Climbing without a licence

The venue for this extraordinary event was Mera Peak and Baruantse in Nepal’s Himalayas; it was November 9th 2018, when the dog made history. She was a Nepalese street dog reckoned to be a cross between a Tibetan Mastiff and a Himalayan Sheepdog. She was not a large dog, around 45 lbs (20.4 kg), short-coated, black, with a yellow tinge in places and floppy ears. Baruantse is a mountain that lies close to Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. Because of its close proximity to Everest, it is often ignored, but it is still a serious climb.

At the time, she had no name, so initially she was called Mera in honour of the mountain that she was climbing, but this was to change later when she was adopted. Before we continue, it must be stressed that at no stage was Mera forced to participate in the climb. In fact, every effort was used to discourage her participation, but she became distressed at being left behind and, on one occasion, actually chewed through the rope that restrained her.

An uninvited expedition member

Don Wargowsky was the mountain guide leading an expedition in the Himalayas and, on the route, collected this additional member of the group. The irrepressible Mera. What possessed this stray to join the expedition is anyone’s guess, but what is not in dispute is that the dog quickly bonded with Don and was unwilling to be separated.

What was rather concerning from the outset was the fact that whilst the members of the group were wearing special suits that can cost thousands of dollars and crampons, Mera the stray dog had no protection against the cold and had no way of protecting her paws. Don was in a quandary as the dog refused to go away, and he knew that temperatures would drop to between minus 20 and minus 30 degrees

Mera was rather shy, which was normal in this part of the world where rabies is common, thus ensuring that the population are wary of contact with stray dogs.  Soon she started to relax when she realised that nobody was going to be unpleasant to her, and despite Don trying to encourage her to sleep in his tent, she was initially reluctant but quickly decided that being inside the tent was a distinct improvement in being on the outside.

Having a dog along did create an unexpected problem. Dog food, or, to be precise, the lack of it. With the extra mouth to feed, Don equally split his rations with Mera, with the obvious consequence. They both lost weight!!

Mera appeared to cope with the harsh conditions fairly well; her paws suffered some minor superficial damage during the day, but she seemed ok by the next morning. The real surprise was that she didn’t go snow blind; the humans were all wearing state-of-the-art goggles, and Mera had no eye protection at all.

Surviving the summit

Mera completed the ascent and is believed to be the first canine to have climbed Baruntse, and it is also reckoned that this was the highest elevation that any dog has ever achieved and survived. 23,389 feet (7,129 Mts). Her climb was unassisted except for a short zip line

Don Wargowsky was sorely tempted to adopt his newfound friend, but his home is an apartment in Seattle, USA, hardly a suitable home for this sort of dog, but he was unwilling to see this remarkable dog returning to living in the streets. Fortunately, the expedition’s base camp manager had also come to admire the adventurous canine, and without the option of flying Mera home to Kathmandu, someone was paid $100 to walk the three days to recover her until they could get her on a bus. She was taken to a veterinary surgeon to be checked, and a more suitable name was chosen, and from then on she was called Baru.