Monday, February 19, 2007

My Way News - Rescuer Credits Dog With Saving Climbers

My Way News - Rescuer Credits Dog With Saving Climbers: "Three climbers who tumbled off a ledge on Mount Hood were taken away in an ambulance after they hiked down much of 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.
One of the women, whose name was not released, was taken to a Portland hospital and being treated for a head injury, said Jim Strovink, spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department.
'She's going to be fine,' he said, noting that she had walked most of the way down the mountain.

(AP) Lt. Nick Watt, with Clackamas County Sheriff's office, left, announces at Timberline Lodge near...
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Two others, Matty Bryant, 34, a teacher in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, and Kate Hanlon, 34, a teacher in the suburb of Wilsonville, were taken to Timberline Lodge on the mountain to rejoin five other members of the climbing party, he said.
Rescuers using an electronic locating device found the three climbers and their black Labrador, Velvet, on Monday morning in the White River Canyon, where they had holed up overnight at about 7,400 feet, officials said. The crew hiked with them down the east flank of the 11,239-foot mountain; on the way down, the climbers got into a tracked snow vehicle that took them to the ambulance.
'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.'"

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