Baldy Treat

Oh Jack, you silly snow angel rolling Jack!

Snow rolling Jack at our second turnaround event of the morning.
The first turnaround happened with Zorro and Jack stayed upright that time!
"Oh come on - you can't expect me to remain upright through TWO turnarounds!"
demonstrates silly snow rolling Jack.
"Look at me - mature Rudy!!!!" says smiling Rudy turning without
rolling TWICE today!

This morning was one of the rarest of treats. A skijor on Baldy Mountain in mid April! Some background first: Baldy is an extremely steep network of trails with extremely rocky and uneven terrain under the snow.  We regularly skijor Baldy in the middle of winter when the snowpack is deep. But, we also ONLY skijor Baldy after 5+ inches of new snow - the terrain is way too steep for me to skijor behind my power three (or even two) without fresh snow to slow them down.

Now, come April, we need a lot of factors to come together to be able to skijor Baldy. First, it must have remained below freezing for multiple days (to firm up the spring dirt/mud below the snow). Check, it has been below freezing for three days straight. Second, it must have snowed multiple times in the preceding days to replenish the snowpack. Check, it has snowed almost daily for 7 days straight. Third, it must have snowed 5+ inches the night/morning before we go out on Baldy. Check, we had at least 6 inches of new snow at home, so more on Baldy! With these three factors in place, it was time to get out on for a rare April skijor on Baldy.

Today, we had a fourth factor. We were not first on the trail and multiple skiers had packed it before us. Normally I do not care if the trail has been packed as Jack & Rudy love to break trail. But, for "almost 12 years old" Zorro to come along, we need at least one packed single track on the trail. Check, some powder hounds had been out before us. I thought Zorro's days of skijoring Baldy were behind him as usually the snow is too deep when we go out early. With the set single track, though, we were able to let Zorro ride the middle with Jack & Rudy flirting in the powder on the sides.

Woo Hoo - an April skijor on Baldy!
Woo Hoo - a Baldy skijor with elder Zorro!!!!!

Come along for the fun ride as Zorro is cruising in the set track with his polite brothers dipping into the soft side powder. What a treat to skijor Baldy in April AND with Zorro!!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Zorro came with for the first 1/3 of the outing as we went up/down Baldy. Here we are back to the trailhead and keeping our distance as we wait for all the other powder hounds who got out early to get on Baldy.

"Look at all the people who need our help going up!" says Zorro & Jack.
"Hey sir, you could use my help!" says Rudy to the skier passing by.

Once the traffic cleared at the trailhead, we handed Zorro off to Nancy and the kids, Jack & Rudy, and I went back out & up & back further on Baldy.

Both Jack & Rudy were in "2 year old" moods this morning. Their comical sideline antics were in rare form. Every once in a while I get reminded that they are really only 2 years old :)

Rudy back to an expert rodent swan dive for the second day in a row.
"Hey, little bro - what do you have over there?" asks Jack peeking back
to diving Rudy.

Did Jack need an answer from Rudy? Ha, no - you trust any rodent dive from your brother as a valid and necessary off trail surge :)

"I'm coming, I'm coning - INCOMING!" demonstrates low diving Jack.
As you see, Jack has his own low-angle rodent dives as
opposed to Rudy's high arching swan dives.

Despite the first picture above and the prior two, guess what? We really did do some skijoring on Baldy after we dropped Zorro!

OMG - the kids are upright, on trail and going forward!!!!!

One of the rarest of treats - a mid April skijor on Baldy with an unexpected addition of elder Zorro for the first 1/3 of the outing! 6.3 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 150 days on the trails covering 1026.7 miles with 93,500 feet of elevation climbed.