Two frequently climbed 14,000+ foot mountains (known as 14ers) in Colorado are Mt. Evans and Mt. Bierstadt. They are both relatively easy (for a 14er) climbs on their own, both with Class II routes to the summit. A Class II route may not be an easy trail, you might occasionally have to put a hand out onto a rock for balance. Evans and Bierstadt share a saddle called the Sawtooth, which is a Class III route. Class III means that you will likely be using your hands, you probably won’t need ropes to climb it but it might be a good idea to have them with you.
On August 11 at about 7pm, a hiker named Scott Washburn made a post on the website 14ers.com, stating he and his wife Amanda were hiking the Sawtooth when they found an abandoned German Shepherd. The dog’s paws were cracked and covered in dried blood and the dog appeared dehydrated and gaunt. Despite giving the dog food and water and bandaging its paws, they were unable to convince her to walk down with them. The size of the dog (around 100 pounds) made it impossible for the couple to carry the dog down the Class III terrain on their own. The Washburns called the local Search and Rescue organization but were told that the services were for humans, not pets.
Another member of 14ers.com indicated that they had passed the dog accompanying two people on the Sawtooth on August 5. The commenter mentioned that the dog seemed to be in distress, was breathing hard and didn’t appear to be having a dog-friendly trip at all. Several people expressed disbelief that it was the same dog, since surviving for six days on an exposed mountainside would be quite difficult.
Within a few hours of the post, a team organized and were at the trailhead at 11:30 pm but were unsuccessful in finding the dog. Other hikers went up and looked for the dog on August 12 but were also unsuccessful.
The Washburns organized another search and rescue attempt on August 13. The rescuers left the trailhead at 5am, and despite hiking through a snowstorm, located the dog and brought her down that afternoon, using backpacks and litters.
Once the dog was off the Class III section of the hike (and possibly no longer being affected by altitude sickness), had some food and water and had booties put on her feet, she walked the rest of the way down by herself. The Washburns named the dog Lucky, and have expressed interest in adopting her.
I’ve seen mobilization quite quickly for missing people in the mountains; it’s not unusual to see this sort of fast response (and usually involving hundreds of people) from the 14ers.com members for a human. To see it for an abandoned dog was beautiful.
Some people are amazing. And then others are douchebags.
The day after Lucky was rescued, a man named Anthony Ortolani posted on 14ers.com claiming to be the owner of the dog. He confirmed that he was on the mountain with his dog on August 5, but had abandoned the dog when weather moved in because he felt responsible for getting his hiking partner down the mountain.
This is understandable. Human life is more valuable than animal life. Sometimes the best thing a hiker can do is just get down the mountain and save himself, especially in cases of extreme weather. Occasionally, even people get left on a mountain when the circumstances are dire enough.
What’s not understandable is what Ortolani did over the next several days, which is not a damned thing besides making one phone call to the sheriff’s office. Despite being aware of the 14ers.com website (he claimed to have checked the site looking for information regarding his dog) he didn’t make any posts asking for help finding his dog. He didn’t go back out and post pictures at the trailhead, didn’t ask any of his friends to go back out and post pictures. He didn’t go back up to try to find her, he didn’t send anyone else up to try to find her. He didn’t try to enlist any sort of aid in finding his dog.
And now this douchebag wants his dog back.
Criminal charges for animal cruelty were filed today against Anthony Ortolani. If I had a guess, he wouldn’t even be coming forward if the dog hadn’t been wearing a rabies tag and was therefore identifiable. I hope that common sense prevails and Lucky (yeah, I’m calling her by her new name – abandoned dogs don’t have to keep their former owner’s name) is put in the guardianship of the people who took the time and effort to carry her down the mountain and not returned to someone who didn’t care enough to even make a post on an Internet forum.
Hope the rescuers get to keep ‘im.
Been up both of those 14ers several times-it’s a GD crime for that asshole to not to have come back to try and find his pooch-I might have had to leave my dog to get someone down off a mountain but I sure as hell would have been right back up.
And as for climbing those mountains, fuck that shit yo, I was totally out of breath 50 feet from the car.
Gotta tell ya, when you’re on top of a 14er and are looking out at mountaintops 360, it’s goose pimply. Of course there are downsides, like you better be heading down by late morning because you can get your ass zapped or one time the gal I was doing one with got a touch of altitude sickness when she sat down, looked around and said, “There sure are a lot of rocks around here” Caught it on video too, hilarious.
