WA dog survives 150-foot cliff fall, is rescued

HOODSPORT, Wash. (AP) — A Bernese Mountain dog that raced off after a mountain goat in Washington’s Olympic Mountains and fell 150 feet down a cliff survived for nearly three days until a volunteer mountain rescue team managed to find her.

Gwen Hall of Olympia tells KIRO-TV her 5-year-old dog Sasha suffered only an injured paw and a broken tooth.

Sasha took off last Wednesday after climbing with her owners, Hall and Jim Krieger, to the summit of 5,944-foot Mount Ellinor.

They got in touch with Olympic Mountain Rescue and six volunteers offered to help. It took them five hours Friday to find Sasha — motionless on a narrow shelf on the side of a cliff. The team brought the dog to safety using ropes and a litter.

Hall and Krieger were there when the volunteers carted Sasha off the mountain. Hall calls Sasha “just an amazing dog” and says she’s thankful to everyone who helped save her.

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Information from: KIRO-TV, htthttp://www.kirotv.com/index.html