Z Memories

Snow angels with a view from the comedians, Jack & Rudy, this morning :)

I guess I was the only one awestruck by the views from here :)

Our initial plan this morning was to skijor the spring crust to the backcountry huts on Shrine Pass above Vail Pass this morning. This initial plan was a great success:

Trotting by one of the backcountry huts.
Despite how nice the huts look from the outside, they have no water or
electricity and only fire for heat inside. Thus a backcountry hut.

Our main goal of the day was to get to the huts to sprinkle some of Zorro's ashes. Zorro LOVED skijoring to the huts all his life. He always had so much fun flirting with the overnighters in the huts who would often come out to see the crazy guy on skis with the pretty sled dogs. Jack, Rudy and I skijored around this particular hut and then paused to sprinkle Zorro. As expected, the event got woos for Rudy and smiles from Jack - that's how they interacted with Zorro :)

Sorry, I didn't realize that Jack was not completely on camera until I got home.
Anyway, Zorro's ashes coming out of the bag in the upper right of this photo
while Rudy sings a tribute and Jack flashes his beautiful smile in honor
of wonderful Zorro.

Skijor up the spring crust to the huts, success. Sprinkle wonderful Z's ashes, success. Our final plan was to then skijor back down the crust which is usually very solid this time of year.

Looking good to begin with.

Unfortunately the crust was not nearly as solid as we had hoped. It was nice at our highest point of elevation (see the photo above); but started getting soft within a few hundred feet of our planned descent. Once Jack & Rudy started punching through the crust, it was time to abandon this plan as that is dangerous to their feet, ankles, hips and shoulders. 

What to do? Well we gently trotted over to the main snowmobile trail that goes nearby the huts. The snowmobile trail is well packed from a season of grooming and snowmobiles. Yet, grooming operations are winding down at Vail Pass and with warm days and ongoing snowmobile traffic, the trail was pretty beat up. But, better to put wear & tear on my knees than Jack & Rudy's hips & shoulders :)

But, we did find this "minute of nice trail" where the right shoulder had not seen too much snowmobile use. Come along and watch this rare stretch of nice trail we had on the way down. Hey, a minute of nice is better than none at all :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Nice shot of airborne Jack & Rudy clipped from the prior video:

Boy do my knees wish the whole trail down was as nice as this stretch!

Back to the trailhead and there is still enough of a snow wall in the parking lot for Jack & Rudy to climb for end of run treats. I think Zorro would have really gotten a kick out of the kids new "climb snow walls for treats" this season. I'm sure Zorro would have said, "What a great idea!" and joined in!

"Don't overuse those knees, we'll come to you!" says the polite kids.

Not the best outing due to a punchy crust and rough snowmobile trail; but a great outing to spread a little of Zorro on one of his favorite skijor trails: 8.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 137 days on the trails covering 1216.0 miles with 111,200 feet of elevation climbed.