Athletic dog befriends expedition team, scales 20,000-ft peak in Nepal with them

New Delhi: In a tale that will warm the hearts of all dog lovers, a Nepalese stray dog first befriended a mountaineering expedition group and then followed them to the top of a 23,389-feet high Himalayan peak, possibly becoming the first-ever canine to complete the feat. US resident Don Wargowsky was leading a group of mountaineers from the Kathmandu-based Summit Climb when they found the dog, named Mera, according to media reports.

A special dog indeed

"They'd never seen anything like this happen. They said she was a special dog, that she brought luck to the expedition. Some even thought she was blessed," Wargowsky said.

The dog, most likely a cross between a Tibetan mastiff and Himalayan sheepdog, scaled the summit of Baruntse in Nepal without any assistance and was still running once she had reached the top.

While descending the peak, the group came across the dog. She became best friends with mountaineer Don Wargowsky, and spent the next three weeks scaling the Baruntse with him and his group.

On November 9 last year, Mera became the first of her kind to scale the summit of Baruntse, Outside magazine reported.

Never come across dogs scaling a peak in Nepal

"I am not aware of a dog actually summiting an expedition peak in Nepal," says Billi Bierling of the Himalayan Database, an organisation that documents climbing expeditions in Nepal.