In October, hiker Joe Berman, accompanied by his wife and stepdaughter, spent roughly three hours on Shadow Mountain in Phoenix helping to rescue an injured white dog named Milo from the summit after navigating treacherous terrain in near-darkness.

The three-person party reached the exposed ridge and found Milo — a white dog with an injured front leg — but initial attempts to approach were frustrated by the animal’s fear and aggression. “Yes, this is the same dog that was injured, had been growling at me, and wouldn’t let me get near it,” Berman recalled in a first-person account published by Outside Magazine.

Berman described the slope as unstable and dangerous. He told reporters the surface was crumbling and that the ground was “muddy and slick underneath the loose rocks from recent rainfall,” conditions that compounded the difficulty of the rescue and forced the party to move cautiously. He also said the slope offered “no real footing,” a factor that slowed every step and made it difficult for anyone on the ridge to position themselves safely to assist the animal.

After the initial, tense encounter, Berman and his family contacted authorities. He said he called police and reached out to non-emergency municipal lines and animal control to request assistance. A local no-kill shelter was unable to provide immediate help, according to Berman, and he waited on the summit while responders were alerted. Park rangers and mountain rescue teams ultimately joined the response, and local outlets reported firefighters and other rescue personnel also became involved.

The rescue unfolded as a coordinated, multi-agency effort under difficult conditions. Berman and his family remained with the dog on the exposed ridge while waiting for professional responders to arrive. At one point during the ordeal, he said he questioned his own decision to stay on the summit: “What in the hell am I doing here, and why am I doing this?” That reflection captured the strain the small party felt as they balanced concern for the injured animal with the realities of unstable terrain and fading light.

When mountain rescue personnel, park rangers and other responders arrived, they worked deliberately across the slick, loose rock to reach and secure Milo. The combined efforts of trained rescuers and the three hikers took time because each move required ensuring that neither people nor the dog slipped on the treacherous surface. Moving under cover of darkness and over shifting rock, the teams prioritized steadying the dog and creating a safe path off the ridge.

After roughly three hours on the mountain, those efforts succeeded. Milo was carried or escorted off the summit and transported down the trail, where a small crowd had gathered at the trailhead. The reunion with his owners was visible and immediate relief was noted by those on scene; local accounts described the moment as emotional for rescuers, the hiking party and Milo’s family.

The first-person account of the incident appears in Outside Magazine, and multiple local news outlets covered the involvement of park rangers, mountain rescue teams and firefighters in the operation. According to those reports and Berman’s retelling, Milo’s outcome was positive: the white dog with the injured front leg was returned to his owners after the multi-hour effort on Shadow Mountain.

Source

Original reporting: view the original article.