Missing for Over 20 Minutes, College Students Find and Rescue Dog Buried by Avalanche

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.

by Top Retriever · 8 January

Surviving a 20 minute burial

Even a strong young dog is no match for an avalanche. Skier Scott Shepherd learned that in the hardest way when his 2-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever Apollo got separated from him in the Berthoud Pass area in Colorado. Shepherd’s group had veered off course, and Apollo ran away from the owner above a steep, rocky slope, triggered the avalanche and was swept over the cliff and through several trees before disappearing into the sea of snow.

Fortunately for both Shepherd and Apollo, college students Bobby White and Josh Trujillo were backcountry skiing not too far away. They had witnessed the avalanche, and White even caught the aftermath on tape via a GoPro camera. Once they realized there were no buried humans, their search for the dog began. They scanned the area for 20 minutes following the avalanche, using probe poles, which are typically around 8-feet-long, they poked through the snow hoping to strike the buried dog. The snow covered a field 300 yards long and 50 yards wide. So, naturally, after a while, the skiers were pessimistic, with White even saying on film: “I think we need to get out of here. That dog’s dead, this is why I don’t like dogs in avalanche terrain to begin with.”

That must have been the most stressful 20-minutes of these guys’ lives

But in the midst of their acknowledgment that Apollo couldn’t have made it, Trujillo’s keen eye suddenly spotted something. White’s GoPro video captured Trujillo standing a few yards back as he saw a dog’s nose sticking out of the snow.“I found him! I found him, I found him, I found him!” he shouts. “I can see him. He’s still alive.” Trujillo declares in the footage. It took several minutes and a few tools for the group to dig the dog out. White talked to him as they worked, trying to calm him. Trujillo yells up to Shepherd, and the two begin vigorously digging. A third passerby appears, having heard the commotion, and starts digging, too.After the group shoveled enough snow away from the dog, Apollo was able to climb out and eagerly ran to Shepherd’s side as his dad caught up with the students. The fact that he was discovered, let alone pulled from the snow unharmed, is nothing short of a miracle. Watch the video, thank goodness this clip has a happy ending, or else I’d be sitting in a pool of tears. These students are real heroes!