Record Season Finale

Yesterday was our final outing of a record setting skijoring season!

Way to go Jack & Rudy!!!!

"We did it! 1444.0 miles traveled! We set the record!" declares the happy kids.

Our record season had been 1433.5 miles traveled with Max & Zorro in 2016/2017. I knew going into this season that Jack & Rudy were primed to give the record a challenge. All we needed was the snow to hold up. Well, despite ending in late May (we often skijor into early/mid June), the impressive kids set a season record for our pack!

Our final outing of the season found us at Buffalo Pass. This location typically has the deepest snowpack in all of Colorado. But, it's a real haul and challenge to get to; thus, we typically do it only once or twice a season. Come along for the highlights of our season finale.

We started out on VERY sketchy conditions with little snow and spans of no snow at all!

Starting up on a narrow ribbon of snow with exposed ground ahead of us.

Why not drive past this point of the trail, you ask? Well, we start out driving up Buffalo Pass until we can drive no further. What happens is we will encounter a very deep (usually shaded) impassable span of snow at some point on the way up. Even with our 4WD Jeep, we will get to an impassible span at some point. So, we must start the skijor from the impasse, even though we know we'll encounter tough & exposed sections like the prior photo on the other side of the impasse.

We also know, though, that the further & higher we go, the better it will get!

Ah, nice deep snow covering the entire trail!
Notice the power in Jack & Rudy as my hands are on my hips as I ride
the Siberian Tow Rope up this stretch of trail.

Along the way, I paused at the location of some of Max and Zorro's ashes. While Jack & Rudy never got the chance to meet special Max, they did learn everything they know about skijoring from wonderful Zorro. As I paused to reflect back on Max & Zorro, Jack and Rudy did their "pause usual" :)

Rolling snow angels in snow over the location of Max and Zorro's ashes.

Then, as expected, we found some incredible conditions up high. Wish there was an easier way to get here, we'd come back every day if so :)

So, so, so nice up high!

Now, come along for our final clip of the season. We are a bit lower in elevation in this clip compared to the prior photo, so we start out cruising along nice albeit soft snow. Then, near the end of the clip, you get to see Jack & Rudy slowing to perfectly navigate me on skis through two narrow passages before opening up the throttle again. Perfect partners!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We cannot end the season without one final hover husky shot!

Catching air again. Wheeee!

Finally, concluding the season with our final end of run treats. No snow walls to climb this time, it must really be the end of season :)

"We LOVE snow!" declares the cool dudes awaiting end of run treats.

A monster outing to complete the season. You have to make full use of the difficult trek to get on snow at Buffalo Pass: 14 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2022/2023 Season  Total: 164 days on the trails covering 1444.0 miles with 130,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Very Impressive Jack & Rudy! Very Impressive!!!!

See you all in September (we hope) or October for the 2023/2024 Skijor Season beginning.

 

Perfect Plan

Beautiful views to our right as we gallop along in a snowmobile track between Rabbit Ears Pass and Buffalo Pass!

Cruising along! The white patch you see down to our right are the
shores of Dumont Lake at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass. Yes, we
are this high above Rabbit Ears as we are returning from skijoring
halfway up from Rabbit Ears Pass to Buffalo Pass.

I had a great plan for our outing today and was really hoping the conditions matched my plan :) We started on a lesser used trail on Rabbit Ears Pass. This trail had evidence of a previous snowmobile track that was now covered in a couple inches of fresh snow. Perfect, we were able to lay fresh tracks along this section of trail for about 1-1.5 miles.

Freshies - Wheeee!

The trail we started on eventually connects with more popular trails on the pass. My hope was that we would find a snowmobile or ATV track to follow on the popular trails with a snowmobile track much preferred. Success again!

A wonderful solo snowmobile track to follow for miles & miles.

Rabbit Ears Pass and Buffalo Pass are two wonderful snow collecting passes in Colorado. By straight line, the passes are actually only about 7 miles apart. But, there is no "straight line trail" and, by snowmobile (or skis), it is roughly 15 miles of trails from Rabbit Ears up to the base of Buffalo Pass. The snowmobile track we found was on this path to Buffalo. 

We did not go all 15 miles to Buff, but, instead turned around after 7.1 miles and came back the same way. The result? Young Jack & Rudy's first ever 14+ mile skijor! Yes, the kids are full grown into professional sled dogs. I have lofty expectations for the two professionals this season as long as Mother Nature (i.e., the snow) matches our abilities!

After yesterday's breaking trail in 15+ inches of powder, Jack & Rudy were able to floor it today following this solo snowmobile track. Come along for a video glimpse into the fun. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

7.1 miles out before 7.1 miles back - the kids needed to "cool their jets" rolling in snow before the return leg :)

Is it me or are Jack & Rudy's back feet touching?
Playing patty cakes while rolling snow angels, talented!

