The wind was blowing a little, but skies were clear when two families on a backcountry adventure parked and unloaded their snowmobiles near Cumbres Pass on Friday.
They hadn’t seen or heard a weather report. If they had, they might have known that the pass on the Colorado and New Mexico border was in the path of a major storm.
The wind picked up, but it remained clear, Shannon Groen, 31, recalled Tuesday. So after lunch, they continued to run their snowmobiles around a meadow.
Within hours, they found themselves wandering through a thick screen of wind-lashed snow that obscured their route to safety.
“We knew we had to find shelter, because it does get dark up there quicker,” she said from her cellphone as the family drove home to Farmington, N.M. “We came over a hill and saw the Osier train station. We stopped for a minute, and then went past it to see if we could find the main path. We went up a hill, but we couldn’t see it.”
Groen; her husband, Jason; and daughter Aspen — along with friends Mike Martin; his wife, Missy; and their son, Jessie — spent the next 2 1/2 days in a cabin near the station.
They were able to slide open a window at the station. Once inside, they lit a small fire in a stand-up ashtray so they could see. They found blankets, propane, a grill and some keys.
They ate the lunch they had brought with them, then went to a nearby cabin and tried to open it with the keys. When that didn’t work, they broke in through the front door, Shannon Groen said.
“It was a kind of a bunkhouse. There was lots of stuff in there.”
They had bouillon, popcorn, candles. With blankets to keep them warm, they weathered a storm that would have killed them had they been outside, said Patrick Montoya, head of the Conejos County Search and Rescue squad.
It was the squad that found them in that cabin Monday morning after the Groens were able to call 911 on a cellphone.
“They did an excellent job of finding shelter and staying put. That saved their lives,” Montoya said.
Conejos County has some of the most-traveled backcountry trails in the state, Montoya said. His rescue squad stays busy.
“You should check the weather conditions before you leave, and when you are snowmobiling, keep an eye on the cloud and wind situation. When it starts coming in, start heading for the truck.”
He added: “I’m sure they’ll never make that mistake again.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
