This all reminds me of something that happened in the early 80s in the Scottish Highlands. I was sharing a cottage near Glencoe in february with some friends, for some winter climbing. One evening another pal from Aviemore called in and told us that a friend of ours had had an accident the previous day on Beinn Achallader (sp), a Munro near Glen Orchy. Adam had been out for a winter walk with his border collie Moss for company. They had wandered up the Beinn via a steepish snow filled gully up the back of a North facing coire. Adam of course used crampons and ice axe, while Moss just had his toe nails. The two of them made excellent progress until they were near the top of the gully, when Moss got well in front and saw Adam below him, turned and started descending. His claws were great for climbing, but totally useless for descending, so he started sliding down the gully. Adam made a grab for him as he shot past, missed, and found himself hurtling after him.

He fell maybe 1500 feet and badly fractured his ankle and a few other things. When he came to, Moss was not in sight. With much effort, he got himself to a farmhouse a mile or so away, and was taken to hospital in Fort William.

Having heard this story, four of us headed for Ben Achallader the following morning, and we went up the Beinn by different routes, and met on the summit. The guy who went up the gully saw no sign of moss until near the top, he stopped, looked around, and called his name. He heard a bark very close by, then saw a nose sticking out of the snow. Moss had obviously reclimbed the gully to where he'd last seen Adam then dug himself a snow hole and stayed in it. His tail was frozen into the snow, and my friend said Moss had tried to wag the mountain! We weren't allowed to take Moss into the hospital, but Adam saw him through the ward window - his expression was something very vivid in my memory.

While Adam was in hospital, Moss stayed with some friends of Adam's and got their bitch pregnant, so three days in a snowhole had obviously done him no harm!

Cheers
Ray