SNOW!

Finally - a "spring snow" in Colorado!!!

It was a wet, sticky, slow snow - but IT SNOWED!!!

Cruising up Boreas Pass Rd, laying fresh tracks in about 4 inches of fresh snow.

After what was the driest March on record for Colorado and 14 days of "no snow" in April, we FINALLY got a good spring snow (something that usually happens multiple times in March and April).

Max, Zorro & I were almost convinced the season was over; but we kept the slightest glimmer of hope going. It couldn't go all spring without a single snow, could it.... Phew, it could not! We got an 11 mile skijor run up & down Boreas Pass Rd today. Wheee!

The conditions? Well, "molasses soup" at the lower elevations, "powder bliss" at the higher elevations.

The lower terrain (from the Boreas winter trailhead to Bakers Tank) had about 4-6 inches of new wet & sticky snow atop wet mud on Boreas Pass Rd. It has been so hot and dry lately, that Boreas was a path of mud and completely free of snow until last night. The wet snow started to accumulate before the mud could freeze and then provided a layer of insulation to keep it from freezing. The result: a wet spring snow over a wet mud base. Imagine pouring a layer of honey over a bowl of molasses - that was the conditions at the lower elevations. We had to remove my skis 3 times (once up and twice down) to scrape the layer of wet snow & mud that had accumulated to the point where my skis would not glide. But, no complaints here: we were skijoring again - just expending a lot of effort to move the skis through the sticky terrain. Max & Zorro kept pulling, trying to get human to move faster through the honey & molasses; no give up in those two!  ;-)

The upper terrain (from Bakers Tank to just below treeline on Boreas) had 4-8 inches of beautiful, soft & untouched new powder atop a hard/frozen Boreas Pass Rd. We had a blast on this 1/2 of the outing - breaking trail in 4-8 inches of fluffy snow. Woo, what fun!

And... it's still snowing this afternoon. I sense our 2011/2012 season will be continuing tomorrow!

Our final approach back to the Boreas winter trailhead. Siberians working hard
to pull the sticking skis through the wet snow.

High up on Boreas Pass Rd at our midpoint break. Max beginning one of
his patented "snow angel rolls" in the snow.

Zorro at our midpoint. It was snowing nicely high up on Boreas. Zorro's left
side is happily covered in fresh falling snow.

Snowing hard at our midpoint. We had a few hotdog treats, changed my gloves and
then turned around to see our "up tracks" were already covered in snow and invisible.
So, it was a fun time breaking trail up & down Boreas, no "easy down" taking our
existing tracks. Nice workout for the Siberians!

Vital Stats: 10.7 miles; 135m total time, 105m skijoring time (30m of stoppage for one break and 3 "remove and scrub the buildup off the skis" stops); 1500 feet of elevation climbed; 15 MPH top speed. Given the "honey & molasses" lower terrain, we made pretty good time covering 10.7 miles and 1500 feet - we must have been flying in the upper terrain; because we were certainly crawling in the lower terrain...