A three-year-old cocker spaniel has been rescued after spending a freezing night alone on a Scottish Highlands mountainside, following a fall through an overhanging snow ledge. Aggie went missing on Fionn Bheinn near Achnasheen on Sunday when a group of walkers and dogs plunged through a cornice close to the 933-metre munro's summit.
While the hillwalkers and most of the dogs descended safely, Aggie remained missing despite an initial search, prompting fears for her survival in temperatures that fell below minus 10C with wind chill. She was found on Monday curled into a ball on an exposed corrie, alive and well but “a little cold”.
Three members of the Dundonnell Mountain Rescue team volunteered to return to the mountain in their own time, aided by a local deer stalker who transported them up the hill. The team said in a social media post: “Monday morning three team members gave up their free time and turned out not as mountain rescuers but as pet owners to help the dogs owners search for the missing pup.”
Iain Nesbitt, the team’s leader, said the rescuers could not bear the thought of Aggie being left behind. “You’ve got a horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach, it’s like you’ve left a member of your family there,” he told the Press Association. Conditions on the corrie overnight were “very wintery” with whiteout, he added.
Aggie was located about 10 metres from the ridge where the group fell. She had curled up and was “just sitting waiting”, though she bit the rescuer who reached her first. Mr Nesbitt said: “It’s always amazing how resilient dogs are, they go into survival mode,” and described the fall as a “freak accident”.
