On their way up Mount Bristen in Switzerland, Cyril and Erik Rohrer encountered a small cat that had gotten separated from its owner. The cat accompanied them all the way to the summit, which stands 3,073 meters above sea level.
Mount Bristen is one of the longest ski tours in the region, and Cyril and Erik Rohrer from Sachseln, Switzerland, had come to ski there in mid-April 2021.
At 4:30 AM, at an altitude of 1,200 meters, they were startled and confused when they heard a cat meowing in the dark forest.
After looking around, they spotted a small cat on the mountainside. The cat had been wandering, following hikers up the mountain.
"The cat kept following us, even when we were hiking uphill. We couldn’t just leave it behind, so it continued with us all the way up to over 3,000 meters," Cyril said.
At one point, the cat was shivering from the cold, and its paws started to bleed from the snow. Realizing that it was too exhausted to continue, the hikers carried the cat when it could no longer walk.
"I felt really confused and guilty at the thought of leaving the poor cat behind. It was completely exhausted on the mountainside, just below the summit," Cyril recalled.
Luckily, another group of hikers had reached the summit before Cyril and Erik. On their way back, they encountered the pair and the cat. They managed to take the cat back down to the valley and help it reunite with its owner.
It was later discovered that the cat had been missing for four days, and two days before joining Cyril and Erik, it had followed other groups of hikers in the same way.
Cyril said, "So, the little cat climbed the mountain three times! Animals can do strange things, and they are tougher than humans. They never give up, even when they are seriously injured."
