"The blizzard arrived in Alpine Meadows without warning.
Hours earlier, before a half moon rose over this California resort town near Lake Tahoe, an uncle and his teenage nephew had been separated from their hunting party. Authorities called veteran rescue dog handler Shay Cook, who rushed to the mountain site with her dog Rixi, never imagining it would be one of the most challenging searches of her 20-year career.
Cook and Rixi arrived at the trailhead at 10 p.m., after a deep drive up the Sierra Mountains. The forecast had called for light precipitation, and a soft glaze of snow was starting to cover the ground as the search party trekked into the woods.
“By 2:30, it was blizzard conditions, and I was in a drainage, so I had no radio reception. My GPS wasn’t working,” Cook said. “But the snow did not seem to pose a problem for Rixi. She was like a little bulldozer and just led a path through the snow..”
Read more from PBS News: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/inside-nose-rescue-dog