Baldy

Do you think Jack is enjoying upwards of 2 feet of fresh powder on Baldy Mountain this morning?

"I'm having a BLAST!" exclaims ecstatic Jack.
"Me too, but why are we stopped?" adds Rudy.
That is the historic Iowa Mill in the background from the Breckenridge
mining days. We are stopped as I needed to wipe frozen snow off my
sport sunglasses so I could see (Rudy didn't like that explanation :)

This was our first skijor on Baldy this 2024/2024 season. This terrain is very steep in places and extremely rocky when bare. So, we need a lot of snow to cover the rocks and then I need a lot of powder to slow Jack & Rudy down on the steep descents. Well, 2 feet of snow falling overnight made Baldy a dream skijor!

We stuck to the main trail for most of the outing. A few other powder hounds had been out on the trail before us, so we had some very soft but set tracks to run in on the main trail:

Cruising along in an existing track. As you can see, very few had been out
so the set tracks were still very soft & fluffy!

We did venture off the main trail once to go snorkeling in deep, deep powder. Wheeee!

Jack & Rudy blasting through roughly 2 feet of fresh, untouched snow
on a side trail. Powerful kids!

But, as I said, we did spend most of the outing on the main trail. Come along for today's video fun as snow is dumping all around us as we hop, skip and glide in the soft terrain. Yes, the video gets pretty blurry from snow collecting on the camera partway through this clip. I'm happy to report it was near impossible to keep the camera clear of snow for very long :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Now I get to pat myself on the back and show that I have some use (other than vetoing moose hunting) on the trails. In the prior video you see lots of existing tracks for Jack & Rudy to fit in side by side. But, occasionally there were stretches where all the previous humans had followed one another. We did an out & back on the main trail this morning. On the out direction, every time the trail condensed to a single set track, I would ski out of the track to pave they way for Jack & Rudy to fit comfortably on the way back. See, I have something to contribute!!!

Rudy in the set track from people out before us.
Jack in MY track I set on the way out so both could fit side by side on
the way back. Nice job human :)

All this fresh snow meant for some very frisky kids all morning long. Two unauthorized games of "tag & wrestle" broke out during the outing - 1 started by Rudy (that's typical) and 1 started by (usually perfect) Jack. Of course both joined in the "tag & wrestle" - it doesn't matter who starts it, both contribute :)

"Just try and touch me!" says play bowing Rudy.
"I'm going to flatten you!" responds silly Jack.

With all the new snow, the "snow walls" are starting to come together everywhere for Jack & Rudy to climb for end of run treats:

The fun kids climbing a snow wall to get even with my hands for easy
handing out of the treats.

Skijors on Baldy always trade off distance for elevation (it is very steep as I mentioned): 5.1 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 15 days on the trails covering 115.8 miles with 11,400 feet of elevation climbed.