hatred towards me and the decision that I made. I feel that I deserve it all. I made it in a panic to be sure, and what I felt was a survival situation. I didn't think to post on 14er's.com to ask for everyone to come fix my colossal mistake in judgement. It is truly amazing that all of you did it on your own. I don't have proper words. It was several days before I would have even been able to even think of walking back up Bierstadt much less into the sawtooth and to try and carry Missy out, and after that I just thought it would be to late. I honestly never thought that I could just ask strangers to go check the sawtooth and carry my 112lb German Shepard out. I don't know what to say. Thank you again to the community, and to those who are angry I am so so sorry. Missy has done 6 14'ers and she loves being out there in the mountains. She depends on me to make smart choices, and taking her into the sawtooth was beyond foolish.

Yes, 14er refers to both the mountains in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet in elevation and also refers to a loosely-affiliated group of people that hike them often. There is no direct correlation of 14er to difficulty (unless you are not used to the altitude) - this link - http://www.14ers.com/routes_2.php - sorts them by difficulty of climbing them. The most difficult ones may require some technical climbing with ropes. Also, there can be different routes - Longs Peak the easy way is still a long, strenouus hike, but if you climb the sheer east face known as the Diamond, you have some bigwall climbing to do at altitude.

Missy probably had previously been on Class 2 14er climbs that were all trail, there are many of those. But that might have been when she was younger as well. 10 years old is starting to get up there for a dog, and from the report from the rescuer that someone posted, her pads were not toughened up. A dog is like a human - if you don’t exercise it, it gets out of shape, and you just can’t drag it across Sawtooth without conditioning it first - and especially an older dog. The guy was probably just a self-centered idiot who was more driven to hike the route he wanted instead of noticing that the dog was not up to it.

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. :)

Sorry late on this story - went out of town, then got sick. Haven't been on computer since Monday.

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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.

I don’t see how this guy is being prosecuted. I also don’t understand how they can take his dog away.

Hindsight is 20/20. He made a heartbreaking decision, but he had no way of knowing that a rescue team would be willing to spend nine hours to rescue his dog.

I don’t see how this guy is being prosecuted. I also don’t understand how they can take his dog away.

Hindsight is 20/20. He made a heartbreaking decision, but he had no way of knowing that a rescue team would be willing to spend nine hours to rescue his dog.

http://www.bullwrinkle.com/Assets/animallaws/coloradolaw.htm

Certain parts of 1(a) and 1 (b).

The original decision was both probably heartbreaking and necessary to save human life. The mistake he made, IMHO, was not going back to help her. By himself or with a hired party if he didn’t feel he could get her off of the mountain himself. (well, actually the first mistake was to take her there in the first place, as he admitted in the OP.)

If you haven’t done so already, you may want to read the whole thread. There is some really good info about this situation, especially from the “climbers” on the thread.

I read the thread.

I’m not a climber, but I am a dog lover. It sounds like this guy overestimated the dog’s and his own abilities. The rescue was a nine hour ordeal was it not? Was he afraid to go back given the difficulty he encountered the first time?

Was he a hero? No. Maybe even a coward. Maybe too passive and resigned. Maybe he gave up too easily.

But in the real world of animal neglect, terrible neglect, abuse and abandonment for no reason, neglect that is never pursued by the law. this guy is a saint. And if people, these hikers, are so dying to help a neglected dog I can give them a thousand needier ones.

Your initial post to which I responded asked how/why this guy was being prosecuted. My intent was only to share the laws in Colorado with you.

We could debate the animal neglect issue, and the severity of same, till the cows come home. I’m not sure what state you live in, but around here if animal abuse is reported the law does get involved. The animals are seized and fines imposed. In extreme cases (deliberate mutilation, etc.) there are usually rewards offered to catch perp. If caught and tried, they usually spend prison time if found guilty. It’s pretty serious business. Of course not all abuse is reported and willing individuals or no kill shelters are involved. And, since I don’t live in a bubble, I know that many slip thru the cracks and die.

“If these hikers are so dying to help a neglected dog...”

Actually, these guys are more than “hikers”. There is a post on this thread that YouTubes where the dog was found. Also, somewhere upthread someone posted a reply from one of the rescuers from the 14ers thread. He stated that he does dog rescue. I don’t think that he meant just rescuing dogs close to death on the top of a mountain. That is a pretty rare event. I guess that is why it made national news.

I don’t know any of these folks personally but it could be they all do animal rescue work in their everyday lives in everyday situations. Which would make them one of us. :)

Thanks for your response.

If they do animal rescue they should know how bad it is out there. What is the euthanasia rate in Colorado?

I found this statistic for 2009 —

11,354 of rescued dogs euthanized.

http://www.colovma.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=49

There is no evidence that this man was a bad owner other than this traumatic and unusual event. This is a waste of resources that would be better spent pursuing, for example, dog fighting.

I think anyone could make the argument that taking a dog on any climb involving ropes is unfair and foolish and borders on abuse in the first instance. That the dogs may “love it” means nothing. There are dogs who love dog fighting and roaming the streets free.

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