In reply to kevin stephens:
Rather more realistically, where I am a lot of people day-tour with dogs. Last winter we were even joined once by a random golden retriever that followed us from the village parking lot, trotted happily up a 1300 metre climb, waited for us on the summit, and then charged down after us for the ski descent, loving the whole thing. And I once met some skiers on the summit of Aneto in the Pyrenees (3400m) with something like a scottish terrier, which then got popped in a rucksack for the ski descent.