May Opener

Who is excited that we are entering May on skis and snow?

"We are! We are! We are THRILLED!" exclaims the happy kids looking back
at me during a momentary pause on the trails.

While most of the northern hemisphere is thinking about flowers and gardens at the beginning of May, we are celebrating great snowpack on Rabbit Ears Pass! It was a beautiful morning on a firm and endless spring crust on the Buffalo Park area on the pass.

Catching air as we zip along with snow as far as the eye can see.

It is May, though, and we did see some evidence of that - eek, the creek!

Eek, the creek! That is Muddy Creek to our right coming through the snowpack
in a few places this morning. This "creek" will drain Rabbit Ears into the
Colorado River. Much more than a typical creek! But, notice how much snow is
still available on each side of the massive creek!

As usual, when there is a firm spring crust we abandon set trails and weave our way through and across vast meadows of snow. You can view Buffalo Park as one large, primary meadow with dozens of little offshoot side meadows. We would skijor along the primary meadow for a bit, then do an out/back in one of the side meadows (and then repeat again and again :)

Cruising along one of the narrower side meadows. Still a perfect crust.

Now come along for our video highlight of the morning. We are zipping along in the primary meadow and making our way crossing this meadow one of may numerous criss/crosses of the morning. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, our last criss/cross of the primary meadow. Flying to the finish...

The road to our right is Highway 40 which marks the end off Buffalo
Park and, thus, the end of the morning outing.

What an entertaining day, right guys?

"We LOVE snow in May!!!!" declares the happy kids.

A really nice morning to start May skijoring Buffalo Park: 8.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 146 days on the trails covering 1295.4 miles with 118,500 feet of elevation climbed.