A dog named Mera scaled the Baruntse peak in Nepal.
The heartwarming story of a Nepalese stray dog who scaled the Baruntse mountain is currently winning hearts on social media. According to the Telegraph, the dog, who befriended a mountaineering expedition and tagged along with them, managed to scale the 23,000-foot Himalayan peak - and became possibly the first canine to do so in the process.
The Daily Mail reports that US-resident Don Wargowsky was leading a group of mountaineers from the Kathmandu-based Summit Climb when they spotted Mera, who is believed to be a Tibetan mastiff and Himalayan sheepdog cross.
The group came across the dog while descending the Mera Peak, and before heading to the Baruntse. The athletic pooch quickly became best friends with Don Wargowsky, and spent the next three weeks scaling the Baruntse with him and his group.
Outside magazine reports that on November 9, 2018, Mera became the first of her kind to to reach the summit of Baruntse.
"I am not aware of a dog actually summiting an expedition peak in Nepal," says Billi Bierling of the Himalayan Database, an organization that documents climbing expeditions in Nepal.
Mr Wargowsky tells Telegraph that his group at first only tolerated the dog, but soon began to appreciate her climbing skills.
"They'd never seen anything like this happen. They said she was a special dog, that she brought luck to the expedition," Mr Wargowsky said. "Some even thought she was blessed."
Sharing more details of the unusual incident, he said that Mera was very confident at climbing and even ran ahead of him on the final ridge approaching the summit.
"I have no clue if she'd been up there before, but she seemed very confident in what she was doing," he said.
Pics of Mera's Himalayan adventure are now going viral on social media, since being shared online on Wednesday by Mr Wargowsky.
"Touching story," wrote one person in the comments section. "Good lil pupper," said another.
In the comments section of the post, Mr Wargowsky confirmed that Mera was adopted by the base camp manager and now lives in Kathmandu. "Unfortunately, I live in a small condo in Seattle with another large dog. It would have been selfish to bring her here. She was adopted by my base camp manager though. I can't wait to see her in Nepal this fall!" he said.
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