Zorro, of course, had run many 14+ mile skijors in the prime of his career - he's still accepting 'end of run treats' for past accomplishments :)

"Serve 'em up!" declares Zorro.
"Slurp, we can taste them in anticipation!" demonstrates the tongue
slurping kids.

What perfect day finding an endless snowmobile track between Rabbit Ears and Buffalo passes to cruise to young Jack & Rudy's longest skijor of their career: 14.2 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date; 6 days on the trails covering 43.9 miles with 4250 feet of elevation climbed.

Heating Up

After a week of nonstop snow, Spring decided to come back to Colorado today...

It was approaching 30 degrees when we started our outing and approaching 40 when we finished - Siberian Hot!

Max & Zorro rolling dual snow angels at the top of Shrine Pass to cool off.
Notice Zorro's nice "snow angel" as he started a full body length above his current position
on the side of the trail and wiggled down to his current position as he made his snow angel!

Our last 8 skijor outings were all "breaking trail in a foot or more of snow", so today was back to the easy style - cruising the snowmobile trails at Vail Pass. The only thing that slowed us down was rising temperatures (which tends to slow the huskies). But, a fun 14 mile romp despite the rising temps!

Max taking off along a straightaway in the trail.
"Catch me if you can!" declares long-legged, fast Max.
"Hey, wait for me! I really can keep up!" says short-legged Zorro as he was caught off-guard
by Max's burst of speed :)

"See - I can keep up!" demonstrates Zorro along another straightaway.

I meant to ski to the edge of this cliff for the views at our midpoint break.
The Siberians, on the other hand, approached the cliff with too much interest in continuing
over! Luckily I got their attention before we reached the edge...

A nice day skijoring up, down & around the Vail Pass Recreation Area: 13.8 miles with 1650 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

Iditarod Finish

Today was the last outing for our "mini Iditarod" to tally miles during the running of the real Iditarod in Alaska.

The total tally for our mini Iditarod: 12 days on the trail, 125.2 miles and 15,200 feet of elevation climbed. Pretty good for a team of only 2 sled dogs!

Still running hard after 14+ miles! Our "finish" is just around the corner along this trail.
"What 'SLOW' sign?" say 20 MPH Max & Zorro :-)

We took a 14 mile tour on the trails around Good Times for our Iditarod finish. High temperatures were in the mid to high 40s the last two days, so the early morning conditions were extremely icy as trail melt had frozen overnight. Thank Dog it is snowing this afternoon as our trails are in desperate of some fresh snow to soften them up!

Some fun photos from today's outing:

Many sections of the trail were nice enough to open up the skijoring engine, as above as
we sprint along a flat section of trail. But, we did hit the occasional patches of pure ice
to force us to slow down - yuck!

"This has been such a fun mini Iditarod!" declare happy Max & Zorro at our high point
of the outing as I called to them to turnaround.

It was on the warm side today, so Max needed to roll his usual snow angel to cool off
before we could start the final 3 mile sprint to the finish.

As I said, temperatures on the warm side (upper 20s/low 30s) - that is the temperature level
where Zorro joins in the "snow angel cool off" during our quick break.

Today was day 12 & the final day of our "mini Iditarod" covering 14.4 miles with 1750 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

Our total stats for 12 Iditarod days: 125.2 miles and 15,200 feet of elevation climbed. Woo, what a fun ride!

GPS stats of the final leg of our mini Iditarod.

Mixed Bag of Situations

On the return approach to the Boreas trailhead.
Happy, smiling, cruising Huskies!

Today's skijor outing had quite the mixed bag of situations to maneuver through. Our plan was to skijor from the Boreas Pass winter trailhead up Boreas Pass Rd to the Boreas Summit and then return the same route - a nice 13-14 mile outing. We had some fresh snow fall last night and Max, Zorro & I were the first to the trailhead today - breaking trail and laying fresh tracks in (mostly) 3-5 inches of untouched powder all the way up to the summit! But, the following 4 "situations" lead to some interesting events on our outing...

1) Situation 1: Exposed terrain
We are still waiting for that Nov/Dec storm to dump 1+ feet of snow (all at once) and pave the backcountry trails for the rest of the season. As a result, we are still skiing "storm to storm" as we get 3-5 inch teasers. Unfortunately, Boreas Pass Rd has a few exposed areas that are subject to high winds. On the way up to the summit, we encountered two long sections that were so wind blown that the snow had been completely removed from the trail (along with 4 more sections with a very light layer over sheets of ice). I had to remove the skis and hike/jog up the trail over these 2 sections. I also had to make a mental note of the "sheet of ice" sections as I'd be re-encountering these on the way down at Siberian down speed!

2) Situation 2: Snow Physics
If the wind has blown to expose or leave less than an inch on parts of the trail - well, where does that snow go? Into snowdrifts, of course. The counterpart to "situation 1" - we encountered about 6 areas of prolonged snowdrifts 8-12 inches in depth (corresponding to the 6 areas of exposed terrain and sheets of ice). Snowdrifts are, of course, extremely fun for us to skijor through; but they do introduce some extra exercise to our 14 mile outing...

