Vail Pass Snowpack

April 18th and the snowpack at the Vail Pass Recreation Area is still quite impressive!

Note the STOP sign forward and to the right. This is a "full height" STOP sign for summer
traffic on this road but the sign is barely above the snowpack today. That's an impressive
base of snow for April 18th!

We did a "double loop" at Vail Pass today. We skijored up Shrine Pass via the snowshoe trail, then sprinted along the groomed Shrine Pass Road, then back up Shrine Pass making our own trail on the hard snow crust and finally sprinting back along Shrine Pass Road.

Cruising along the Shrine Pass Snowshoe Trail.

Sprinting along the groomed Shrine Pass Road.

Today's video highlight features "Run, Hunt, Run"... Watch closely as something keeps catching Zorro's attention off the right of the trail as he frequently glances to the right. Eventually the "something to the right" catches Max's attention too as both start focusing off to the right. Only wildlife can capture their attention like this; but I scanned the terrain and saw nothing. All this hunting without breaking our run and without veering off the trail - perfect "Run, Hunt, Run" form :-)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually the day had to come to an end, although Zorro was not sure why...

We just finished our second climb up Shrine Pass (this time making our own trail).
I called out "right" as we needed to connect back onto Shrine Pass Rd to head back to the trailhead.
"Right? Ok - let's go!" says happy Max.
"I'm turning, but why on earth aren't we going further?" asks obedient but puzzled Zorro.

A fun double loop on Shrine Pass covering 9.7 miles with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2013/2014 Season to Date: 133 days on the trails covering 1151.1 miles with 133,000 feet of elevation climbed. Over 1150 miles and still going - Woo Hoo!