Snowing

Here's what Jack & Rudy think of the "warming huts" out on the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center :)

"Silly! We need to roll snow angels to COOL OFF! What's a warming hut?"
says the snow rolling sillies in front of one of the warming huts we pass
on the trails.

Notice the nice snowfall you can see against the hut in the prior photo. Increasing snowfall was the theme of the day!

We started amidst light snowfall laying fresh tracks on fast nordic trails:

Clear shot of Jack & Rudy leaning into a tight right on the trail.
I cannot take corners as tight as Jack & Rudy and have to swing way out
left to then glide around the corner at their speed!

Within 10 minutes or so, the snowfall started increasing:

Still pretty clear photo; but you can see active snowfall if you look very
closely (I know, "white on white" is hard to see :)

Then, within another 15 minutes or so and it was dumping! It was snowing so hard that it kept collecting on the camera leading to blurred footage:

Snow covered camera delivering blurry footage.

How hard was it snowing? Well come along for today's video to see for yourself. This clip starts with us slowed while I wipe the camera clear of snow. Once clear, I give an "Ok, here we go," to Jack & Rudy to let them know it is ok to speed up again. Speed up we do and watch how fast the camera gets covered in snow again and Jack & Rudy become blurry objects.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

No complaints here, we LOVE new snow - it is just hard to keep the camera clear to get any footage!

Finally, back to the trailhead and at least Nancy's camera was clear of snow :)

Happy kids awaiting end of run treats with visible against my coat and
Jack & Rudy's black & red fur.

Yay for fresh snow! 9.6 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 81 days on the trails covering 637.1 miles with 60,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Heavy Workout

Look at what we awoke to find this morning!!!

Yes, that is the Breckenridge Ski Resort snow stake which measures 24 hour
new snow at mid-mountain on the resort. Yes, that is about 11 inches of new
snow on May 12th!!!!

The forecast did call for snow overnight last night, but nobody expected this much! With such a surprise on the Breck snow stake, we headed to the trails on Peak 7. These trails are very close to the snow stake. We start a little lower in elevation than the snow stake and then go higher than the stake on the way up. So, we found about 8 inches of fresh snow at our starting point and over a foot at our highest point. The only drawback? Well it was very heavy & wet snow as is typical for the middle of May. Not a problem, Jack & Rudy can power through heavy & wet snow, it is just quite the fun workout!

Nearing our highest point of the morning as we are breaking trail in over
12 inches of fresh, but heavy & wet, snow at this point!

Along the way, a moose had crossed the trail and headed into the trees. Jack & Rudy thought we should too :)

"Moose went this way! We should too!" says the silly moosers.
The real trail goes up the left side of this photo, I had to convince my pals
to return to the real trail and abandon following the moose into the trees :)

With such heavy & wet snow, we did an "out & back" route today so that we could reuse our out tracks on the way back. An out & back means you have to turn around, right? Well, that does not go unnoticed by Jack & Rudy :)

At first I thought the kids were going to simply turnaround and go.
But, no, we all turned around and then did our turnaround comedy for the day.
"Turnaround, roll around!" goes always rolling Jack.
"Turnaround, woos abound!" adds singing Rudy.

Then, as planned, we picked up the speed using our "out tracks" on the way back. But, with only our single out tracks and the wetness & heaviness of the snow, it was still a real workout on the way back!

Fun kids pulling strong as we reuse our out tracks on the way back.

How much work on the return? Well, come along and see for yourself. Jack & Rudy are running hard in our out tracks but, as you can see, it was still quite the workout. Fun & powerful kids!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

It was heavy & wet, but still quite the treat, especially for mid-May, right guys?

"Oh, we had a BLAST and those end of run treats are going to taste great!" says
the focused & happy kids at the end of the day.

A wonderful mid-May workout: 5.7 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 149 days on the trails covering 1257.2 miles with 124,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Dumping

It was dumping and blowing snow on us all morning long! Yay for Snow!!!!!

How much? Just come along and see :)

Look at thoroughly snow covered Rudy!!!!
Jack is covered too but his big white tail is blocking most of his snow covered back.

