Nordic Zooming

I love this cool shot of Jack & Rudy catching air amidst my shadow as we break through the shade of trees into a blast of sun. 

Whee, these kids are so fun!!!

It was a wonderful day on the upper elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. The groomer had not been out since yesterday morning, but the conditions were still excellent this morning. When we got far from the trailhead, only a pair of skate skiers had been this far in the last 24 hours. Sweet!

A perfect groomed trail with existing marks of only 2 previous skate skiers.
Look at Jack & Rudy in a cool out-stretched sprint on the groomie zoomie.

Even when we were closer to the trailhead, the conditions were still pretty nice:

Zipping by the Hallelujah Warming Hut with still plenty of soft trail
for us to safely floor it!

At our furthest point of the outing, we zoom along a stretch which has been memorable for stunning view shots in years past. Well, this is our 4th or 5th skijor past this section this season. I'm now convinced the trees have just grown too much in the past year to get the stunning views we used to. Here's the best I got:

In years past, all the smaller trees to our right were much shorter and we'd
get a stunning view of the Rocky Mountains to our right. I guess those days
are over with the growing trees. Oh well, growing trees are a good thing :)

Since we didn't get the usual panoramic view shot in the prior photo, the kids decided to stop, drop and roll snow angels at another overlook to give us a view shot for the day. What polite kids :)

Stop, drop & roll with snow capped Rocky Mountain peaks in the foreground!

Now on to today's video highlight. Come along as we skijor to the completion of the day's outing. This final approach has three things to be aware of: 1) a few blind corners to zip around; 2) the possibility of loose dogs milling around as we are near a trailhead; and 3) the potential for slick and/or icy conditions as lots of traffic (ski, foot, snowshoe) has been on the trail. Well, today the conditions were good enough for me to feel comfortable letting Jack & Rudy go full throttle to the finish. Come along and watch fun. With no loose dogs appearing around any corner, this was about as perfect a finish we can get on this particular trail! Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Fun, fun, fun, right guys?

"Oh, that was a blast! Zoom!" says the patient kids awaiting end of
run treats atop a little snow wall.

Today's milestone? Our top speed of the season! 9.3 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 23 days on the trails covering 142.4 miles with 17,100 feet of elevation climbed.