‘Had to get creative’: With little snow, this longtime Utah dog sledding family is offering warmer, muddier adventures

Park City • The dogs surge forward, harnesses snapping, breath puffing, slobber flying. Their paws drum a steady beat as they charge along a trail high in the Wasatch Mountains, the rhythm lost beneath excited howls and the musher’s sharp commands.

Branches claw at the animals’ legs with every turn, flinging mud in their wake. Behind them, an all-terrain vehicle rumbles where a sled would normally glide. One musher leans forward, hands tight on the wheel, while another leans back, chatting with the day’s passengers, tourists from Arizona. Its tires carve deep tracks into ground that should be glittering white in mid-December.

Utah’s warmer winters have rewritten the rules for Rancho Luna Lobos, a dog rescue and sledding tour operation northeast of Park City. Swapping sleds for ATVs isn’t a gimmick; it’s how the dogs stay fit in the off-season, said Fernando Ramirez, who founded the organization with his wife Dana Ramirez in 2010. It’s also a way to keep tours running when snow doesn’t come.

Fernando Ramirez has been racing dog sleds since childhood and is a world-ranked musher, with top finishes in international competitions. Winning is a bonus, but it’s not what drives him or his family.

On the surface, Luna Lobos may look like a tourism business, but its real mission is rescuing and rehabilitating dogs, many of whom were abandoned or abused before arriving at the ranch. The Ramirezes provide each rescued animal with a safe haven and new chance at life.

“We use dog sledding primarily as a form of therapy,” Fernando Ramirez said. “I want to help promote confidence, and I want them to be well rounded.”

Every tour helps fund the work and keep the family — and their 130 dogs — fed. But this year’s unseasonably warm weather has pushed them to run their ATV “Safari Tours” far later into the season than usual.

“If we don’t have snow, we can’t run on sleds,” Fernando Ramirez said. “We had to get very creative with climate change.”

Tourists still prefer snow, though. And while the ATV tours have kept most visitors coming, the lack of it continues to cause cancellations.

“I do wonder, how long?” he asked. “How long can we get away with this?”

‘There’s a lot you can do here without snow’

To run a sled, trails need at least 6 to 8 inches of packed snow, which usually requires 1 to 2 feet of fresh powder to build that base, according to Luna Lobos’ website. Without it, the sled’s brakes have nothing to grip, making it nearly impossible to safely stop.

In recent years, Utah has seen longer waits for what feels like winter. Last month was the warmest November on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

December is also setting its own records, with Utah temperatures soaring as high as 62 degrees on some days.

“When you provide and you put food on the table for your children, and you’re really counting on the snow, you’re really researching data on the different changes that the environment has taken, “ Fernando Ramirez said.

Typically a summer program, the winter ATV tours are just one way they’ve adapted.

The family has also expanded its children’s summer camp, and they have some new ideas for the upcoming year. But one thing they will not do is push the dogs past their limits by adding more runs. They operate just two tours a day, Monday through Friday.

“It’s so vital and important that people still come, even if we don’t have snow,” Dana Ramirez said. “There’s a lot you can do here without snow, and it’s amazing.”

Life on the ranch

The couple lives on the 55-acre ranch with their five children, and the dogs are housed in outdoor kennels spread across the property. None live inside the family home as Dana Ramirez is, ironically, allergic, and most of the dogs are far too high-energy to be indoors.

Most are rescues or owner-surrenders, though they’ve also welcomed a few dozen puppies over the years. The breeds vary, but the family tends to take in larger, “northern” breeds, Dana Ramirez said.

The dogs that excel at racing are husky mixes, often crossed with greyhounds or German shorthaired pointers. On an energy scale of one to 10, they are a “level 13,” Dana Ramirez explained.

They’re not the kind to curl up and cuddle. Without an outlet, they’ll chew through walls, tear apart furniture and turn a house upside down.

“These dogs live and breathe to run,” Dana Ramirez said. “They do not have an off switch.”

Their lean, skeletal frames can sometimes alarm guests, who expect sled dogs to look plumper, like the Alaskan and Siberian huskies commonly seen in films.

But in reality, purebred Alaskan huskies don’t have enough stamina for racing, Fernando Ramirez said.

“We call them Hollywood sled dogs,” he said.

Despite their thinner builds, the dogs are well fed, consuming about 3,000 pounds of kibble and 4,000 pounds of meat each month, Fernando Ramirez said, plus supplements. Like human athletes, canine athletes require protein shakes, recovery drinks and regular massages to keep their muscles going.

“It is very expensive and time consuming to operate a kennel of this size,” Fernando Ramirez said. He works 15 hours a day caring for the dogs, running tours and keeping up with training — but it’s the life he was meant for.

The ‘dog listener’

Fernando Ramirez has always been drawn to dogs, something he attributes to his ancestors.

“I come from a long line of vaqueros [cattlemen] in Mexico,” he said. “So that was always instilled into our family.”

As a young boy, his parents allowed him to “connect with the dogs” on the family farm, and that’s how he learned to build responsibility with them.

That quickly turned into a desire to race. His mother allowed it on one condition: That he rescue and train the dogs himself, with a little guidance from her.

“That’s essentially one of the biggest reasons why we still [rescue] to this day,” Fernando Ramirez said. “I feel like dogs, in general, will give you more, and they’re more grateful because you gave them a second shot at life.”

Rehabilitation takes “kindness, patience and love,” Dana Ramirez said. In time, a dog struggling with aggression or depression often finds guidance and confidence within the pack.

Much of that happens in the “Doggy Pueblo” area of the ranch, where dogs and boarders stay.

“It’s such a well-balanced group that the dogs come in and they don’t feel the need to compete,” Fernando Ramirez said. “It’s all neutral … Little by little, it’ll break down the walls and the barriers that that dog came with. And that dog will slowly start to progress and invest into our pack, our family and into the program as a whole.”

He added: “And then we can see if they want to be a sled dog.”

Making the team

It takes about a year or two to see if a dog “has what it takes” to race, Fernando Ramirez said.

“I have the most upfront seat to research and study every single dog,” he said. “From body mechanics to personalities, to eating habits — everything under the sun.”

Strong dogs have the potential to earn a spot as “wheelers,” positioned just in front of the sled but at the back of the team. Their job is to help pull the sled around corners or trees.

Dogs that show humility are often the ones chosen to lead the pack, Fernando Ramirez said.

“A lot of people think that the lead dogs on our teams are the alpha and they’re going to pin any dog down that’s not listening,” he said. “But no, in fact, it’s humility, and ego cannot exist on our ranch whatsoever.”

That applies to humans on the ranch, too, he added. It’s one of many lessons the family’s learned from their dogs, which they share with every passing visitor.

“These are living beings and they love what they do,” Dana Ramirez said. “But for us ... as a human pack, let’s open up our minds a little bit and realize that there is so much that we can learn about what we’re doing wrong as a society and as a human pack by watching these amazing creatures and how they operate.”

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