A lot of fun things to notice in the prior photo. First, snow covered Rudy as I mentioned in the caption. Jack & Rudy will regularly shake to clear snow that has collected on their head and backs. But, it was snowing so hard that it would recollect within 5-10 minutes! Second, you can see quite a few big flakes about to hit the camera in the photo. Finally, the "haze" you see going up the trail in front of us is actually actively falling snow. What a great snow day!

Here we are starting out this morning's outing. Again, the "haze" is actively falling snowfall. So fun to skijor in near blizzard conditions :)

Off we go to enjoy skijoring in active snow!

Still shots can never do justice to just how hard it is snowing (and blowing). So, come along for a video glimpse into the start of this morning's outing. You'll see very heavy snow falling around us and the occasional gust of wind blowing snow. Yay for Snow!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Jack & Rudy get quite frisky during blizzards they so enjoy the active snow. Here we are on our first pass by the historic Sallie Barber Mine. I paused momentarily to see if the kids wanted to roll snow angels as they typically do at the mine. But, they wanted to play and roll together in the wonderful new snow this morning. Funny kids.

"Aahhh, let's roll around together!!!" says the frisky kids.

We went up the front side of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail, then down and back up the back side of the trail before finally going down the front side. It was snowing the entire outing; but it started to lighten a little on our final leg down the front side of the trail.

Not snowing as hard (compare the image of the mine with the prior photo)
but sill snowing. You cannot even tell we skijored by the mine just 20 or so
minutes ago as so much new snow had collected in that time!

Here we come on the final leg down the front side and you can barely tell we had laid fresh tracks up this trail only 20-30 minutes prior!

Blasting through newly accumulated powder from our first pass
by this stretch of trail. Wheeee!

Time for end of run treats at the trailhead and Rudy won today's "king of the mountain" competition :)

No, Rudy is not THAT much taller than Jack, he just found a higher point
on the snow wall to perch himself!

What a wonderful romp in fresh and actively falling snow this morning! 7.6 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 93 days on the trails covering 784.6 miles with 75,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Eight Percent

Who's having a great time on this morning's snowy skijor?

"We are having a BLAST!" exclaims the happy, happy kids.

The forecast this morning was "8% chance of snow" (or 92% chance of NOT snowing). Well, when we arrived at the trailhead it was DUMPING snow. The active snow and accompanying wind made Jack & Rudy very frisky and they were raring to go! Here we are 5 seconds into the start of the outing...

This is NOT fog, it is actively falling heavy snow!
You can see one big flake just above Jack's tail about to hit the camera.
All the white speckles you see against Jack & Rudy's fur are snowflakes
as well. 

Here is another look at the dumping snowfall. Usually you can see a bunch of mountains, including Rabbit Ears Peak, from this location. Today, it was very low visibility due to active snowfall instead!

Zipping along what is usually a panoramic view spot; but not today!
You can see a few more snowflakes about to hit the camera in this
shot as well.

We love it when the forecast is wrong in our favor (and our favorite is SNOWING :). The prior two photos do not do justice to just how much it was snowing. So, come along for a video of the outing. With video, you can see all  the snow falling around and on us as Jack & Rudy are truly enjoying the conditions!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We did an "out and back" on trails near Dumont Lake at Rabbit Ears Pass. This meant we had to turnaround at one point. Yep, it was the usual turnaround goofs!

"Turnaround! Roll Around!" goes the snow rolling goofs.

When the snow did let up a bit, we still had fresh snow and wind blown drifts to plow through:

Kicking up powder as we plow through a wind blown drift of snow.

Jack & Rudy really enjoyed today's "active snow skijor" - just ask them :)

"Oh that was FUN!" says the happy kids awaiting end of run treats.
Notice the snowflake on Rudy's red fur by his ear and notice the snowflake
on my neck. It was snowing all outing long - sometimes intensely and sometimes
a bit lighter but snowing the entire outing.

Our favorite kind of "8% chance of snow" - 9 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 90 days on the trails covering 757.1 miles with  73,200 feet of elevation climbed. 

Sticky and Heavy Snow

The power kids, Jack & Rudy, leaning into their harnesses to propel me though this morning's sticky and heavy snow!

Impressive power!

