If you’re going to be an idiot …
By Gina Spadafori
February 19, 2007
… and hike where no sane person ventures, be sure to take your dog:
GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. – Three climbers who tumbled off a ledge on Mount Hood were taken away in an ambulance after they hiked down much the state’s highest peak with their rescuers — and a dog who may have saved their lives.
“We’re soaking wet and freezing,” said one of two rescued women as she walked from a tracked snow vehicle to an ambulance. Authorities have not released their names, and it was unclear where the ambulance was taking them.
Rescuers using an electronic locating device found the three climbers and their black Labrador, Velvet, in the White River Canyon on Monday morning, where they had holed up overnight at about 7,400 feet, officials said.
The crew then hiked down the 11,239-foot mountain, Oregon’s highest, with the climbers. Lower down, they climbed aboard the vehicle.
“The dog probably saved their lives” by lying across them during the cold night, said Erik Brom, a member of the Portland Mountain Rescue team. He described the wind in the canyon as “hellacious.
Way to go, Velvet!
