Elevated

A gorgeous day to climb up & sprint down Shrine Mountain at Vail Pass!

Absolutely beautiful conditions near the top of Shrine Mountain - wheeee!

Yesterday on Facebook Nancy (jokingly) said we had been "slacking" this season as our elevation profile of this 1000+ mile season has been less than the previous two 1000+ seasons. Well, word got to Max & Zorro that someone had use the "slacker" term in conjunction with them. Well, slack this as today's outing included 1600 feet of elevation ascended (and then descended) over a total of 8.6 miles...

We started at the Vail Pass Trailhead and then ascended Shrine Pass before turning left at the pass and ascending Shrine Mountain. Very few ever do this climb (most people snowmobile up and ski or board down)... Slackers, harumpf :-)

"Whew, what a climb! Gotta cool off before going higher!" demonstrate the snow angel rolling
pair at a quick break while climbing Shrine Mountain.

One of the nice things about this climb is that you get a few flat shelves that had beautiful, untouched terrain as far as the eye can see:

Gliding out to the right on my skis to get a great profile shot of Max & Zorro.

Today's short video clip shows how perfect the conditions were up high on Shrine Mountain. It does not get much better than this in May!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Slackers, huh....

"It is only the human that ever turns around, not us!" declare the happy pair at our turnaround
point high up on Shrine Mountain.

A gorgeous day to climb a mountain: 8.6 miles with 1600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 139 days on the trails covering 1197.9 miles with 126,150 feet of elevation climbed.