Sticky and Heavy Snow

The power kids, Jack & Rudy, leaning into their harnesses to propel me though this morning's sticky and heavy snow!

Impressive power!

Today was a very rare thing for the Colorado High Country: heavy, wet and sticky snow! Colorado ski areas are famous for their soft & fluffy snow conditions. But, it is May and most ski areas are already closed for the season. This is the time of year that a heavy/wet snow can happen and it really did last night!!! We found ourselves breaking trail in 4-7 inches of heavy & sticky snow our entire outing this morning. No complaints here, just reporting the hard workout conditions :)

Still laying fresh tracks as we did a loop trail this morning.
Look at all that snow stuck on the top of my skis. Heavy, wet and sticky!

Come along for today's "power video" as you can see the energy of Jack & Rudy propelling me through 5ish inches of heavy, wet and sticky snow. Powerful kids! You'll also see that I am in quite the "ski tuck" to help move me through the sticky snow :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Running through heavy, wet snow is quite the workout, just ask Jack & Rudy. I paused at a trail junction to assess if we could continue forward (longer outing) or turn left (shorter outing). Well, I stopped...

"What a workout! Stop, drop & roll!" goes the snow rolling sillies.

It turns out we had to turn left as the heavy snow had slowed us down. I also needed to get back to the trailhead before the "slick wax" on my skis wore off (I'd never have been able to move in the sticky snow without the wax). So, a short outing in "not your typical Colorado snow", any complaints?

"Nope! We still had a blast!" exclaims the happy kids who were still able
to find a short snow wall to climb for end of run treats.

Heavy, wet and sticky snow yielded a 5.4 mile outing with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 153 days on the trails covering 1348.8 miles with 123,100 feet of elevation climbed.