Surprise

There was a lot to be excited about on this morning's skijor, right guys?

"Yes! My head is covered in snow and I love it!" declares happy Jack.
"WOO! I LOVE SNOW! WOOOOO!" belts singing Rudy.

The excitement? Well, the forecast last night was "a slight chance of a dusting of snow" overnight. But, the reality was 3-5 inches of fresh powder! We love surprise powder days!

With the surprise new snow, we headed to the backcountry at Dry Gulch to enjoy the powder:

POW - the fun kids blasting through 5 inches (or more) of snow at this
point in the backcountry. Wheeee!

While fresh snow is great for powder blasting, it is also great for rolling snow angels with gusto!

The funny kids launching snow all around themselves as they
roll with vigor!

Then, as we like to do in this location, it was time to floor it on the trails at Gold Run Nordic Center after our aerobic romp through the backcountry powder. The groomer had been out on the trails recently, but there was also a fresh layer of new snow atop the groomie zoomie nordic trail. The kids were having a blast!

The fun kids catching air on the groomie zoomie with cool snow poofs
coming off their feet from the light layer of new snow atop the groom.

Today's video highlight? Well, it HAS to be blasting through the surprise powder. Come along for the fun! Note near the end of the video where I almost wipe out as my ski cut through the fresh snow to hit what was exposed ground just yesterday. But, I'm still standing!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

What a surprise! What a treat! Who had fun?

"We had a BLAST!" says the ecstatic kids atop a nice snow wall
to receive end of run treats.

What a fun "surprise powder" day this morning: 4.6 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 49 days on the trails covering 300.4 miles with 31,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Yay Snow

Yay for fresh snow to gallop through in the backcountry this morning!

The fun kids "kicking up powder" as they gallop through the
morning's fresh snow!

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. It is so much fun to get out in fresh snow on skis with Jack & Rudy. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Our outing this morning started by laying fresh tracks in the backcountry as you saw above. We then continued to lay fresh tracks going out & back on a side trail. Well, any "out & back" means we turned around at some point. So, of course, we had turnaround antics from the comedians:

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes always snow rolling Jack.
"WOOOO! I love fresh snow!" adds singing Rudy.

The nice thing about doing an "out & back" in fresh snow is that you get to make use of your out track to go fast on the way back!

Jack & Rudy making use of our "out track" to pick up the speed on 
the way back. Smart kids!

Then, the reward for all that fun but very aerobic skijoring through fresh snow was to drop onto the newly groomed trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. Jack & Rudy know what to do with a groomie zoomie!

The hover huskies catching air as they floor it on the groomie zoomie trail.

Finally, as we were nearing the end of the outing, we got to flirt with this fun family coming up the trail. Jack & Rudy were as entertained by the dad towing his kid as the family was entertained by seeing Jack & Rudy towing me :)

"Cool dude! We could tow that kid for you!" offers curious Jack & Rudy
as the family looks on in all smiles.

A wonderful "fresh tracks to groomed zooming" this morning, right guys?

"Yes. We had a BLAST!" says the happy & focused kids awaiting
end of run treats atop a snow wall.

Today's tally: 5.8 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 46 days on the trails covering 283.7 miles with 30,500 feet of elevation climbed.

May POW

Happy kids in wonderful new snow in May at the official Rabbit Ears Pass geological marker!

Smiles all around and look at all that fresh & untouched new snow!!!!

The last two days have been incredible fresh snow days in May! It has been a May POW celebration with Jack & Rudy.

Yesterday we skijored the high elevation trails on Peak 7 in Breckenridge. There was 10-15 inches of fresh snow on the trails. One skier had been out before us, so Jack & Rudy tucked themselves into the two ski tracks and towed me up the mountain:

Tucked in tight as the snow is over 10 inches deep out of the ski track so
one could not keep pace with the other if both did not squeeze into these tracks.

