Nice up High

Beautiful conditions on the "upper shelves" atop Rabbit Ears Pass this morning!

Sprinting along with perfect trail conditions!
Yes, it does seem like Zorro spends most of his life in the air! :-)

Things are getting sketchy down low; but if you can get up in elevation quickly then everything is still in great condition. Today was such a day as we took a steep climb encountering many patches of exposed dirt & mud (some with a narrow ribbon of snow to cross and some with no snow at all). But, once we got onto the upper shelf of rolling terrain it was perfect conditions in mid-May! Come along for the ride...

"Emergency! Cannot continue!" states serious & distressed Max at the terrain.
"We could back up and try to jump it!" suggests silly Zorro.
We had multiple "dead patches" like this to traverse while getting up higher.

Up higher and look at these conditions! Perfect skijoring terrain in mid-May. Zoom!

At the highest point of the day and note the partially exposed trail sign in front of Zorro. We have been on this trail in the summer and that sign is about 3.5 feet tall. Today it is about 6 inches exposed meaning that we are still on 3 feet of snowpack at the highest point of the day!

"There's my sign - so happy it is still buried!" states focused Zorro.
"You two play with your sign; I am going to roll snow angels until we are ready to go again!"
demonstrates silly Max.

Put the last two pictures together and you get a great video clip like the following. Perfect conditions above 10,000 feet at Rabbit Ears Pass!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Why don't we just move above 10,000 feet?

"Good point, it is so wonderful up high. We could camp here until June!" state the happy pair.

A great day up high at Rabbit Ears Pass: 10.2 miles with 950 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 141 days on the trails covering 1216.2 miles with 127,900 feet of elevation climbed.