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Also muzzle is packed

I STRONGLY suggest that you contact the sheriff and Alpine Rescue and let the professionals handle this. No one has indicated that they have the equipment or training to safely perform a scree/litter evac. The good nature of everyone's willingness to help is admirable but please let the pros handle this and not risk putting more people and rescuers in danger.

The OP's trip report indicated they had contacted several agencies for assistance, and had been turned down by all of the them. However, no specifics were given as to which agencies.

Posted on the TR:

wash
Update: August 11th at 11pm 2012-08-11 23:00:06
Many thanks to Brandon who has organized a few guys to head up tonight and try to find the dog and bring her out. If you would like to join them they will be meeting at the Guanella Pass trailhead at 11:30pm.
I'll post an update in the morning. Hopefully they are successful but if not we'll try again tomorrow morning.

Again, those of you climbing the Sawtooth at midnight are absolutely f***ing insane. But to add clarity and streamline your haphazard "what do we do what do we do what do we do" rescue efforts, there you go. Stay safe, hope you all return no worse for wear.

ChrisRoberts wrote:Posted on the TR:

wash
Update: August 11th at 11pm 2012-08-11 23:00:06
Many thanks to Brandon who has organized a few guys to head up tonight and try to find the dog and bring her out. If you would like to join them they will be meeting at the Guanella Pass trailhead at 11:30pm.
I'll post an update in the morning. Hopefully they are successful but if not we'll try again tomorrow morning.

Again, those of you climbing the Sawtooth at midnight are absolutely f***ing insane. But to add clarity and streamline your haphazard "what do we do what do we do what do we do" rescue efforts, there you go. Stay safe, hope you all return no worse for wear.

Sorry to say I am with Chris. Climbing Sawtooth, finding an 80 pound injured and "Uncooperative Dog" make for enough challenges without compounding with the cover of night. Just sayin'

Wow! Please lets us know what happens with the rescue. Good luck and be safe guys.

Hope all goes well out there, stay safe guys.

I hate hearing about these situations. I love dogs, and wouldn't ever leave my dog behind on a mountain. Doing so just simply isn't an option; if I get her into a situation it's my job to get her out of it. Unfortunately it seems like we have weird cases like these on here every couple of months or so (any of you remember the infamous Dexter debacle from a few years back? -- another example of a person abandoning their dog after putting their pup in a bad spot. Dexter had a rough experience thanks to that ordeal).

As for the rescue efforts that are unfolding for this situation, I applaud the sincerity of the efforts you guys are making. I've gone searching for the lost dogs on here before, and I'm glad others care enough to look, too.

Going at night does seem a bit foolish, at least from a practical standpoint. I'm not going to say that you can't do the climb at night with a reasonable degree of safety, since I've been on a lot of mountains in the dark. But, finding a dog in a scree field in the dark is almost the definition of looking for a needle in a haystack. It seems like a rescue effort during daylight hours would be much more effective.

As for the local SAR groups, I'm not really surprised to hear that these groups aren't organizing an effort for a dog that was spotted in an unknown predicament. They don't really serve an animal control function as much as they serve a rescue function for humans who are in life threatening situations. Even in the city where I work animal control won't respond to our requests (as law enforcement officers) on at-large dogs in highway traffic, unless the dog is already seriously injured or attacking people.

Just a quick question (since maybe I'm missing some info here) but based on the photo given on the location, why wouldn't people be trying to come from the Mount Evans Rd instead of Guanella? The distance would be MUCH less, with no class 3 to worry about. Only issues would be the annoying scree coming down from the road, and the large talus between the location of the dog and abyss lake.

Guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't think one would have to cross Bierstadt or any of the sawtooth to reach the point.

Again..just curious.

To reply to, but not necessarily answer, Derek's question: I have done the Sawtooth and have downclimbed from Mt. Evans Road to the Abyss Lake valley. I have not climbed from Abyss Lake to where the dog was seen, but I've read a few trip reports of people who have and said it is miserable. Based on all of that, my thought is that going down to Abyss Lake, across the Abyss Lake valley, and up the scree gulley to Mt. Evans Road would be of equal or worse difficulty than going back up the scree to Bierstadt's summit. I had mentioned this in a previous post on this thread, figuring others (hopefully with more experience in the area) would comment on which would be a better route, but nobody did.

I do not think this is fake. My guess would be that the OP just hadn't joined the site yet. I think a lot of user utilize 14ers without saying or posting much. Maybe this was a good time to join. I don't think they would stage a picture of a dog with his paws wrapped up.

It would probably be easy enough to figure out if this was a hoax simply by calling the phone number in the original post. I'm not the least bit surprised that the dog wasn't found during a night search on a mountain.