A backcountry ski outing turned into a harrowing experience when an avalanche broke out and a beloved family pet was almost lost. Incredible GoPro footage captured the remarkable rescue.
Published Jan. 5, 2022 12:00 PM MST | Updated Jan. 5, 2022 12:00 PM MST
Bobby White and Josh Trujillo were skiing at Berthoud Pass in Colorado the day after Christmas when they saw an explosion of snow.
"We were skiing more mellow terrain where the slopes aren’t steep enough to slide when we witnessed a large avalanche on a different slope around 1,500 feet from us," White told Reuters.
The men, both 22, are students at the Colorado School of Mines. As White rushed to put his splitboard back together, Trujillo skied over to the avalanche debris to see if another group of skiers needed help. As the men told ABC News, the avalanche was about 300 yards long and 50 yards wide.
Trujillo found that everyone in the second group was OK except for a dog, Apollo, who had been swept away and buried in the snow. The dog's owner, Scott Shepherd, a 42-year-old father of three, said his group, along with his dog, had accidentally veered off course. The 2-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever ran away from the owner, triggering the avalanche. The dog was swept over the cliff and through the trees.
Recorded on Bobby White's headcam, Josh Trujillo and an anonymous Good Samaritan rescue Apollo from an avalanche on Dec. 26 at Berthoud Pass in Colorado. (Reuters)
"He started moving, and he just looked confused like, 'Why am I sliding down the hill?' And then he was just gone," Shepherd told ABC News.
Shepherd frantically climbed to where he last saw his dog and began to search. That's when the two students found him and jumped into action to help.
"Needle in a haystack," White is heard shouting in the helmet video that recorded the desperate search. "Where did you see him last?" he yelled to Shepherd, who was also searching a different part of the debris field.
"Way at the top," Shepherd shouted back.
The men quickly and carefully moved along the avalanche, striking their 8-foot probe poles through the snow hoping to find the buried dog even though they were well aware of how dangerous the terrain was.
The dog's snout is barely protruding from the snow. (Reuters)
"We searched for about 20 minutes," White said, "which is around the time that chance of survival starts to become very slim."
According to the Utah Avalanche Center, 93% of avalanche victims can be recovered alive if they are dug out within the first 15 minutes. Chances of survival drop significantly after that amount of time.
"I think we need to get out of here," White can be heard telling Trujillo in the helmet video. "That dog is dead. This is why I don't like dogs in avalanche terrain to begin with. We're all like probing underneath the worst avalanche terrain in Berthoud right now."
As Trujillo was packing up to leave, he spotted something sticking out of the snow. It was the tip of Apollo's snout. The snow had melted enough to allow the dog to breathe.
"I found him! I found him, I found him, I found him!" he shouted. "I can see him. He's still alive!"
Apollo was rescued from an avalanche by two students skiing on Bethoud Pass in Colorado on Dec. 26, 2021. (Colorado Avalanche Information Center)
The two men were joined by an anonymous good Samaritan, and after a minute of frenzied digging, the dog wiggled free and emerged from the depths of the snow with no signs of trauma other than an injured leg. Apollo immediately ran to his owner who is heard shouting happily off-camera.
Shepherd thanked the two men profusely and called them heroes.
"There's no way I would have found him in time to get him out there because I was still way up the slope, making my way around," Shepherd told ABC News. "I think they saved his life, and I can never be grateful enough for that."
Shepherd also says he takes full responsibility for the close call.
"I feel like I got kind of got away with something that has such a huge lesson without huge consequences," Shepherd said. "He could have been lost forever ... Everybody knows that [backcountry skiing] is dangerous and everybody takes precautions. But just realizing how one stupid little mistake could have drastic consequences, it kind of drives it home," Shepherd continued. "It doesn't take much to steer off the course from safety to disaster."
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