Skijoring the Ski Resort

This morning was our annual "Skijor the Breckenridge Ski Resort" outing. What fun!

"Yes indeed - what fun!" declares happy Zorro.
"This is so cool!" adds happy Rudy participating in his first "skijor the ski resort".
"It tastes good too!" adds always comical Jack.

It has been our annual tradition to skijor the ski resort the day after it closes. The trails are just "one day old" and still in great condition. Technically, Breckenridge Ski Resort is still open; but they closed over half the mountain after yesterday. The resort consists of run on 5 mountains (Peaks 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10). Peaks 8/9/10 are now closed along with parts of 6 & 7. This was perfect for us as we like to skijor Peak 9 the day after it closes.

The last few years we have been lucky enough to find a groomed track to skijor. This morning started out on ungroomed and bumpy terrain, I was worried we wouldn't get a very long skijor with such bumpy trails:

Riding the "Siberian Husky Tow Rope" up the bumpy trail as we started next to Beaver Run
Resort (to the right) and went up the trail next to it.

But, look what we found!!!! A little ways up the trail in the prior photo and we encountered a groomed track! What a treat! The ski resort tends to groom a trail the day after closing for ski patrol and other workers to use as they go up & down the mountain removing signage and other markers.

We found a groomed track!!!! Zoooooom!

It is so much fun to skijor under the lifts on a perfect trail:

Flying under the ski lifts.

A little further, more lifts overhead:

Still flying, still under the lifts :)

Put the last 3 photos together and you get today's cool video. Come along as we skijor the ski resort on a perfect (and FAST) groomed track!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually the groomed track went up a double black (extremely difficult) run. I know from past years' experience that skijoring a black or double black (groomed or not) is a mistake! My sled dog monsters want to go so fast down a black that it scares me to death (and this experience was with just Max & Zorro, not three)! But, we were not ready to be done yet, so we did some loops on the runs around the groomed track. It snowed lightly yesterday but I thought all the snow fell before the resort closed for the day. Imagine my surprise when we found untouched fresh snow on the loops we did around the groomed trail (clearly it did snow after closing). Fresh tracks:

Whee - laying fresh tracks when toured around the groomed track!

Remember that ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing. The result: Rudy got his first skijor exceeding 1000 feet in elevation climbed. What a fun day: 5.6 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 102 days on the trails covering 580.0 miles with 53,900 feet of elevation climbed.