I knew Jack & Rudy would appreciate a little wider "set trail" on the way back as it is hard to run fast in a single set of ski tracks without constantly bumping into one another. So, I skied next to the single track you see in the prior photo all the way up. This meant Jack & Rudy had 4 ski tracks to spread across on the way back. Remember, though, there was upwards of 15 inches of fresh snow. So, a single ski track does not pack the trail, it just makes it slightly easier to run fast in. But, there was still plenty of powder in around the ski tracks. Just look at all this powder flying up around Jack & Rudy on our return leg!

Kicking up TONS of powder as the kids blast fast in the 4 ski tracks trail.

With all that deep snow, it was a short (distance wise) outing yesterday: 5.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed. 

This morning we went to the Dumont Lake area at Rabbit Ears Pass. Rabbit Ears is very popular with snowmobiles, so we found 1-2 of fresh snow over pre-existing snowmobile tracks to run in:

Laying fresh tracks in new snow over snowmobile tracks.

It was like mid winter at Rabbit Ears this morning. Quite incredible! Come along and see for yourself as this is near the start of our outing and the kids are having great fun running fast in snowmobile tracks.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually the snowmobile tracks turned away from the route I had planned. We continued on anyway, but then quickly found ourselves breaking trail in over 8 inches of fresh snow:

Breaking Trail - Wheeee!

But, after such deep snow fun yesterday, I wanted to give Jack & Rudy a more shallow & fast outing today.  So, we turned around pretty soon after the prior photo and changed our outing to follow snowmobile tracks wherever they went:

Zipping along laying fresh tracks in snowmobile tracks.
The ski tracks (and dog foot prints) you see to our left are our own tracks
going the other direction on this stretch of trail.

What an excellent set of mid winter powder days yesterday and today in May!!! Right guys?

"Oh, we LOVED it!" says the happy kids propped up no a little snow
wall  to get end of run treats.

Today tally: 8.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 147 days on the trails covering 1244.5 miles with 123,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Breaking Trail

Fun Jack & Rudy powering through snow as we complete this morning's deep powder skijor!

Here we come! Wheeee!

We woke to a TON of new snow so decided to skijor steep Baldy Mountain. This is always a fun place to skijor with fresh snow. But, Baldy is also very popular with Breckenridge locals who all come out to celebrate fresh snow on Baldy. Thus, I was quite shocked when we got to the trailhead and found us first out in the fresh deep snow! Wow! So, it was a fun and aerobic skijor up Baldy breaking trail in upwards of 15 inches of fresh snow the entire way!

Jack & Rudy, the powder plows, towing me up Baldy while breaking
trail in 15 inches of fresh snow. Impressive kids.

Of course the reward for breaking trail up is that you get to run in the track you set on the way back down. But, 2 skis and 8 dog feet certainly do NOT pack 15 inches of snow in one pass. As a result, while we had our "up track" to run in on the way down, it was anything but easy as there was still plenty of soft powder to be plowing through:

Kicking up powder running in the track we set on the way up.Wheeee!

Today's video will really show what I mean by "2 skis and 8 dog feet do not pack 15 inches of snow in one pass." Come along and watch as we were having fun kicking up powder all the way back down Baldy Mountain.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Along the way we had another highlight - spotting a moose snacking on foliage far off trail in the thick trees:

She's too camouflaged to see in the photo; but Jack & Rudy caught the scent
of moose and focused off trail into the trees. I spotted the head of a moose
snacking far off trail.

What a fun powder day, right guys?

"Oh yes, that was a really fun workout!" says the happy, happy kids.

A welcome surprise breaking trail all the way up Baldy Mountain and then kicking up powder in the same track all the way back down: 4.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 106 days on the trails covering 905.6 miles with 87,800 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. 

Powder and Moose

Fresh powder to power through all morning long in French Gulch!!!!

The powder kids, Jack & Rudy, towing me through 3-6 inches of fresh
powder all morning long.

While most of the morning was spent laying fresh tracks out & back in French Gulch, we were in well established moose territory as well. Less than 5 minutes into our outing and Jack & Rudy had to pause to scan the huge meadow to our right for moose. I could clearly tell their noses caught the scent of moose so one must certainly have been nearby. We all scanned the meadow intensely but never found a body to put with the scent...

"We smell MOOSE!!!!!" declares the moose trackers.

