Powder Hounds

Max & Zorro, the powder hounds, towing me through about 8 inches of heavy spring snow.

What trail breakers!

My fun trail breakers: hopping & swimming in the morning's new snow.

We got about 6-10 inches of new snow overnight (6 at lower elevations, 10 at higher). With new snow, we took to our favorite "powder trails" on Baldy Mountain. Baldy has some very steep sections of terrain, thus the reason we skijor these trails with new snow (e.g., to slow Max & Zorro down :)

We were happy to find a pair of skiers had gone up the backside of Baldy before us. While we have no problems breaking trail on our own, it was nice to have a set trail for part of the outing to cover more terrain.

Cruising up Baldy on the set track from 2 who had gotten on the trail a short time before us.

Eventually the set track went a different direction than our planned route, so we found ourselves breaking trail in about 10 inches of snow high up on Baldy. Nice workout!

Plowing along as I get towed through some deep snow.

When we got to our intended high point on Baldy, we were thrilled to see that nobody had been on the trail we planned on taking down. We were first in the day's snow, breaking trail down the front side of Baldy!

The only downside of this morning's new snow was that it was a "heavy spring snow", not fluffy powder like you find in the heart of winter. As a result, today's video clip is a deviation from our typical "20+ MPH skijoring". Come along and watch Max & Zorro breaking trail as they tow me through about 8 inches of heavy spring snow. You try running through heavy snow halfway up your legs and see if you don't slow down a bit :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A late March powder day treat! 6.2 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a modest "trail breaking top speed" of 16 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 115 days on the trails covering 959.9 miles with 102,000 feet of elevation climbed.