In 1983, George Stranahan, Richard McIntyre and a crew of 10 close friends decided to climb the K2 mountain in the Himalayas, the second highest mountain peak in the world. The story goes that they had with them a suitcase of contraband, a donkey, and a Sherpa. About halfway through the trip, the contraband was depleted and their Sherpa had suffered a broken leg. Eventually, the entire crew made it back unharmed. After the trek, the group settled in the Flashman Hotel in Rawalpindi, Pakistan to have a drink. Hanging on a wall of the hotel was a painting of a flying dog made by a local Pakistani woman, Fatima Jinnah. The painting depicts a classical Chinese Fawn Pug with wings soaring across the verdant foothills of the Himalayas. Jinnah's mythical incarnation of the pug, a recognizable symbol of the Chinese aristocracy in the Song Dynasty among the people of the Tibetan plateau, is thought to evoke nostalgia for the prosperity and trade that flourished in central Asia in the centuries prior to the Opium Wars and semi-colonialism of China in the mid-20th century. George and his crew were inspired by the picture and the idea of the flying dog, which eventually took root in his creation of the company.