The Dolores County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday that recovery operations for Ronald Wallace, Jr. have been suspended.
Wallace, 37, was on a snowmobile trip at Grooundhog Reservoir on Sunday, Dec. 6, and reported missing Dec. 8. The search included a helicopter and ground crews.
On Dec. 11, Wallace’s snowmobile was found by a Lewis-Arriola fire department dive team in the reservoir in an area of thin ice at a depth of 30 feet. On Dec. 17-18, dive teams from West Metro Denver and Cold Water Divers Inc. of Victoria, B.C., extracted the snowmobile, but couldn’t find him because of weather and ice conditions.
“With lake conditions and two storms moving into the area, operations will most likely be delayed until spring,” a sheriff’s office news release stated.
Wallace, an Air Force veteran, was last heard from Dec. 6 when he phoned a friend during a break from a snowmobile ride.
Rescue teams included Dolores County Search and Rescue, Rico Search and Rescue, Lewis-Arriola dive team, unnamed helicopter rescue services, and advisers from the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and United Search and Rescue of Montezuma County.
