Long Story Short Play today

31 October 2026

Puzzle sentence and answer

The sentence

An avalanche in Alaska badly hurt two hikers; the dog with them, LouLou, spent two nights in the snow until pilots tracking her AirTag found her alive.

Show the five-word answer
pilotsfoundavalanchedogalive

Kept 'hikers' or 'hurt'? The best wrong words here: the men were rescued first; the story is the dog. Kept 'AirTag'? That is how the pilots found her. This one really happened. On 10 October an avalanche on Shaker Peak, north of Anchorage, swept two mountaineers about 500 feet and badly hurt them; a National Guard helicopter got them out. Their dog LouLou, a four-year-old huskydoodle, was left behind. After about 50 hours alone, pilots Dave Beckett and Amanda Barker followed her AirTag signal and found her alive, with a chipped tooth and a broken toenail. 'Oh my god, there she is.' Alaska Public Media, 20 October.

Every word, accounted for

AnA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
avalancheWhat happened. Stays.
inA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
AlaskaWhere.
badlyGoes with hurt.
hurtWhat happened to the hikers. The dog is the story.
twoHow many.
hikersWho was hurt. The best wrong word here: the dog is the story.
theA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
dogWho was found. Stays.
withA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
themA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
LouLouHer name. 'Dog' says who.
spentGoes with nights.
twoHow many.
nightsHow long she was out there.
inA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
theA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
snowWhere she waited.
untilA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
pilotsWho found her. Stays.
trackingHow they found her.
herA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
AirTagWhat led them to her.
foundWhat they did. Stays.
herA little word. It only holds the sentence together.
aliveThe happy ending. Stays.
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