Fast Packed

Everybody having a great time skijoring Boreas Pass again this morning?

"Yes! I'm having a blast!" exclaims happy Jack.
"You bet, but why are we stopped?" adds Rudy.

After incredible conditions being first on Boreas yesterday morning, we returned with the hopes it had not deteriorated too much in 24 hours. Well, Boreas is still open to vehicles through October so, unfortunately, it had deteriorated a LOT in 24 hours! The reason we use Boreas Pass in October, despite being open to vehicles, is that we can drive the pass too and get up high enough in elevation to skijor in October. Trails lower in elevation have snow but not enough to ski or even dog sled. 

To avoid encountering vehicles, we start up the pass in the dark and begin our skijor outings just after sunrise:

Nice stretch of "vehicle packed" trail just after sunrise.

Despite lots of traffic in the last 24 hours, we did find some really nice stretches once we got up near 11,000 feet elevation. Here's our first "dual hover husky" shot of the season with Jack & Rudy hovering over the trail as we get into some nice speed. Notice my left ski in the loose snow and my right ski in the packed tire track: lean left to slow/control the ship, lean right to open up the throttle :)

The hover huskies are back!

Come along for a glimpse into a really nice stretch of vehicle packed trail near 11,000 feet elevation. Jack & Rudy truly understand when it is ok to open up the throttle and when they should tune it down a bit.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We had to drive very far up Boreas Pass Rd before we found conditions good enough to skijor. Unfortunately we were within 1.5 miles of treeline where we started. Once we reached treeline, the trail was very wind blown and void of snow - just ice. Skis & ice don't mix well :)

As a result we did 4 laps on Boreas: up 1.5 miles, down 1.3 miles, back up the same 1.3 miles and back down the same 1.5 miles. Sometimes Jack & Rudy will balk at repeating sections of trail but today the sides of trail were littered with elk tracks. Nothing like a little "scent of elk" to motivate you to go up, down, up and down the same short trail :)

Paused to inspect the numerous elk tracks just off trail.
"These smell very fresh!" states Jack.
"Where'd they go? Where'd they go?" asks Rudy studying the
tracks leading off into the trees.

Of course, going up/down/up/down means we had 3 turnaround points in the outing. That's way too many for the "turnaround, roll around" brothers to pass up:

Turnaround... Roll Around!

Back to celebrate a short but very fun outing with retired elder Zorro:

Rudy cracks me up in this photo! What a silly tongue!

A short, but fun, 5.6 mile outing with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH. It was short for Jack & Rudy's standards; but it was skijoring in October!

Unfortunately we are entering a string of warm days, so skijoring is on hold until Mother Nature brings us more! Pray for Snow!

2021/2022 Season Totals: 3 days on the trails covering 20.1 miles with 1800 feet of elevation climbed.

Skis

Laying fresh tracks up Boreas Pass this morning. Wheeee!

New snow all to ourselves this morning!

But, wait, what is that in the bottom center of the prior photo? Yes, it's a "ski tip" and, yes, we were able to ditch the dog sled this morning and get out the skis for a wonderful skijor up/down Boreas Pass! We had the sled out for our first outing on Wednesday. But, with cool temperatures Wed/Thu and a new round of snow Thu night, we were able to break out the skis for our excursion up/down Boreas this morning! Yay!

Not only was there enough snow for skis; but we were also first on the trail this morning! It was a fresh tracks glide all the way up Boreas. The further we went, the more interesting it got...

How interesting? Well Jack & Rudy have their noses in a set of
moose tracks in this photo. You can make out one moose print next
to Rudy's right shoulder and then follow that line up the trail.

How interesting did it really get? Well, we found ourselves breaking trail in 8+ inches of fresh powder at our highest elevations on the trail this morning. Powder Fun!

Jack & Rudy powering through deep snow!

Come along for a quick video counterpart to the prior breaking trail photo. What powder plows! But, also look to our left and you'll see a set of tire tracks. While we were first tracks up Boreas, once we turned around, we encountered a Jeep coming up the pass (the road is open to vehicles June through October). Despite there being a tire track down the trail, Jack & Rudy wanted nothing to do with it and wanted to run in the deep powder outside the track all the way down. Powder plows!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I stopped momentarily at one point to check our time out on the trail. Jack & Rudy quickly remembered what to do when the human pauses - the roll around twins!

"You pause, we roll snow angels! Wheeee!" demonstrates the
silly, silly kids.

Back down the pass and time to meet up with our favorite retired mentor, Zorro, for end of run treats!

"Ready!" declares focuses Zorro.
"Great day, waiting my turn!" adds happy Jack.
"Slurp, I can taste them with anticipation!" says silly Rudy.

Yay for the conditions to support skis on just our second outing of the season! 8.3 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH. If it does not get too warm today, we might try for one more early morning run on Boreas tomorrow. After that we'll be in limbo waiting for the next storm to arrive. Pray for Snow!

2021/2022 Season Totals: 2 days on the trails covering 14.5 miles with 1200 feet of elevation climbed.

Season Opener

 Let the 2021/2022 Skijoring Season begin! Wheeee!

Pausing with Jack & Rudy to celebrate reaching the top of
Boreas Pass on the Continental Divide this morning!

While skijoring is our primary activity in the winter, sometimes we have to use the dog sled instead of skis to get out in early season conditions. Frequently our initial 1-3 outings are on the dog sled as the conditions are not good enough for skis. The sled can glide over frozen ground and bounce among exposed rocks, the skis cannot! 

But, it turns out that this was actually young Jack & Rudy's first time ever hooked to the dog sled. The lucky kids had me on skis every other season opener of their lives (Jack is 4, Rudy is 3). What did Jack & Rudy think of the sled? 

"If it glides on snow, we pull it!" demonstrates the youngsters in 
perfect form on their first ever sled outing.

Most of my footage usually comes from the GoPro on my chest. But, as you see above, when I'm on the sled, a lot of the action is blocked by the sled and my arms and Jack & Rudy are often completely blocked from view. No problem, though, look at what I have mounted on the sled handlebar above - a secondary camera! So, with the sled, I often get better shots from the secondary camera than the primary on my chest:

Nice shot from the secondary camera of Jack & Rudy flying
along near the summit of Boreas Pass.

Today's video highlight goes along with the prior photo and comes from the secondary camera. Come along as we are gliding along the trail near the summit of Boreas Pass. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Today was Jack's 485th "skijor outing" (ok, 484 skijors and 1 dog sled outing :) - well, he kept his record intact, he has rolled at least one snow angel on every single one of the 485 outings. What a silly goof!

"You didn't really think my streak would stop, did you?" says
silly Jack as he rolls his patented snow angels.

Back to the trailhead to meet up with our favorite retired mentor, Zorro. The 13 year old still loves joining us for "end of run treats" after every outing!

"Yum, just as good as I remember!" says treat taking Zorro.
"Me next!" Jack is telling me.
"I see the stash in your hand!!!!" declares Rudy.

A fun dog sled run to the summit of Boreas Pass and back to start the 2021/2022 season: 6.2 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 14 MPH.

Pray for Snow!