It was supposed to be a long but enjoyable day in the mountains. Instead, it turned into an unexpected rescue mission — with a 35-kilogram husky as the most important passenger.

In August 2025, a man was hiking with his husky, Prince, in the Lake District in northern England. They had spent the day walking in the area around Scafell and Slight Side, surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the country. But during the hike, Prince cut his paws and eventually became unable to continue.

His owner did not want to leave him behind, so he did what many dog lovers would probably try to do: he picked Prince up and carried him.

The problem was that Prince was not exactly a small dog.

He weighed around 35 kilograms, and carrying him down a mountain was much harder than carrying him across a living room. His owner managed to carry him from the summit of Slight Side, but after a long day in the mountains, he became exhausted too. By the time they were part of the way down from Scafell, the man was beginning to stumble on the steep ground. Continuing could have caused an accident for both of them.

At around 9:30 in the evening, he finally called for help.

Cumbria Police contacted the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team, whose volunteers began making their way towards Burnmoor Tarn. Prince and his owner continued moving slowly while they waited for the rescuers to arrive.

When the team finally reached them, the situation became slightly unusual for a mountain rescue.

Their patient had four legs, thick white fur and the typical striking appearance of a husky.

Prince was placed on a rescue stretcher for the journey back down. According to the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team, he behaved extremely well and seemed perfectly happy to accept his new form of transport. The rescuers also said he received plenty of attention during the journey — something Prince apparently did not object to at all.

The group then began the long journey towards Brackenclose.

Photographs from the rescue show Prince lying comfortably on the stretcher while volunteers carry him through the darkness. Instead of looking like a worried mountain casualty, he appears remarkably relaxed — almost as if being carried through the Lake District by his own personal rescue team was exactly what he had expected all along.

The operation finally ended shortly before 3:30 in the morning. Prince had been brought safely down, and his exhausted owner had also made it back without serious injury.

The rescue team later wished Prince a quick recovery and hoped that his owner’s heroic attempt to carry a 35-kilogram dog down the mountain had not left him feeling too sore.

The story quickly attracted attention for an obvious reason. Mountain rescue volunteers are normally called to help injured or lost walkers, but dogs sometimes need their assistance too. In fact, Prince was not the only four-legged visitor to require help in the Lake District that summer. Wasdale Mountain Rescue recorded several incidents involving tired or injured dogs in the area.

Prince’s adventure also contains a useful lesson for anyone who enjoys hiking with a dog. Mountains can be difficult for animals as well as humans. Rocky surfaces can damage paws, long distances can cause exhaustion, and large dogs can become extremely difficult to move if they are injured.

But most people will probably remember the story for something much simpler.

One man refused to abandon his dog. A group of volunteers came out in the middle of the night to help them. And Prince, after a very long day on the mountain, discovered perhaps the most comfortable way of finishing a hike:

being carried home.