Today was a very rare thing for the Colorado High Country: heavy, wet and sticky snow! Colorado ski areas are famous for their soft & fluffy snow conditions. But, it is May and most ski areas are already closed for the season. This is the time of year that a heavy/wet snow can happen and it really did last night!!! We found ourselves breaking trail in 4-7 inches of heavy & sticky snow our entire outing this morning. No complaints here, just reporting the hard workout conditions :)

Still laying fresh tracks as we did a loop trail this morning.
Look at all that snow stuck on the top of my skis. Heavy, wet and sticky!

Come along for today's "power video" as you can see the energy of Jack & Rudy propelling me through 5ish inches of heavy, wet and sticky snow. Powerful kids! You'll also see that I am in quite the "ski tuck" to help move me through the sticky snow :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Running through heavy, wet snow is quite the workout, just ask Jack & Rudy. I paused at a trail junction to assess if we could continue forward (longer outing) or turn left (shorter outing). Well, I stopped...

"What a workout! Stop, drop & roll!" goes the snow rolling sillies.

It turns out we had to turn left as the heavy snow had slowed us down. I also needed to get back to the trailhead before the "slick wax" on my skis wore off (I'd never have been able to move in the sticky snow without the wax). So, a short outing in "not your typical Colorado snow", any complaints?

"Nope! We still had a blast!" exclaims the happy kids who were still able
to find a short snow wall to climb for end of run treats.

Heavy, wet and sticky snow yielded a 5.4 mile outing with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 153 days on the trails covering 1348.8 miles with 123,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Dumping

It started dumping snow near the end of this morning's skijor outing. Near blizzard skijoring! Wheeee!

Heavy falling and blowing snow as Jack & Rudy zip around
a gentle right in the trail.

The day started out very innocent with only light snowfall as we were laying fresh tracks in the shallow layer of new snow on the trails.

Solo snowflake hitting the camera in the upper center of this photo.
Not many friends with this snowflake to start the day :)

In fact, if you ask Jack & Rudy, it was a bit warm to start the outing (temps were in the low 20s F). I paused momentarily at our first pass by the Hallelujah Warming Hut. This is Jack & Rudy's idea of warming:

"Aaah, must roll in the snow to cool off!" go the silly kids.

As we pushed on, the snow started increasing in intensity. But it was still pretty mild for most of the outing:

Snowing a bit harder as the snowflakes now have friends.
Notice the white "flake dots" agains the trees.
Notice the white "flake dots" against the Hallelujah Hut.
Notice the cool shot of airborne Jack & Rudy :)

Eventually, it was BOOM and it started dumping. Very intense snowfall for the last 15 minutes or so of our outing. Not a blizzard, but darn near close to it. Come along and watch for 75 seconds of skijoring amid intense snowfall. Notice the snow has no impact on fast running Jack & Rudy - they LOVED it!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, some well earned end of run treats for the happy, hard working sled dogs:

"We like the dumping snow part of the outing best!" declares the snow lovers.

Light snowfall to totally dumping: 8.8 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 97 days on the trails covering 854.6 miles with 78,600 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Foreshadow

 Oh those silly kids breaking out into an unauthorized playfest on the trails once again :)

"Tag! You're it!!!!" performs silly Jack.
"Coming right back at you!" declares play bowing Rudy.

We had a dusting of new snow overnight. All I need is a little bit of new snow for control for us to be able to skijor the fast & steep trails on Baldy Mountain. So, with the overnight dusting, it was off to Baldy we went. Wheeee!

You can just make out the dust kicking up behind flying Jack.
Notice the snowflake you see against the base of Rudy's tail.
Consider this snowflake your foreshadow of the day.

After a fast warmup lap around Baldy, we dipped into the backcountry to connect from Baldy Mountain to Boreas Mountain.

The backcountry connector trails are always a fun & peaceful
glide through the forest.

Back to the initial warmup lap on Baldy. Come along and watch the fast & fun kids flying along. Notice the light snowfall you see starting to come down around us. That is your second foreshadow of the day :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

What we were foreshadowing? Well, how about it dumping snow once we connected onto Boreas. It was a fun jog along Boreas in heavy falling snow. The storm that was supposed to arrive last night finally arrived a little late this morning! Yay for snow!

Heavy snow coming down all around us.
Yay for snow!!!!

