Real Snow, Bad Camera

Finally - REAL (and deep enough) snow to really get our 2025/2026 skijoring season underway!!!

Whee - laying fresh tracks up Boreas Pass in about 4-5" of fresh snow!

This is only our second outing of the 2025/2026 season due to lack of snow across pretty much all of Colorado. But, significant snow FINALLY arrived last night. So, we got out just after sunrise to truly enjoy this late start to the season.

While the snow was PERFECT, the GoPro camera was NOT! I knew my camera was nearing its end of life and today was the day it gave out. Every time I turned on the video, it would run for 10-20 seconds and then beep, say "low battery, powering off" and shutdown. I'd then turn it back on, see that the battery was over 90% charged, turn on video again only to have it shutdown in 10-20 seconds again. Boo!

At our turnaround point, the camera had clicked off and I missed capturing Jack & Rudy rolling dual snow angels. So, I got myself centered on them, clicked the video on once more and asked "Who wants to roll snow angels again?" I knew I had only 10-20 seconds for my pals to respond. Well, here's what I got:

"You don't have to ask me twice! Rub a dub dub!" goes always rolling Jack.
"Nope, you get a big WOOOOO for asking me to perform!" responds talkative Rudy.

I kept trying to turn the video on every 10 minutes or so, hoping the camera would come back to life. But, that did not happen, I never got more than 20 seconds of video at a time (often closer to 10 seconds). Bummer....

Quick shot of the return leg before the camera shut off again.
Those are our "up tracks" to our left. We were laying fresh tracks
all the way up & down Boreas. Too bad the camera didn't cooperate!

Back to the trailhead and at least Nancy's iPhone video worked for end of run treats:

"Ready!" says always happy Jack.
"You have my FULL attention!" adds intense Rudy.

We finally got snow - yay! But we had a bad camera - boo! I'll be switching to an old backup camera in hopes of getting real footage on our next outing!

Today's tally: 8.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 2 days on the trails covering 11.5 miles with 1300 feet of elevation climbed.

 

White Christmas

It was a very merry white Christmas on Baldy Mountain this morning!

Jack & Rudy putting smiles on other festive skiers we encountered
on the trail.

That is quite the festive Christmas photo above. We have: 1 skier wearing a Christmas bulb necklace, another wearing a Christmas hat, Rudy the Red Nosed Siberian, 1 musher (me) wearing a Christmas hat (see the last photo below) and 1 right jolly young elf (Jack, who is about the jolliest guy you'll ever meet :)

With almost 2 feet of snow falling the last 48 hours, it was a right jolly White Christmas on Baldy Mountain this morning. Unfortunately the GoPro Camera I wear was apparently on the naughty list as it kept turning off all outing long.

Anyway, we did three laps in fresh snow around Iowa Mill on Baldy Mountain. The first lap found us carving up the terrain in a ton of fresh snow; yet the naughty camera failed to capture that. But, the naughty camera did capture a bit of our last (of three) laps on Baldy.

Flying along Baldy on our final of 3 laps along this stretch of trail.

With such a naughty camera, the only video highlight I could salvage goes along with the prior photo. Come along for a brief stretch of "operating camera" as we fly along the fast & fun Baldy Mountain Trail. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to enjoy 'end of run' treats in the back of the Jeep with Zorro:

Festive musher in a Christmas hat.
Rudy the Red Nosed Siberian.
Jack the right jolly young elf.
Zorro the right jolly old elf.
What a festive Christmas party :)

So thankful for the recent snow to allow us to skijor Baldy Mountain on this festive Christmas morning: 7.4 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 43 days on the trails covering 338.3 miles with 32,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Camera Failures

It was a case of "failed cameras" on today's skijor outing.

At the trailhead "patiently" waiting for me to hook into my skis.

All of our cameras failed to operate this morning. The GoPro on my chest stopped recording 1.5 minutes after I turned it on even though its red light was blinking to indicate it was supposed to be recording (I glanced at the light twice during the outing and it was blinking both times). Then, Nancy's cam failed to record as well. She uses her cam to get video of us arriving at the end of the run and to get clips of our "end of run" treats. So, I had a grand total of 90 seconds of footage to use for today's outing with the first 40 seconds was me walking from the car to the trailhead. So, what did I get in the 50 seconds of "footage". Well, you have the prior photo of the trio patiently waiting for me to step into my skis.

As usual, according to Zorro, Jack & Rudy, I took WAY too long to step into my skis to get started. Zorro came back to see what was the holdup, Rudy simply "gave up" and Jack considered leaving to go run on his own :)

"You ok back here? Sure is taking a while! Oh look, now we have a 'Rudy flat' because you 
are taking SO long!" says Zorro.
"KILLING ME!!!! I must roll to distract myself!!!" demonstrates goofy Rudy.
"Maybe I'll unhook myself and go for a solo run if this takes much longer!" adds Jack.

Ok, now for the reality. The elapsed time between these two photos? 7 seconds!!!! Yes, in under 7 seconds everyone gave up on me declaring I was taking too long to hook up! What a bunch of impatient sled dogs :)

Total time it took me to hook into my skis and give everyone the "Ok, let's go" release? 35 seconds! So, a 35 second eternity later and off we go....

"FINALLY!!!!! Pedal to the metal!!!!" demonstrate the take off trio.

And that's all we got - 15 seconds after starting the run the GoPro stopped recording even though it kept blinking its "I am working" red light. Argh.

Oh well, we had a great time skijoring out & back in French Gulch. You'll just have to believe me: 6 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 24 days on the trails covering 153.1 miles with 15,550 feet of elevation climbed.