3) Situation 3: Extreme Cold
It was 2 degrees outside when we left the heavily wooded trailhead. Now, factor in that we skijored up 1600 feet to terrain above treeline with increasing winds. 2 degrees + 1600 feet up + above treeline + high winds == a windchill of probably 20-30 BELOW zero at the Boreas Summit. As we crested onto the summit, I could feel the bitter cold; so we skijored past the summit and a little ways down the backside until we found a group of trees to huddle next to. This represented our "break point" and I gave Max & Zorro their skijoring hotdog rewards at this point and changed into my warmest gear (oh did those warmer gloves feel GREAT!). We do not have many pictures for today's outing primarily because of the extreme cold - the human needs to take a glove off to get pictures and the hand refused to relinquish its glove.

4) Situation 4: Equipment Issues
So, we are on the way down and I know there will be 2 sections where skis need to be removed (the same 2 sections as the way up). We get to the first section and stop to remove the skis and .... my right boot will not detach from the ski! "You've got to be kidding," I thought, "this cannot be happening!" The skis I was using were my "new" pair that I bought used at the local Nordic Ski Swap a few weeks ago. I knew one of the bindings (the one on my right ski) was in less than perfect shape; but the skis were an incredible deal and useable under initial tests/outings. Well, today was apparently too much and the binding was locked to the boot and would not release. Okay, so my right ski will not come off, the exposed terrain is not skiable - now what? Well, I removed my left ski, raised my right foot, and hopped with Max & Zorro over the bad terrain until I could restart skiing. Add up the 2 sections of "remove skis and hike - er, I mean hop" and I spent about 25 minutes navigating terrain on one leg - ow... These skis will be making a trip to the ski repair shop next week!

Despite all of these challenging situations, it was still a great fun day for the 3 of us. We hit 14 miles as our total distance (longest outing of this 2011/2012 season) and cruised at a very nice pace when both skis were on!

Vital Stats: 14 miles; 190m total time; 129m skijoring time, 15m uphill hiking without skis, 25m downhill hopping on one (now sore) leg, 21m stopped time (our mid-break and ski inspection & cursing ;-) ... 16 MPH top speed and 1600 feet of elevation gain along the outing.

One time I dared take off a glove to take a quick shot.
Not a very interesting shot, but the hand wanted back in its glove!

Second (and last) time I dared to remove a glove and snap some pictures.
A look at the structures at Boreas Summit as we ski by heading for more
cover to hide from the wind and take a break before heading back down.

Skijoring vs Cross Country Skiing...

Cruising up upper, wind-blown Boreas - about 1-2 miles
from the Summit. Zorro, looking back, says, "Hey deadweight -
I thought I felt you slacking! Stop taking pictures, put that
camera away and drive your poles with us!"

On Saturday Max, Zorro & I did our furthest outing of the season: 13.5 miles of skijoring fun!


We skied ~6.75 miles (& 1,300 feet of elevation) up Boreas Pass Rd to Section House, at the Boreas Summit, and then back down the same route. Section House is one of the backcountry huts in Colorado that offers overnight lodging for the backcountry ski enthusiasts.

I am often asked what is the difference between Skijoring with Siberian Huskies and traditional Cross Country Skiing. Yesterday's route sums it up:

1. The route up Boreas Pass Rd to Section House is rated as a 4-5 hour cross country ski tour. Max, Zorro & I did the up section in 1.5 hours!
2. Many people find the need to bunk at Section House for the night to rest before taking one of the "down routes" the next day. When we reached the summit, I was snapping photos and changing some of my gear - after about 7 minutes of "break", Max & Zorro broke out into a full wrestling match. 7 minute break and they were restless and ready for more, so we started back down!

How best to summarize Skijoring with Siberians vs Cross Country Skiing.... relentless, endless & quickness - hang on! ;-)

Vital Stats: 13.5 miles; 2h 47m total time; 2h 30m moving time; 5.5 MPH moving average; 12 MPH top speed.

Yes, only 17 minutes of "stopped time" on this long tour: (1) 7m break at the summit; (2) 4m getting the stupid human out of chest deep powder after he made a "skiing mistake" and flew off the packed trail; (3) 6m of dealing with 8 different sets of loose dogs on Boreas.

Yes, a mild max speed of 12 MPH - not much sprinting, just 2.5 hours of constant Siberian cruising!

At the Boreas Summit - looking to our left at Section House.
A bit windy, but beautiful blue skies... 

At Boreas Summit - looking to our right at a "railroad relic" from the days when Boreas Pass Rd was a train route.
This is a 180 from the previous "blue sky" shot - the skies show the storm that is headed our way!

Another shot from the Summit - looking backwards from where we took a break.

Max, at the Summit, rolling around in the snow to cool himself off.
A few minutes of this and he & Zorro were "full rested" and ready to go!