The Leadville llamas

By Henry Howard

Gary Carlton will be bringing some of the llamas from his 700-acre cattle farm in eastern Colorado to the Leadville Trail 100 this weekend, as he has since 2003.

“It’s the runners, without question,” he says when asked what keeps him coming back to help out at the Hope Pass aid station. “From the aid station, you can see Leadville almost 50 miles across the valley. Just looking and thinking these people just ran from there to here and they have to run back. It’s just amazing to me. They are super humans.”

Vehicles are unable to access the remote aid station, which sits at 12,600 feet, the highest point of the race. (Race director Tamira Jenlink is on top of the world.)

But it is no problem for the 25 or so Leadville llamas that have been lugging 3,000 pounds of gear, food and water, medical supplies and more to the aid station since 1985. When runners come across the full-service aid station at miles 43.5 and 56.7, they have access to a buffet of food and drinks, three tents and four EMTs.

On the Thursday before the race, the team begins its 4.9-mile journey from the trailhead to the aid station, which has a gain of 2,500 feet. Carlton says he can make it in 2:45 while it takes others up to five hours.

“I’m the oldest one on the crew,” he points out. “I’ve done it 40 times and I just know the trail, I know what it takes and that’s how you get to the finish line, just like the racers.”

The runners show their appreciation for the hard-working llamas. “Some of them come up and pet them, take pictures and ask all the basic questions,” he says. “Some think they are hallucinating because they didn’t know llamas would be up there.”

While horses can make it up the trail like the llamas, they are not as well suited for the task.

“They are kind of independent, not like horses, just do their job, go graze and do their thing,” Carlton says. “They are easy to train and don’t need the food requirements that horses do. And they don’t need as much attention as horses do, They are easy to care for. You just load them up and they do what you need them to do.”