Support Raz Rasmussen's Health Journey

For 39 years Raz Rasmussen has been leading llama pack trips in the Wallowa mountains. While preparing for the season this year (which he had proclaimed to be his last before retirement), he was experiencing a lot of back pain. He led the first trip to Spring creek in May and upon his return entered into a health crisis due internal bleeding caused by overuse of pain medication. He spent two weeks in the hospital before stabilizing and in that time was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. He has had neurosurgery to remove a tumor that was attached to his spine, and has started hormone therapy. This will be followed by radiation and possibly chemotherapy as well. We hope he will respond well to treatment, but there are many unknowns, and currently he is weak from the surgery and loss of blood. He was happy to return to the llama farm this week, and grateful for all the friends and family who have kept things running in his absence. (Which included dealing with a complication during a llama birth!) The two other spring creek trips have been cancelled, and in order for him to rest and focus on his treatments, we have decided to cancel the rest of the 2024 season. Nobody is more disappointed about this than Raz himself. We investigated the possibility of hiring other guides, but if you have had the privilege to join a trip led by Raz you will know how much energy and care goes into each trip, and it is important for him to focus on his health and not the llama business this summer. We are starting this fundraising campaign to help Raz and Louise during this journey. It is with heavy hearts that we look upon the summer of 2024 without llama pack trips, but also important that Raz shifts his energy to care for his health as much as possible.