Back to the trailhead to meet up with Nancy and Zorro. It was a very busy Saturday at the Boreas trailhead with tons of people and a few loose dogs running every which way. Well, we don't share our 'end of run' treats with anyone except ourselves! So, it was into the back of the Jeep before handing out the rewards!

Fun closeup of the focused trio awaiting 'end of run' treats after
loading into the back of the Jeep first. Such an accommodating trio!

From fast running on a light dusting to jogging in heavy falling snow - fun day: 9.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 95 days on the trails covering 773.3 miles with 67,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Yay Snow

 Jack and Rudy showing what they think about waiting for me to get my skis on to start this morning's skijor run:

"Dude, you are slow so we roll!!!!" demonstrate the snow rolling goofs.

Notice the blur blocking Jack's head. We embarked on this morning's run amidst steady snowfall with a forecast for it to increase in intensity and wind! This was not a forecast that Nancy and retired Zorro wanted to wait in for us at the trailhead :)  So, Nancy & Zorro stayed home while the kids (Jack & Rudy) and I headed out into the developing storm. Well, since I did not have Nancy's help to get us started, Jack & Rudy showed what they thought of my slow preparation by rolling snow angels while I got all my equipment on. Goofy kids.

Well, the forecast was completely accurate. The snow (and wind) kept increasing in intensity our entire outing. I'd wipe the camera clear only to have it covered and blurred by snow in under a minute. Here is seconds after wiping the camera clear once:

A glimpse of Jack & Rudy as there are snow spots below Rudy,
above Jack and across the top of the video view.

Here is what a "cleared to blurred" video looks like. Come along as I just wiped the camera clear as we are galloping along and the camera becomes blurred again in 30 seconds.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We were on the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center most of the outing. These trails had been groomed Thursday evening. So, we found ourselves in a few inches of fresh snow over a groomed trail most of the day. But, we did dip off the main trail twice to get some aerobic trail breaking fun in the deep side trails:

Nice clear shot of breaking trail as I just wiped the camera clear
as we ventured off track. Wheeee!

Did I mention the forecast was for increasing snow and wind? Well, here you go with a shot of dumping and blowing snow all around us:

Skijoring in a whiteout! Wow!

The last 1/3 of our outing looked like the photo above - skijoring in a blinding whiteout! If you can see the trail, then your eyes are better than mine! I could barely see Jack & Rudy. Luckily I know this network of trails, as do Jack & Rudy, so we just glided blindly by memory back to the trailhead. 

Yay for Snow! But, what an interesting day!!! 9.8 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 7 days on the trails covering 46.8 miles with 4500 feet of elevation climbed.

Blizzard Skijor

Skijoring Baldy Mountain this morning amidst heavy falling to blizzard scale snowfall!

Start of the day's outing and you can see the heavy falling snow against
the backdrop of trees in front of us.

Is that a house in the prior photo? Well, not exactly - it is the shell of an old, abandoned mining cabin from the 1800s or early 1900s. Baldy Mountain has tons of these old, abandoned mining structures in various states of stability or decay.

As I said in the introduction, the snow was DUMPING all outing long. We had the occasional stretches of blizzard scale whiteouts!!!!

You can barely see Jack & Rudy 6 feet in front of me and you certainly
cannot make out the trail in front of us! Blizzard!

Our outing had us laying fresh tracks to breaking trail up steep Baldy Mountain. We decided to do a short run given the conditions. Time to turn around, everyone having a good time? Love snow covered Rudy in this shot (Jack had just shook the same amount of snow off his body too). Love the happy faces on the fun kids.

"You bet - but WE could keep going!" says the happy pair.

What does skijoring amidst heavy snowfall look like? Well, come along and watch. The tracks you see are the tracks we laid on the way up. As you can see, nobody else was out on the trail this morning. With just one set of "up tracks" and heavy falling snow, you see Jack & Rudy really bouncing and plowing through the powder. Impressive kids! Oh yeah, look at that snowfall dumping around us!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Ok, now watch the video again and pause it at around 27-28 seconds in. I said the tracks you see were our "out tracks", but what is the huge mess in the snow to our right at 27-28 seconds? Well, it was the rodent hunters silly antics on the way up, as you see below:

Hopping off trail momentarily to dunk and search for rodents.
Rudy is thoroughly immersed in his rodent hunt.
Jack is coming up for air after a deep dunk of his own :)

Now, here is what was amazing about this morning. In the video you see our "out tracks" as the video clip was immediately after our turnaround. 5 minutes after our turnaround and you get what I show below. Do you see any "out tracks"? Nope, they were completely buried by fresh falling snow in roughly 5 minutes! Wow!

