In the bleak midwinter, at last

' Love me, love my dog'.

Bernard of Clairvaux, allegedly. Feast Day : August 20th
I loathe August. In the Northern hemisphere, August is and has always been a completely pointless month. It rains, all day, every day and/or it's infernally hot, made worse by clouds of evil unseen creatures, possibly midges.
I'm not absolutely sure. They might be the Furies...
The other nasties are called clegs and their bite can mean death. Avoid.

And Bernard ?
Not many people did love him, including everybody called Peter Abelard and someone called Arnold. I wouldn't know about the dog, let alone what he was called.
Dogs, including of course, St Bernards, have an extraordinarily powerful sense of smell. Unkind critics of St Bernard have suggested that the St reeked of vomit. (this isn't why he was made a St. The 'odour of sanctity' wasn't vomit . Something else, allegedly. Ketosis ? Sickly sweet, like acid drops, but definitely not sicky.)

Luckily, it isn't August, it's February 7th, freezing nicely,blue skies, bright sun, and I'm studying ornithology... Through a glass, darkly, because the staff haven't cleaned the windows.
No idea why they're so worried. The calories in a firecrest or a wren aren't worth the effort.

The snow is deep, crisp, but no longer even because so many happy people and even happier dogs are enjoying it. Almost every kind of dog. No St Bernard's so far, with or without the brandy. Administering brandy to casualties in the snow is frowned on by Health and Safety and Mountain Rescue.

Why not ask the casualty ? If conscious, surely they should have a say in this ? People who have accidents on snowy mountains are obviously far too intelligent to care about Elf & Safety.
As for the argument that they might have a fracture and might
need an anaesthetic, consider the time line...
When did you last wait in A & E ?

NB. This is a true story and could happen to anyone, on any nearby High Street.

First, slip/trip up on snowy mountain.... One second ?
Land heavily, frequently onto rocks... Instantaneous ?
If conscious, register severe pain.... Ditto...
If unconscious, no brandy or other liquid would be administered, even by an eager and willing St Bernard
Summon Mountain Rescue
Depending on precisely where you slipped, somebody might need to re-climb whichever mountain, just to get a signal. Which is why only barking mad people or dogs climb snowy hills on their own.
Wait for Mountain Rescue.
And wait
And wait...
Mountain Rescue Land Rovers do their best, but they can't climb hills...
This is why Rescue helicopters whirr about mountains on fine sunny days,
exercising...
To cut a longish and possibly boring story short, rescuing broken people from snowy mountains takes ages, even, in this case, till 4 in the morning....
On the whole, I might just shut my eyes and pray for a St Bernard.
(dog, not saint)