Powder Day

6-10 inches (depending on location & elevation) of new snow overnight in Breckenridge!

Skijoring Powder Day! Woo Hoo!

We got to the trailhead early this morning - we wanted to be the first tracks in the fresh snow. At the trailhead around 8am at a cool 2 degrees below zero and we were ready to go! Here we are in a fun skijoring sprint in about 6-8 inches of untouched powder:

I love watching Max & Zorro sprint through fresh powder!
I love watching the skis, cruising through the powder, just behind Max & Zorro!
I love being towed around the backcountry by my Siberian pals!
[watch the video on youtube if it is not shown below]

Our route started at the upper Barney Ford trailhead and proceeded up & over Sally Barber Mine. Once down from the mine, we hung a right into French Gulch and skijored up to the last cabin in the gulch. A quick break at the last cabin and we skied back down to & past the French Gulch winter trailhead, onto French Gulch road to finish at the Reiling Dredge trailhead.

We were a little letdown to find a set of existing tracks at our start point. "It's 8am! It's 2 degrees below zero! Who on earth beat us to the trailhead?!?" we all wondered. Luckily it was just a snowshoer who had been out before us - within 3/4 of a mile, the snowshoe tracks ended and we had Sally Barber and French Gulch all to ourselves to lay fresh tracks in 6-10 inches of untouched powder the rest of the day!

A good shot of the snow as we pause at our "break point" of the outing. As you can see, the snow was
almost "chest deep" for short Zorro and about "3/4 leg deep" for tall Max - that's about 8-10 inches!

A nice shot of the fresh trail in front of us. It's hard to see (from behind) that we are breaking trail in
about 8 inches of powder - look closely at the trail behind Max & Zorro.

Getting deeper and steeper - Siberian Skijoring Power at work!

What did Max & Zorro think of the morning's fresh powder and comfy Siberian temperatures? Well...

Beginning the route to Sally Barber Mine from the upper Barney Ford trailhead.
You can see both huskies leaning into their harnesses as they pull to launch this skijoring
vehicle on its way!

Stats for the Outing: 8.6 miles with 1100 feet of elevation climbed. Laying fresh tracks and breaking trail in 6-10 inches of fresh powder for over 7 miles of the outing! Fun, fun fun!