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When Alpine Rescue Team responded to a call around 1 p.m. Sunday, July 2, about a dog that had fallen from Torreys Peak, a 14,000-foot summit just east of Summit County, the pet owners had no idea if the dog was alive.

Zola, the 3-year-old Aussiedoodle had gone off the east side of the Colorado 14er, “which is pretty sheer,” according to rescue group member and spokesperson Jake Smith, but the dog’s owners didn’t know how far the dog had fallen or where it was exactly located.

“There was definitely a part of them that was probably preparing for the worst,” Smith said. “When we met them at the top, they were pretty somber. As they learned the dog was alive and we were going to move forward with the rescue, I think they were pretty ecstatic.”

After 24 rescuers responded, a seven member team from the all-volunteer rescue group based in Jefferson County spent the next eight hours of their Fourth of July weekend locating and then rescuing the dog. Smith noted that Colorado 14ers are “high-consequence environments,” so it is probably best to leash pets to prevent situations like this.

From several miles away, two teams surveyed the face of the mountain through binoculars. At about the same time, the two teams made visual contact with the approximately 30-pound dog, which appeared as little more than a black speck on the large mountain face, Smith said.

Zola had fallen an estimated 600 feet and came to a rest at the top of the South Paw couloir, right at the base of a cornice, Smith said. From a distance, it was difficult to assess the dog’s condition, he said. But after conducting a risk assessment, the team decided to hike to the summit to see if the dog was alive.

“When we were able to get closer visual contact with the dog, we could see she was still alive but was injured — not critically injured but not able to get down on her own,” Smith said.

After assessing their options, the rescue team found a large boulder near the top of the mountain to anchor a climber. She descended about 30 feet by rope and traversed to where the dog was at the top of the couloir, Smith said.

Alpine Rescue Group didn’t have a harness or anything for the dog, Smith said, so the team ended up zipping Zola into a bag used to carry other equipment. So, as the rescuers lifted the dog from her precarious spot on the mountainside, only her head poked out.

Zola had several abrasions from the fall and wouldn’t walk on her back leg, which appeared injured, Smith said, so a rescue group member carried her back to the trailhead in a backpack. While the dog will require some veterinary care, he said, she is expected to be OK.

“She was so mellow for us,” Smith said. “She was so sweet. She just sat in a backpack. We tried to get her some water, and we had some snacks with us because she had been there for almost 8 hours at that point. She was just super tired and super relieved.”