Crust

Our first outing this Spring completely abandoning set trails and spending the entire outing on a firm Spring Crust! Yay! 

Perfect strong/solid crust this morning!

We have been waiting for the arrival of the spring crust - when warm days soften the top layer of the snowpack and then freezing nights form this layer into a solid crust that can hold our weight while running and skiing. April 11th is one of the latest arrivals we've had of the crust in any season; but it is finally here!!!

We did numerous laps on the crust around Dry Lake at the base of Buffalo Pass. Look at this beautiful shot of endless, open crust:

Zipping along an endless spring crust. Wheeee!

How about another cool shot of Jack & Rudy flying along as we skijor across an incline.

Flying perpendicular to the incline in the terrain.

Come along for a "combo video" of the morning fun - the first 30 seconds we are doing some voice control navigating and the second 30 seconds we are zooming up a gentle rise on the endless spring crust. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course, there is one thing the crust can never support... Moose! We were cruising through some trees when we came upon a collection of moose beds and moose tracks. Jack & Rudy found the moose bed the most interesting.

The dark in the snow just to the right of Rudy's left foot is a tuft of moose fur.
Jack's nose is in another tuft of moose fur.
The moose was shedding in this moose bed - made for fascinating sniffs :)

Today's snow angels from the silly kids came with some nice views :)

White as far as the eye can see. The Colorado snowpack is very good this year!

Back to the trailhead and, you guessed it, the kids found a snow wall to climb to get to my height for end of run treats.

"We love our new 'climb a snow wall for treats' trick!" declares the happy kids.

The first day of Spring Crust is always so fun! 9.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed (I forgot to turn off the GPS, so I don't know our top speed as it was on while we were driving home).

2022/2023 Season to Date: 132 days on the trails covering 1177.4 miles with 106,900 feet of elevation climbed.