Catch the Groomer

We invented a new game on the trails today: Catch the Groomer!

Sprinting along the freshly groomed terrain as we encounter the groomer waddling along
the trail.

I never really thought about it before, but it does make sense in retrospect: Sled dogs are much faster than groomers! We were sprinting our favorite "local groom loop" this morning when we caught the groomer from behind. We stopped and gave the groomer a head start, only to catch it again within minutes. So, we stopped, turned around and went the opposite direction to give the groomer a really big head start - only to catch it again within minutes of turning around to chase it again. Repeat many times to execute today's fun game: Catch the Groomer.

Short video clip of playing Catch the Groomer. Flying along the trails until we catch him from behind and have to stop to give it another head start - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

This Groom Loop is an interesting trail to use. It is tucked away in the forest and requires a backcountry ski in and ski out. We have had a ton of snow the last couple of days, so the backcountry entry & exit points were buried in snow and required extreme trail breaking to navigate...

Max took lead most of the way in (when it gets extremely deep, Max & Zorro trade off who gets the most trail breaking work in the front of the group):

Swimming through the snow as Max takes us in to the groom loop.

Once to the loop, it is fast, fast, FAST as we did two laps around this course:

Flying! Love to open it up on fast & easy groomed terrain.

Zorro then took lead most of the way out:

Back to single-file trail breaking. You can see the ski runs of Breckenridge Ski Resort coming
into view across the valley.

Catch the Groomer - what a fun game:

"The 'catch' was the most fun!" say my happy partners as we are paused once again to give
the groomer another head start (note the groomer just ahead of us on the trail).

Trail breaking in, lightning fast loops and trail breaking out: 7.8 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 41 days on the trails covering 344.2 miles with 36300 feet of elevation climbed.