Our "out tracks" are completely buried, so it's breaking trail again!
Breaking trail all the way up and most of the way down - what a aerobic outing!
Look at all the snowflakes coming down around us.

If you thought the prior was an impressive "5 minutes later" for the heavy falling snow, take a look at the following photo. This photo is about "20 minutes later" as we set fresh tracks on this section of trail just 20 minutes ago. There is no evidence anybody had been on the trail recently! Blizzard!

Kicking up powder and breaking trail in deep snow despite
the fact that we had come up this trail just 20 minutes earlier!

This was young Jack & Rudy's first "blizzard skijor". They have had a couple of "heavy falling snow" skijors, but today was another level! The only downside was that it was snowing too hard to add Zorro the team to end the day. He came to the trailhead with us but was happier remaining behind with Nancy in the Jeep and skipping the blizzard day.

Oh well, Zorro will be out again with us soon once the snow lets up. As for Jack & Rudy, an impressive day of powder plowing: 4.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 105 days on the trails covering 710.8 miles with 65,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Home Start

A rare "home start" as we began (and ended) this morning's skijor from our garage!!!

The rare "home start" as you see our garage in the background as we
began and ended this morning's skijor from home!

Our typical outing consists of driving 10-15 minutes to the edge of town and then skijoring trails in the national forest. But, every once in a while we get the magical conditions to allow a start from home. The first condition is that it is snowing so hard that the town plows cannot keep pace with the snow. The second condition is that it is early morning (before 8am) so the town & streets are still pretty quiet. When these magical conditions occur, we can start and end our skijor straight from the garage!!!! We will skijor quiet side streets nearby home and venture onto the sidewalks of busier streets and tour around the town. Such a fun & unique skijor outing!

The one downside, though, is that the camera on my chest gets continually covered and blocked by the heavy falling snow. I try to wipe it clear frequently, but it gets covered, blurred and blocked within seconds of me wiping it clear. So, most of the footage from my camera looks like the following and typically much worse!

Snow covered camera with Zorro, Jack & Rudy barely visible. Within 2 seconds of this
frame and you could not see any of them!

Notice the person ahead of us in the prior clip. That is Nancy waiting for us as we completed a loop of side streets. Luckily, Nancy has a camera too and since she is standing still, it does not get buried by the heavy falling snow. So, here is the happy trio towing me in deep snow as we approach and go on by Nancy.

Such happy, happy sled dogs!

After doing "side street tours" with Zorro, we handed the fun elder off to Nancy and I continued on with Jack & Rudy to skijor more of the town. We ventured to the sidewalks of busier streets and eventually dropped down onto Breckenridge Main Street. It was snowing so hard that town plows could not even keep up with Main Street (they try really hard to keep the street and sidewalks of Main plowed as that is where all the tourists congregate). Come along for our first ever skijor on the sidewalks of Breckenridge Main Street!

Cruising Main Street. Wheeee!

I am pretty sure we became the highlight of many people's Breckenridge vacation. Every time I looked at a car on Main Street, there was at least one person with the window down videoing the crazy guy being towed around town by two sled dogs :)

Another fun clip of my pals taking me on a tour of Main Street.

Today's video highlight is a combination of two short video clips. The first is Zorro, Jack, Rudy & I skijoring side streets near home. As you'll see, it takes less than 10 seconds for the camera to become buried in snow. We then transition to Jack, Rudy & I touring Main Street until, once again, the camera is blurred by snow.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back home and time for the snow covered trio to get their 'end of run' treats from the snow covered musher :)

All four of us covered in snow with heavy flakes falling around us.

A truly unique skijor this morning on quiet side streets and sidewalks of busy streets: 5.2 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 104 days on the trails covering 706.2 miles with 64,900 feet of elevation climbed.