Early for Crust

We started this morning's skijor before 7am. Why? Well, the early bird gets the firm Spring Crust still available early in the day atop Vail Pass!

Beautiful, firm and endless Spring Crust atop Vail Pass as far as the eye
can see! Wheeee!

After an initial climb from the trailhead parking lot, we were treated to the endless Spring Crust and wove our way every which way atop Vail Pass this morning. While most of the top is wide open with very few trees, there is one half mile cool corridor through dense trees on each side of you. I love flying along this corridor behind Jack & Rudy. It was so much fun, we did it twice as we could turn right at the end of the corridor and come back up the other side of the trees until we got to the top of the corridor again.

Second pass through the fun tree corridor as you see my ski tracks from the
first pass under and next to Rudy.

Today we got a trifecta of entertainment from Rudy and a double feature from Jack. 

First item: with warm May temperatures, the kids are always ready to roll snow angels to cool off during any pause along the way:

Rub a dub dub, rolling to cool their jets :)

Second item (for Rudy), repeat for always rolling Jack: woos and angels at another short pause during the outing:

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes always rolling Jack.
"Turnaround, woos abound!" sings wooing Rudy.

If you look at the sky in the previous photos, you see it was a pretty overcast morning with lots of cloud coverage. But, for the last 10 minutes or so of the outing, the clouds parted and we got some great footage in the sun. This brings a conclusion to Rudy's trifecta and Jack's double feature:

The hover huskies catching air with cool lighting and shadows from the sun.
Rudy's trifecta: rolling, wooing, hovering.
Jack's double feature: rolling, hovering. Fun kids!

Today's video highlight will go along with the prior photo as it is always so much fun to watch Jack & Rudy run in the sun. Come along and watch the fun!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and the creative kids were able to find a snow wall to climb for end of run treats! This trailhead parking lot gets plowed all winter so the snow walls last pretty long into the Spring melt:

"Ready!!!" says my focused and happy pals perched up on a wall for
end of run treats.

A wonderful Spring Crust early morning atop Vail Pass: 9.2 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 150 days on the trails covering 1266.4 miles with 125,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Postcard

Postcard shot of Breckenridge Ski Resort across the valley from us as we skijor along Boreas Pass Rd.

Cruising along Jack & Rudy with a postcard of the ski
resort across the valley. Pretty shot!

We had an inch or so of fresh snow fall overnight, so we headed out early to popular Boreas in hopes of being first on the new snow. We were almost first tracks...

Starting out up Boreas early this morning.
Look closely to our left and you see tracks from a jogger
that got out on the trail just before us. Almost first tracks.

Needless to say, we caught and passed the jogger pretty quickly from the start. Once past the jogger and SUCCESS: laying fresh tracks up Boreas Pass!

Fresh tracks - Wheeee! 

With us being the first fresh tracks up most of Boreas, that meant we were second tracks to ourselves on the way back down. Come along for a fun minute of peaceful early morning skijoring on popular Boreas!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

That was a fun & serene skijor video clip, right? Well, now go back and pay attention to the video at the 47th, 52nd and 56th seconds in the clip. I said we were first tracks on the way up; but then what explains the "messes" in the snow you see at those three points of the clip? Well, how about this:

Unauthorized tag, tackle and wrestle breaking out on the trail.
The "messes in the snow" should make perfect sense now :)

Oh those silly kids, they almost made it all the way up without an unauthorized interruption. But, they just couldn't help themselves for three times in that short section of trail. Goofballs!

Back to the trailhead, everybody ready for 'end of run' treats?

"Ready!" declares always focused Zorro.
"Yep, count me in!" adds happy, happy Jack.
"Coming, coming, I'm coming!" says last arriving Rudy

A beautiful day for an early morning cruise up and down Boreas: 9 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 107 days on the trail covering 875.5 miles with 75,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Delay

 Did we really skijor Monday but not Tuesday? Nope...

"Pedal to the metal" brothers as we launch up Boreas Pass.

But, wait, today is Thursday. Ok, well we got busy :) 

We did follow up Monday's great skijor with another on Tuesday morning. Then, Rudy and I were busy executing (and passing) his final Therapy Dog Observation (yay RUDY!!!!). Then we lost track of Wednesday. So, here it is now Thursday and our update of Tuesday's early morning run.

