Man hiking at 15,000ft finds dog, trusts his “mountain knowledge”

A man’s heartwarming unexpected encounter with a canine guide on a mountain trek in Peru has captivated thousands on TikTok, and he told Newsweek the dog arrived just in time, as visibility worsened due to snow and fog.

The video, shared by TikTok user @elgueroingles, shows the surprise meeting with a dog at an altitude of over 15,000 feet. The video has garnered over 43,000 views since it was posted on October 14.

A note overlaid on the video says: “I was on a hike in the Peruvian mountains when suddenly…a dog appeared at 15,000 ft altitude.”

The footage shows the dog walking around just behind the hiker, who can be heard saying “What on earth are you doing up there? How’d you get here?” Another note reveals the hiker’s reliance on the unexpected companion: “I happened to be on my own at this point, so I trusted his mountain knowledge.”

Speaking to Newsweek, the hiker—who did not reveal his name—explained the circumstances of his encounter, which took place back in October 2022 while hiking the Santa Cruz Trek near the city of Huaraz in the western part of Peru.

According to the hiker, the mountain trek covered a total of 33.5 miles across four days, averaging about 8.4 miles a day.

He recalled “I came across this dog on day two, as I was approaching the highest point on the trail—Punta Union—at 4,750 meters [around 15,583 feet] above sea level.”

On the hike, the man had pushed ahead of his small group and was out of sight. However, as visibility worsened due to snow and fog, the dog suddenly appeared, seemingly from nowhere. “A local who was carrying supplies on donkeys had not long passed me in the other direction, so perhaps the dog had followed him,” the hiker said.

Being a big dog lover, the hiker sat down to give the dog some attention. He expressed his surprise at encountering a dog at such altitude and in that environment. When he resumed walking, the dog continued alongside him.

“Given the poor visibility, snow, and the fact I’d not been there before, I wasn’t 100 percent sure I was going in the right direction, but the dog trotted on ahead quite confidently, so I trusted him. I also did a cross-reference to my GPS map,” the hiker noted.

As they neared the top, the dog went out of sight, but when the hiker reached the Punta Union pass, he found the dog already there, enjoying the view. “He sat with me there taking it all in while we waited for the others to arrive, then followed our group all the way down to camp, where we found another dog,” the hiker said.

Both dogs continued to follow the hikers onto the next day’s journey on a 22-kilometer walk (around 13.7 miles) to the next camp, where they found a third dog. The dogs slept next to their tents.

On the final day of the trek, the hiker thought he’d lost the dogs as he “bombed downhill,” but later came across the first dog he’d met at the café where they finished the walk.

The hiker said “I was told by our guide that the dogs were from the villages at either end of the trail and enjoyed joining groups/locals on the hike.”

More than 61 million people in the U.S. were reported to have engaged in hiking activities at least once in 2023. This was the highest number recorded in the country since 2010, marking a growth of around 89 percent from the figure reported that year, according to data compiled by Statista, the global data firm.