Feel good story out of Utah where Weber County Search & Rescue teams were able to reunite a family with their dog after it became stuck overnight on Christmas Eve above a frozen waterfall.
KSL reports search and rescue teams received a call around 1 p.m. on Christmas Day about the dog that had spent the night in Waterfall Canyon.
A local man had been hiking on Christmas Eve with his dog Nala when the two became separated. After searching for hours and being unable to recover her, the man went home, returning early the next day to continue looking.
By early afternoon on Christmas Day, the man’s family grew concerned because he wasn’t answering texts or calls due to poor coverage in the area. They did eventually get a hold of him but the sheriff’s office dispatched a 4 person climbing team to assist.
When team made contact with the dog owner at the base of the waterfall, they found the man had suffered frostbite on his fingertips. The man alerted the team he located his lost dog at the top of the waterfall but was unable to reach her due to the steep and dangerous icy terrain.
Two team members were left with the man to attend to his medical needs, while the other two trekked the mountain where Nala had been located by drone footage. The drone ended up being critical to the rescue as it provided a bird’s eye view of a safe route for the rescuers to take.
When they finally reached Nala the dog was cold and had suffered a few minor injuries but was but was able to hike down with the rescuers. In all, the operation took about seven hours. Search and rescue teams typically don’t go after animals but in this case a person was putting themselves at risk to save their pet.
Tip of the cap to the fine folks at Weber County Search & Rescue. Cheers!