With the great conditions on Boreas Monday, we returned early Tuesday. We knew the conditions would have deteriorated; but expected to still be good enough to get in a fun run. We were not disappointed. As you see above, we started on a pretty packed surface to go up, up, up Boreas Pass. Along the way you get to pass the historic Baker's Tank (from when this trail on Boreas was a railroad track)!

Trotting by Baker's Tank. Imagine a train pausing here
to refill water from this tank!

While the conditions were safe enough to go up Boreas, it was a little too thin coverage to come all the way back down. So, Jack, Rudy & I went up higher than Monday knowing that Nancy & Zorro would be driving up the pass to save us (or, me) from coming down too far on slick & rocky terrain. But, at the higher elevations, we were able to turn around and get some nice speed before meeting up with Nancy and Zorro:

Nice up high - FLOOR IT! Wheeee!

As I mentioned, we went far up Boreas until it was time to turnaround. Then we galloped back down quickly as far as the conditions would allow. Once it was unsafe for the human/skis to continue, we paused to wait for Nancy & Zorro. What to do while waiting? Jack & Rudy have never been at a loss for what to do when waiting in snow :)

"Waiting? No, rolling!!!" demonstrates the snow angel duo.

Finally, what should be our signature sign-off of every blog this year: reuniting with retired Zorro to have group "end of run" treats:

"Front & center and READY!" declares cool Zorro.
"Oh yeah, treats!" say distracted Jack & Rudy :)

We still are on very early season conditions, so the outings are short. But, believe me, Jack & Rudy get the MOST out of a 5-6 mile run! 5.5 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed.

2020/2010 Season to Date: 3 days on the trails covering 12 miles with 1150 feet of elevation climbed.

Unfortunately, we are back into a warm spell and will be off skis until it snows again...

Pray for Snow!

Early Start

What a fun shot of the super happy & handsome sled dog trio!!!

"It doesn't get much better than this!" declares the happy trio standing
atop a PERFECT spring crust in late, late April!!!

With rising daily temperatures, we got up very early this morning to get out on the crust before it started to soften. I was hoping the short "5 hour dip below freezing" overnight was enough to solidify the crust. We got up early and got out just after sunrise as the temps were just starting to rise above freezing.

So, was 5 hours of crust building and getting out early enough? You bet!!!!! Woo Hoo!

Woo Hoo - the hover husky trio FLYING over a perfect spring crust!
Yes, all 12 feet are off the ground as you can see separation in the
shadow of Rudy's front right (the 1 foot closest to touching).

It was a beautiful morning to do 2 laps around one of our favorite "spring crust meadows" with Zorro. We then dropped elder Zorro of with Nancy and took the kids, Jack & Rudy, out for some more fast & fun exercise.

How much fun was elder Zorro having? Well, look at his face in the first photo and check out this incredible airborne move from the "almost 12 years old" Zorro below!

Flying Z!!!!
All his life, Zorro has long jumped frozen snowmobile tracks we encounter
on our outings. So impressive to see another long jump from the fun elder.
Cute paw print just before the snowmobile track from Zorro's takeoff
point :)

Come along for the video counterpart of the prior photo. Flying along the spring crust until we approach those snowmobile tracks crossing in front of us. I slow slightly so both Zorro and I can get over the tracks safely (I know the kids can traverse over anything :) Once over and it is GO again. The video ends as we about to transition through the trees into the next meadow but the snowmobile track is in the safe pass through the trees. I cannot put my skis in a frozen snowmobile track through narrow trees and live to tell about it, so the video concludes just as I am bringing us to a halt :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After dropping elder Zorro with Nancy, the kids and I went out, up and over Prospect Hill before turning around and coming back the same way. At our turnaround point, I took a knee and was talking about how much fun we were having. Jack & Rudy agreed :)

"Yes, yes, yes - so much fun!" declares giddy Jack.
"Oh my, talk about fun! Here I come to tell you!" says cute Rudy. And, yes, he
is coming to give me a hug and let out a big appreciative WOO in my ear (he's
blocking the camera by the time that happened :)

Turned around to head back with the kids and pretty views, views, views!!!

Flying Jack & Rudy with a gorgeous view of Breckenridge Ski Resort
across the valley from us!

We had to get out early to enjoy the crust and could not stay out long before it softened. So, we turned a "short run" into a ridiculously FAST and fun run: 6.3 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 157 days on the trails covering 1072.9 miles with 97,800 feet of elevation climbed.