Now that snow has arrived in the high country, the search for two missing llamas in the Weminuche Wilderness, northwest of Durango, has turned into a waiting game.
“We just have to keep hoping someone will spot them,” said Ronda Ramsier, the llamas’ handler.
Ramsier was one of two women, along with her friend Carol Powell, who became lost in Colorado’s largest designated wilderness area in August while on a hike with two llamas, Chai and Dawson.
After two cold nights spent above 11,000 feet, Ramsier and Powell were rescued by a U.S. military helicopter in the middle of the night. As a last resort, the women set the llamas free so they could fend for themselves.
That was Aug. 14. Though Ramsier and her husband, Jack McGroder, have been on a number of multi-day camping trips to search for the llamas, the pair remain missing.
“We went out again this past weekend, the whole weekend, to look in the area below the Dead Horse Creek area where they were released,” Ramsier said. “It was probably our last chance to get up there (before snow makes the area inaccessible). We camped a cold night, but found nothing.”
Still, there may be hope the llamas are alive and well.
Llamas are notoriously thrifty animals, able to survive a diverse range of climates, including high country terrain.
Beau Baty, vice president of the Rocky Mountain Llama and Alpaca Association, said he’s seen llamas withstand temperatures that dipped to the negative 15 to negative 20 degree range for two weeks in February.
“These animals are native to the Andes (Mountains), so they can survive some pretty tough temperatures in those high elevations between 9,000 and 14,000 feet,” he said.
And, he offered an encouraging, story: In 2012, a pair of llamas lost in May in Wyoming’s Bridger Wilderness were found seven months later, right before Thanksgiving Day, in a farmer’s field in the foothills of the mountains.
“In November (of 2012), there was a big snow, so they came down off the high country, and people saw them all the time in the foothills,” Baty said. “I think llamas are smart enough with natural instinct to survive pretty well.”
That’s what Ramsier and her husband are banking on.
“I think they would have to come down; there’s just so little vegetation possible up there,” Ramsier said. “Jack keeps saying we’ll get a call from someone that there’s two funny-looking creatures in our backyard. That’s what we’re hoping.”
Dawson is 14 years old and brown. Chai is 12 or 13 years old, mostly black with white patches. Anyone with a sighting or information of Chai’s and Dawson’s whereabouts can call Ramsier at 759-3552.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
