Vail Pass Crust

Young Jack & Rudy's first visit to the huts on Shrine Mountain at Vail Pass.

Zorro's 45th visit to the Shrine Mountain Huts :)

"Hey, cool!" say Jack & Rudy glancing at one of the huts as we jog by.
"We are too early, nobody is awake yet." adds veteran Zorro.

Zorro loves to skijor to the Shrine Huts and flirt with the backcountry skiers staying overnight. But, we got out on the trail early this morning as temperatures where going to get above freezing by 8am. So, unfortunately, Zorro was right in the prior photo. Despite seeing lots of skis outside the huts, nobody was awake and milling around outside yet. Typically we go by the huts a little later in the morning and get to flirt with the crowds who LOVE seeing the sled dogs who towed the human to the huts.

The reason to be out so early? Well, the snowmobile trails at Vail Pass get pretty choppy in the warm spring temperatures, so we want to abandon trails and ski the spring crust instead. You need to be out before temperatures get above freezing for the crust to support us. While we failed to flirt at the huts, we were VERY successful skijoring the endless crust:

A firm spring crust as far as the eye can see. Perfect spring skijoring!

We were able to abandon choppy & icy trails and stay on the crust all morning long!

Jack & Rudy synchronized with Zorro running alongside as we continue to ride
the crust up & down Vail Pass.

Today's short video clip showcases the firm & endless crust at Vail Pass. What fun...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Time to turnaround and guess what? The youngsters now patented "springtime goofball antics" when we stopped to turn my skis around.

"Could they get any goofier?" asks happy Zorro.
"Stopped... Rolling!" demonstrate the goofs :)

Finally, all smiles at the end of the day's run.

"We had a BLAST!" declares the happy trio.

Jack & Rudy still don't know the "flirt fun" to be had at the Shrine Mountain Huts; but they do know the fun to be had on the spring crust at Vail Pass: 7.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 93 days on the trails covering 521.9 miles with 47,500 feet of elevation climbed.