Avalanche Rescuers Never Saw the Dog. 2 Days Later, Her Own Paw Prints Gave Her Away

LouLou, a four-year-old huskydoodle, spent more than two days alone in the mountains north of Anchorage after an Oct. 10 avalanche. Two pilots in a small helicopter finally found her by following her paw prints through fresh snow, Alaska Public Media reported.¹

The search took a mix of tools: a pet tracker, satellite pictures, a privately owned helicopter and at least 20 people who offered to help. All of it came together for a dog whose owner was in another state when the search started.¹⁴

A small slide with serious injuries

LouLou was hiking with two men north of Eklutna Lake in Chugach State Park when an early-season avalanche caught all three of them. The snow was only about five inches deep where they were walking. Then a pocket of wind-loaded snow broke loose and carried the men about 500 feet through rocky terrain.¹

Both men were badly hurt. Brian Shum broke his jaw and later needed surgery on his hand. His climbing partner had three broken ribs and a damaged vertebra, one of the bones of the spine.¹

An Alaska National Guard helicopter crew reached the men in less than two hours. The crew was there to save lives, and nobody saw the dog.¹

“They knew that they needed help and that it wasn’t time to focus on the dog,” LouLou’s owner, Lauren Padawer, told Alaska Public Media.¹

Searching a mountain from out of state

LouLou wore an Apple AirTag. Padawer was out of state, so she worked from its coordinates, using several mapping apps and AI to narrow down where her dog was likely to be.¹

The AirTag’s first location estimate was off by nearly half a mile, according to other reports. Padawer narrowed the search by matching landmarks in satellite images: a patch of snow, shadows and some dark rocks.⁴⁵

Two days after the avalanche, ground teams were getting ready to search. They brought a thermal-imaging drone operator and a scent-detection dog, which was given pieces of LouLou’s torn bed to learn her smell.¹

Following the tracks

Meanwhile, pilot Dave Beckett and Amanda Barker went up in his red Robinson R44 helicopter with access to LouLou’s tracker data.¹

“Some fresh snow had fallen the night before, and we saw paw prints. So we followed the paw prints, and there she was, just waiting,” Barker told Alaska Public Media.¹

Barker recalled Beckett’s reaction when they spotted her: “Oh my god, there she is.” LouLou was a couple hundred feet up the slope, so they landed and hiked up to her.¹ AccuWeather reported that she was found on Oct. 12 after more than 50 hours alone, and that Barker filmed video of the rescue.³

The rescuers then put a black puffy coat on a husky mix who had just spent two nights on a snowy mountain. They flew her to Beckett’s home in Wasilla, took her to a veterinarian and handed her off to a friend of Padawer’s.¹

According to Padawer and Barker, the tracker data suggests LouLou followed the men’s slide path down to where the military crew picked them up. Then she walked back up to where the avalanche started and waited there.¹

“She’s a really special dog,” Barker said.¹

Home with a chipped tooth

LouLou came through with a chipped tooth and a broken toenail, according to Alaska Public Media. Padawer got her dog back on Oct. 14.¹

On Facebook, Padawer thanked the pilots, the ground search parties and the military pararescue team, Fox Weather reported. “Sometimes it takes a mountain to remind you how extraordinary people can be,” she wrote.⁵