Season Opener

Opening the 2022/2023 Skijoring Season with a trip to the summit of Boreas Pass!

Happy Jack flashing his beautiful smile at the summit of Boreas.
Happy Rudy swooshing his tail in approvement :)

We have been "climbing the walls" this October waiting for mother nature to give us snow to start the season. We've been lucky to start the season in September a few years; but have ALWAYS started by this time in October for the last 12 years. Temperatures have been plenty cold overnight, we just have not had any moisture. Well, Sunday FINALLY brought some snow to Colorado. The forecast was for at least 6 inches and upwards of 18 inches in places. Well, that did not happen and the storm only delivered a few inches in most places. But, we were determined to get out and start the season.

We drove partway up Boreas Pass (it is open to vehicles through October and then closes for skiing and snowshoeing) hoping for some good snow as we got up in elevation. Yet, the best we found was a few inches. This is not enough snow to ski on safely but it is enough to use the dog sled. The sled can run over frozen & exposed ground whereas skis need a good snow base. Here's a photo of some of the best conditions we found:

Jack & Rudy towing the dog sled along a nice stretch of snow.

Unfortunately, the prior photo was the exception to the outing. We kept encountering stretches of frozen ground but wind blown void of snow! Yuck! Anyway, Jack & Rudy can pull the sled just fine over frozen ground but I have to get off the sled and run with them (my weight on the sled is too much on frozen ground). So, I got quite the workout today running behind my pals!

Approaching the summit of Boreas Pass. What a wind-blown mess!!!!!

Despite very hazardous conditions, the kids still had a blast. Towing a sled over frozen ground is better than summer :)

"Yep, we approve!" says happy Jack.
"Yes we doooooo!" adds always wooing Rudy.

On reaching the summit, I pulled a bag of Zorro's ashes out to sprinkle on the ground. Zorro, of course, had been to the summit many, many times over his long skijoring career. I started sprinkling his ashes and said his name. Upon hearing his name, Jack & Rudy snapped to attention and wanted to know why I was using their beloved mentor's name. They then watched intensely as I sprinkled some ashes.

Zorro!!!!! I have a small bag of some of his ashes coming from my
right hand as Jack & Rudy watch closely.

We'll end today's post reliving Zorro's last trip to the summit of Boreas Pass on October 9, 2018. His first trip to the summit was in the fall of 2010!

October 9th, 2018: Zorro training young Jack to skijor as we reached
the summit (Rudy was too young to make it this far yet :)

Well, it wasn't the prettiest of outings with tons of wind-blown exposed ground and having to use the sled instead of skis; but we FINALLY got the 2022/2023 season started! 5.4 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 14 MPH.

Pray for Snow, we need so much more!!!