Kids

Oh those silly three year olds at one of our turnaround points skijoring atop French Creek this morning!

"I dare you!" declares Jack.
"I accept!" responds Rudy :)

We started the morning going to check the status of the spring crust over French Creek. I was hoping the crust was still solid enough to hold us. Well, success!!! The crust was perfect and even had an inch or two of fresh snow atop it!

Laying fresh tracks in the solid crust over French Creek.

We did multiple laps around and across the meadow in the prior photo. Then, we exited the crust to skijor to Sally Barber Mine and then come back. Well, coming back meant we stopped to turnaround at the mine. Yep, turnaround is roll around time:

The "snow angel twins" doing their usual turnaround antics :)

The trail to/from the mine was actually a little beat up from warm days and heavy use. So, we did less skijoring on the mine trail than usual and went back to the French Creek crust for another few laps before ending the day.

Great shot of the expansive meadow of crust over French Creek.
Nice shot of Jack & Rudy laying fresh tracks with snow
poofs behind them.

Today's video highlight is, of course, a fun clip of us skijoring atop the spring crust over French Creek. Watch at about 28 seconds along and I surprise Jack & Rudy by calling out a "right" to go through a gap in the bushes. But, the smart kids immediately find the gap for my "right" command and they quickly pass through and realign to keep on going. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Another fun day on the French Creek crust to report to elder Zorro:

"Sounds like they did good!" surmises Zorro.
"Skijor, play and snow angels - perfect outing!" adds the giggle twins.

Great crust outing today with a bit beaten down trail to/from the mine in between: 6.7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 144 days on the trails covering 1173.0 miles with 100,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Return

Another great morning Skijoring Breckenridge Ski Resort. Wheeee!

Jack & Rudy zipping along as we pass by trail
signage at Breckenridge Ski Resort.

We had so much fun skijoring Peak 9 yesterday that we got up early to go again today. As I described yesterday, Peak 9 is now closed for the season but you can still find a groomed trail or two (or more) as the ski resort is still doing maintenance and other tasks on the mountain. This does not go unnoticed to locals in the area. Everyone who lives here knows that Peak 9 is still useable with a random groomed trail here and there. You just have to skin or hike up the mountain to make use of the "tourist free" terrain :) As a result, we encounter the occasional kindred spirit along the way:

Jack & Rudy flying along as the "dot" in front of us is a
snowboarder coming down the mountain.

Come along for the fun video counterpart to the prior photo. Watch closely and you can see the snowboarder coming down in front of us. Jack & Rudy were intrigued and wanted to catch and inspect the moving object in front of us. But, alas, the snowboarder crossed by before we got to him. So we might as well continue flying along the trail we are on :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Yesterday we had a ton of soft powder to gallop through when not on groomed trails. Unfortunately, those same powder trails from yesterday were punchy trails this morning. Not solid enough to be a crust but hard enough to be punchy. But, once we got high enough in elevation, the untouched snow was soft again. As a result we went powder plowing for a while when we were above 10,500 feet in elevation.

Powder fun! Wheeee!

But, the majority of our outing was spent below 10,500 feet in elevation. Not a problem, we just stuck to every groomed trail we could find!

Flying along a groomie zoomie as we cross under a chairlift.

Remember ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing. Thus, we climb a lot of elevation on our tours around the resort. After each big climb, the silly kids needed to cool their jets before launching back down:

"Aahh!" declares the snow rolling giggle twins.

Back to the base area to meet up with our retired mentor, Zorro, to show him how well he taught us the last 2 years!

"Hi Zorro!" smiles Jack & Rudy.
"Looking good, I taught you well!" adds inspecting Zorro.

With a steep skijor on the ski resort this morning, we were able to surpass 100,000 feet of skijoring for the season. Yes, Jack & Rudy have towed me up (and launched me down) over 100,000 feet in elevation! Today's tally: 8.7 miles traveled with 1600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 143 days on the trails covering 1166.3 miles with 100,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Skijoring the Ski Resort

A beautiful "fresh tracks Tuesday" on this late April morning!

Jack & Rudy laying fresh tracks in about 4 inches of
fresh powder. Wheeee!

But, wait, look at the prior photo a little closer. What is that far to our left? Hey, a chairlift! What is that dead ahead of us? Hey, the Peak 9 Base Area of Breckenridge Ski Resort! Yes, that's right, today was one of our favorite annual traditions: Skijoring the Ski Resort! We try to get out on the ski resort trails shortly after they close for the season. Technically speaking Breckenridge Ski Resort is still open. But, the resort has ski runs across 5 peaks of the 10 mile range (Peaks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). With dwindling tourist traffic in April, the ski resort will shutdown operations on peaks 6, 9 and 10 around mid-April. Peaks 7 & 8 will stay open as far into May as the snow remains. 

Back to today. Peaks 6, 9 and 10 are now closed for the season and Peak 9 is our favorite peak to "Skijor the Ski Resort" so off we went this morning. For the first few days after these peaks are closed, the resort will still groom select trails for maintenance, training and other resort operations. If you are lucky, you can catch a freshly groomed trail on one of the closed peaks. Well, luck indeed, check out this fun photo:

Jack the "skijor bowling ball" and Rudy the "skijor missile" FLYING
along a freshly groomed track on Peak 9 as we cross under
a chairlift. 

Today was probably one of our best ever skijors on the ski resort. Why? Well, we had a nice dump of fresh snow overnight. Around 3 inches at the base of the mountain and upwards of 10 inches mid-mountain! So, whenever we ran out of a groomed trail, we transitioned to perfect powder trails along the way. POW!

Jack & Rudy plowing through over 8 inches of powder
along this trail under a chairlift. Pow, pow, POW!

This excellent combination of "groomed and POW" made for an incredibly fun outing. Come along for an extended video highlight of one of our laps. We start out FLYING along the fast groomed trail. Then, it's time for us to change directions so I call out a "Left" and Jack & Rudy transition onto a powder trail with me and off we go powder plowing. What a fun morning!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Remember that ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing, so the trails are steeper than our typical outings. That meant Jack & Rudy had to roll and cool the jets after each climb before we launched ourselves back down:

"Rub a dub dub, cooling the sled dog jets!" declares
the silly kids.

Finally, a fun shot of us arriving at the base of Peak 9 to meet up with Zorro and Nancy!

Happy kids towing me to the finish.
Excited Zorro greeting us to join in for end of run treats!

Such a fun day on the ski resort, we might go back tomorrow! 6.4 miles traveled with a top speed of 24 MPH and 1300 feet of elevation climbed (remember, ski resorts are steep :)

2020/2021 Season to Date: 142 days on the trails covering 1157.6 miles with 98,500 feet of elevation climbed.