Skijor Box Out

Today's skijoring video (below) has Max demonstrating some nice "skijor box out" moves :)

We have had a ton of snow the last 3 days. So much snow that many of the backcountry trails have tracks that are barely "2 Siberians Wide" and, in many cases, only wide enough to run in single file skijoring configurations...

Near the trailhead and you can see the "set track" is barely 2 Siberians wide. If you step out of
the set tracks, then you sink to your Siberian shoulders in deep snow. 

As we were coming down one section of trail, Max & Zorro tried to "floor it" only to find the trail to fluctuate between 1 & 2 Siberians wide. This lead to a great demonstration of "box out" techniques by Max to keep the speeds going while establishing his position in lead

The skijor sprint starts out "2 Sibes Wide". About 6-7 seconds in, Zorro starts finding the
trail shrinking to "1 Sibe Wide". About 8 seconds in, Max starts his "box out" and forces
Zorro to 2nd position. For about 15 seconds, Zorro looks for a way to get back in lead
with Max, only to find he keeps getting "boxed out". And, finally, the trail opens back up
to "2 Sibes Wide" and Zorro jumps back into position to continue the sprint...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We only had time for a short outing today; but we were blessed with tons of new snow all over the trails. From "laying fresh tracks" to "skijoring single file" to "breaking trail" - we packed a lot into a quick 6.2 mile outing!

Laying fresh tracks up the main French Gulch trail.

A little further and the trail is only "1 Siberian Wide" as you can see the snow wall on each
side of Max. 

A little further and BOOM - breaking trail in 10+ inches of untouched terrain!
Time to let Max and his long legs lead the way.

A fun little 6.2 mile outing with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a modest top speed of 17 MPH (we never encountered any wide straightaways to uncork the skijoring speed).