High vs Low

Snow angels from Jack and woos from Rudy at our turnaround point this morning.

Shocking, huh? Hahaha!

"Turnaround, roll around!' goes snow rolling Jack.
"Turnaround, woos abound!" belts singing Rudy.

Today's outing took us to the upper trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. It was almost like we skijored two different locations, though. The groomer had last run on the trails yesterday morning and it was in the 40s yesterday afternoon and then under 20 overnight. So, the trails closer to the trailhead were well used yesterday, warmed in the afternoon and refroze overnight. The result? Well, there was no real evidence the groomer really ran yesterday!

The classic ski track between Jack & Rudy is the only evidence of a recent
groomer. All the groom corduroy has been tracked up and the trail
was fast packed and SLICK!

Then, go a few miles from the trailhead, and few others had been out this far since yesterday morning's groom.  How few? Well, at our furthest point there was only one pre-existing classic ski track and one pre-existing skate ski track. The rest of the trail was untouched groomer corduroy! You know what that means:

Groomie zoomie as we top 21 MPH on the good conditions this morning!

Today's fun skijoring clip highlights my right ski. We are at about mid-distance from the trailhead in this clip; so more than two but not many previous skiers had been on this stretch. Then I noticed the right shoulder of this section of trail is shaded and still had some untouched corduroy from yesterday's grooming. Thus, all my weight is on my right leg this entire clip while the left glides down the slick middle. So, you'll see a lot of my right ski tip on & off throughout this clip if you can take your eyes off impressive running Jack & Rudy :) Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

There is one very steep, sun exposed and rocky short section of trail we encounter on this route. The warm Sunday & Monday had caused the rocks to start poking through the snow. So, I had to take my skis off for this short section. I can get them off pretty quick, but we all have to stop while I put them back on. Well, you guessed it, Stop, Drop & Roll from the Siberian comedians:

Stop, Drop and Roll! What else to do while the slow human puts the skis back on?
You can see one ski, off the ground, to the right of this photo. 
Jack & Rudy make full use for comedy interludes at any stoppage :)

Finally, back to the trailhead and, unfortunately, no snow walls of any significance to climb for end of run treats. So, we'll sit patiently in the snow for our treats instead.

"We'd rather climb a snow wall for treats; but we certainly will
accept them down here!" says the focused & happy pair.

Slick down low, beautiful up high - what a difference in conditions on today's outing: 9 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 7 days on the trails covering 56.7 miles with 5300 feet of elevation climbed.