A four-year-old poodle-husky mix has been rescued after spending around 50 hours alone in Alaska’s snowy wilderness following an avalanche that left two mountaineers seriously injured.
The dog, named LouLou, was accompanying the experienced climbers in Chugach State Park on October 10 when an avalanche swept the men about 500 feet down a mountain ridge, according to Scripps News.
Both survived and were taken to hospital, but LouLou disappeared.
Search coordinated from thousands of miles away
According to People, Lauren Padawer, whose boyfriend Brian was one of the injured climbers, was overseas celebrating her father’s 80th birthday when she learnt about the accident.
Brian suffered a broken jaw and a severe hand injury, while his climbing partner sustained three broken ribs and a fractured vertebra.
Unable to join the search herself, Padawer contacted local rescue organisations, hiking groups and dozens of individuals, hoping someone could locate LouLou.
“I just wanted to exhaust every resource I had and only give up [knowing] I did everything I could do,” she told People.
More than 20 volunteers joined the search, including a scent-detection dog. LouLou was wearing an Apple AirTag, but its first estimated location was nearly half a mile off, complicating efforts in the rugged terrain.
“On an ordinary map, that might not seem enormous. In the rugged Chugach Mountains, half a mile can mean an entirely different ridge, drainage, or mountainside especially with rapidly shifting and intermittently stormy weather,” Padawer wrote.
{{/usCountry}}“On an ordinary map, that might not seem enormous. In the rugged Chugach Mountains, half a mile can mean an entirely different ridge, drainage, or mountainside especially with rapidly shifting and intermittently stormy weather,” Padawer wrote.
{{/usCountry}}AirTag signal leads rescuers to LouLou
Pilots Amanda Barker and Dave Beckett detected another AirTag signal during an aerial search. Padawer, working remotely, compared satellite images with maps to narrow down the location.
After roughly 50 hours, the pilots found LouLou alive on the mountainside and brought her to safety.
“I was shocked!” Padawer told People about seeing a photograph after the rescue. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was too good to be true. I cried.”
LouLou appeared to have broken a toe and a canine tooth, but was otherwise recovering well at home.
“She’s amazing,” Padawer said. “She’s enjoying the couch and naps. Otherwise back to normal.”
Padawer believes LouLou’s thick coat, fondness for sleeping outdoors and experience on mountain trails helped her endure the cold.
She credited Barker and Beckett for the successful rescue, calling them “the heroes of LouLou’s rescue.”