May POW

Happy kids in wonderful new snow in May at the official Rabbit Ears Pass geological marker!

Smiles all around and look at all that fresh & untouched new snow!!!!

The last two days have been incredible fresh snow days in May! It has been a May POW celebration with Jack & Rudy.

Yesterday we skijored the high elevation trails on Peak 7 in Breckenridge. There was 10-15 inches of fresh snow on the trails. One skier had been out before us, so Jack & Rudy tucked themselves into the two ski tracks and towed me up the mountain:

Tucked in tight as the snow is over 10 inches deep out of the ski track so
one could not keep pace with the other if both did not squeeze into these tracks.

I knew Jack & Rudy would appreciate a little wider "set trail" on the way back as it is hard to run fast in a single set of ski tracks without constantly bumping into one another. So, I skied next to the single track you see in the prior photo all the way up. This meant Jack & Rudy had 4 ski tracks to spread across on the way back. Remember, though, there was upwards of 15 inches of fresh snow. So, a single ski track does not pack the trail, it just makes it slightly easier to run fast in. But, there was still plenty of powder in around the ski tracks. Just look at all this powder flying up around Jack & Rudy on our return leg!

Kicking up TONS of powder as the kids blast fast in the 4 ski tracks trail.

With all that deep snow, it was a short (distance wise) outing yesterday: 5.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed. 

This morning we went to the Dumont Lake area at Rabbit Ears Pass. Rabbit Ears is very popular with snowmobiles, so we found 1-2 of fresh snow over pre-existing snowmobile tracks to run in:

Laying fresh tracks in new snow over snowmobile tracks.

It was like mid winter at Rabbit Ears this morning. Quite incredible! Come along and see for yourself as this is near the start of our outing and the kids are having great fun running fast in snowmobile tracks.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually the snowmobile tracks turned away from the route I had planned. We continued on anyway, but then quickly found ourselves breaking trail in over 8 inches of fresh snow:

Breaking Trail - Wheeee!

But, after such deep snow fun yesterday, I wanted to give Jack & Rudy a more shallow & fast outing today.  So, we turned around pretty soon after the prior photo and changed our outing to follow snowmobile tracks wherever they went:

Zipping along laying fresh tracks in snowmobile tracks.
The ski tracks (and dog foot prints) you see to our left are our own tracks
going the other direction on this stretch of trail.

What an excellent set of mid winter powder days yesterday and today in May!!! Right guys?

"Oh, we LOVED it!" says the happy kids propped up no a little snow
wall  to get end of run treats.

Today tally: 8.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 147 days on the trails covering 1244.5 miles with 123,500 feet of elevation climbed.