Hiker Falls 600 Feet Down Mountain, State Troopers Discover Her But She Attracted Company

Note: we are republishing this story which originally made the news in June 2018.

21-year-old Amelia Milling was hiking in Alaska when she slipped and fell. Battered and bruised, she soon realized that she was lost.

However, seemingly out of nowhere, a husky appeared and guided back onto the main path.

Milling and Nanook the husky hiked together for a few more kilometers, but Milling slipped and fell into a freezing river she was attempting to cross.

She knew she had to remove her backpack to stay afloat.

“I was really struggling to breathe,” she said. “My whole body was numb.”

She was unable to reach and hold on to a branch, and that’s when Nanook came to her rescue yet again. The husky jumped into the freezing waters, grabbed Milling’s backpack in her mouth, and paddled Milling to dry land.

Milling used her satellite phone to call for help, and the two were rescued the following day by Alaska state troopers.

Nanook was reunited with his owner, Scott Swift, who lives a few kilometers from the hiking trail.

Milling called Nanook her “guardian angel,” and recalled how the husky camped outside her tent during the night.

“I told him several times that I love him,” she said. “And I’ll never forget him.”

Swift stated that his beloved husky had saved at least three other hikers, and added that he “wouldn’t doubt if there’s more out there.”