I’ve only managed to make it up one (Gray’s). Couldn’t cross the saddle to Torrey’s, I started getting tunnel vision and walking funny and my hiking partner made me come down. I start getting ucky at about 12,500 feet, so the last mile or so of the hike ended up being…interesting. I’ve noticed this on lower elevation hikes too – for example, when I hiked Hallett Peak a few years ago, it took WAY longer to do that last slope than it should have.
Part of this is due to the fact that my cardio needs improvement, though. I’m a slow hiker, anyway, and that just gets compounded the higher I go. And then there’s the knees…. I still go, I still usually make it to where I’m going, but it takes much longer than, well, anyone.
I did those two in ~late Oct once with a nut. Deep, deep snow in spots and when we got down to the saddle, I said eff this, I’m going down and he effing convinced me I was a pussy and would never get laid again if we didn’t do them both. Oh man, it was brutal-no snow shoes, just hiking boots which got wet and I was in hypothermia, shivering like a mofo getting back to our truck-very dangerous not to listen to that little man inside your head. It’s a lesson that has served me well all these years when I’m up in the mountains, whether hunting or just hiking or camping, you better be prepared for the worst because Mom Nature is an unforgiving bitch.
Which reminds me, I have my tag for early Oct and am doing some range time with my rifle next week-life is good.
I swear, for every blessed birth of a normal human being there is the inevitable afterbirth of an utter crackwipe douchebag. The punishment for this guy should fit the crime.
There are people calling for Ortolani to be chained to a rock on the Sawtooth for eight days with no food. I think that’s a little extreme – after all, we’re human.
Bill Middleton (the forum owner at 14ers.com) just posted a message from the prosecuting attorney in the case. The attorney is a 14ers.com member.
The dog would not have left his human. Fuck that asshole. Humans suck. I include myself in that statement.
We don’t deserve dogs.
Or rather, dogs deserve a better class of people.
Vapi, baseless comments here.
You fools sound like Democritters. You know very few of the facts other than those posted by notoriously wrong mainstream media and rumors circulating on the interwebs. News organizations sell pumped, hyped content to sell their brand.
Most all of you want to crucify the dog owner. How the fuck do you know if he knew about the 14 org? Could have read about it AFTER the fucking rescue had been made.
How long is one supposed to stay in a snowstorm with a dog that obciously didn’t want to come off the mountain. Would you risk your wife, girlfriend, companion for a do you couldn’t coach off the mountain?
You say “He should’a mounted a rescue op”. He called the sheriff asking for search and rescue to help get the dog. He was told, “tough shit buddy, we only do people”. Well why didn’t he go back later an get the dog? HELLOOOO, the mountain was under a blizzrd for 5 fucking days.
Peop[le aren’t the most brilliant when it comes to these things. Just like most of you who jump to conclusions that you know the facts. I predict the Prosecutor won’t get a guilty as the guy did all he had to do by law.
Idiots
What about the three rescue attempts by strangers? The ass called the sheriff and then went home.
If I lost my dog I would not just do the minimum required by law as you zeem to think isok.
Just another person not worthy of a dog. I suggest you get a cat. They will think about as highly of you as you deserve.
We know that Ortolani was aware of the 14ers.com website because he said in one of his posts that he had been checking it for news of his dog.
Bierstadt and Evans weren’t under a 5-day blizzard. Hundreds of people hiked up at night between the 10th and the 12th to watch the meteor showers. Hundreds of people did *not* hike up to go backcountry skiing, which would have been the case if a massive blizzard had hit.
It wasn’t snowing the day Ortolani abandoned his dog; there are trip reports posted by other hikers before the dog was found that indicate that the weather was cloudy but did not rain that day.
At any rate, I clearly explained that the issue is not that Ortolani left his dog there; anyone can get in over their heads and need to bail. The inexcusable inhumanity here is that he never went back for his dog, never even bothered posting a ‘missing’ sign.
I’ve been on the Sawtooth, many years ago. It was mid-summer and it started snowing. I was just wearing shorts and a tee shirt and had no gear whatsoever. Dumb kid. Coulda killed myself. I had to keep moving on the descent to avoid hypothermia.