CONEJOS, Colo. (AP) - Six snowmobilers missing for three days in the snowy Colorado mountains called for help Monday and reported they were hungry but alive, authorities said.
Crews were on their way to meet the six, who are all from New Mexico, said Barbara Smith, a spokeswoman for the Conejos County Sheriff’s Department.
The snowmobilers called 911 from an isolated and snowbound train station and said they were cold but otherwise all right, Smith said. They had been missing since Friday amid heavy snow in the area.
“We’re pretty happy with what we’ve heard so far,” Sheriff Robert Gurule said.
The group had been snowmobiling near 10,222-foot Cumbres Pass just north of the Colorado-New Mexico border. The area is about 200 miles south of Denver and 60 miles northwest of Taos, N.M.
The search had been hindered by heavy snow and bad roads. As much as 4 feet of snow fell in the area since Friday, the National Weather Service said, but there was a break in the snow on Monday morning.
Smith said the group took refuge at Osier Station, a small wooden building that serves as summertime stop on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, a tourist line. Railroad spokeswoman Kathy Romero said the station is so remote that it takes 90 minutes in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get there in good weather.
Rescue crews were headed out to them on snowmobiles - one of the only ways to reach the remote area, officials said.
The snowmobilers were Jason Groen, 36, his wife, Shannon, 31, and daughter, Aspen, 14, said Betty Groen, Jason’s stepmother. Groen said they were snowmobiling with Mike Martin, one of Groen’s employees, his wife, Missy, and their son, Jessie, 13. The families had left on a snowmobile trip Friday morning and expected to be back that evening, Betty Groen said.
Jason Groen’s mother said she had feared the worst.
“I never had a prayer that they would all get off the mountain alive,” said Beverly Downey of Aztec,