With Jack & Rudy catching the scent of moose that early on in our outing meant they were juiced all day long. They kept glancing to our right (into the meadows where the moose hang out) as we were gliding along. Then, at one point, Jack declared, "We MUST go off trail HERE!" There was an opening in the trees and I did not see any moose, so I entertained Jack and said, "Ok, we'll drift off trail for 10 yards or so." Well, we came around one tree and BINGO there was a moose indeed. Oh boy that Jack is a professional moose tracker.

Look straight up from Jack's head and you'll see the moose with its two big
ears up looking at us.

Ok, that was fun and a nice safe distance from the moose. I let Jack & Rudy stare at the moose for a few moments and then I started to back us up. But, as I was backing us up, Rudy let out one of his patented moose screams and holy moly a bigger moose (the mother) appeared from behind a large bush to put herself between her kid and us! I had no idea the mother was even in the area, she was behind such a big bush, until she suddenly appeared!

Yikes, here comes mommy!
You can see the indentation in the snow in front of Jack & Rudy
where we stopped to view the original moose before starting to back up.

If you think the prior photo is shocking, here is a zoom of the same image!

Oh Rudy, why did you scream!!!!!
Way closer than comfort! I QUICKLY reach down, grabbed Jack & Rudy
by the harness and backed us up as fast as I could!

Once mom saw we were backing up, she turned as well and sauntered over to her kid. Phew! 

Ok, moose event over, back to skijoring. We did an out & back in French Gulch and the trail is wide enough that we could lay fresh tracks both directions. Fun!

Blasting through powder on the way back with our "out tracks" to
our left.

Ok, how about a fun powder video. Come along and watch as Jack & Rudy are plowing through the day's fresh snow. In this simple minute video alone, the snow ranges from about 3 inches to about 6 inches in depth. What a fun powder plowing day.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead for some well earned end of run treats.

"Please tell me that is moose meat!" says inquisitive Rudy.
"I'll take ANY meat!" adds focused Jack.
Sorry Rudy all I had was our usual end of run pork, not moose meat :)

A fun powder day with an intense moose encounter: 8.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 54 days on the trails covering 461.1 miles with 44,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Powder, Groomer, Floor It

We spent the majority of this morning breaking trail in 6-8 inches of fresh powder!

Blasting through about 6 inches at this point on the trail. Wheeee!

At our deepest points, though, we found ourselves blasting through over 12 inches of fresh powder!

Jack & Rudy snorkeling through over 12 inches of pow, pow, POWDER!

Of course a day of breaking trail is quite a workout. That means everyone thoroughly enjoyed rolling snow angels to cool off whenever we paused to catch our breaths!

"Rub a dub dub, cool our jets rolling in the snow!" goes the silly kids.

As I said above, we spent most, but not all, of the day breaking trail. What happened to change that? Well, we ran into the groomer from Gold Run Nordic Center coming up the trail as we were on the last mile or so of our outing:

Hey, the groomer! Hi friend!!!!

We all knew what we would get on the other side of the groomer. Yep, a fresh groomie zoomie to floor it for the final leg of our skijor outing!

Flooring it on the groomie zoomie.

Now let's put the prior two photos together into a fun video summary. Come along as we start the clip breaking trail in 6-8 inches of fresh powder. Then, as we round a bend in the trail, we come upon the groomer coming up the trail. We know the groomer drivers from years of skijoring these trails. The drivers always stop and let Jack, Rudy and I pass on by - I'm convinced they love running into us and watching us maneuver on by as they always have big smiles on their faces. Back to the video, once I see the groomer stop (thus knowing he is one of the past groomers), I instruct Jack & Rudy to move on by the stopped groomer. Finally, once past, we all know what to do on the fresh groomed trail - floor it on the groomie zoomie! What fun partners, wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and, oh boy, our tallest snow wall of the season to climb for end of run treats!!!!

Love it when the kids find a wall to climb and get face to face with me.
What fun pals!

A very aerobic trail breaking outing for most of the day and then a fresh groom to floor it for the final home stretch: 7.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH (on the groomie zoomie, of course).

2023/2024 Season to Date: 29 days on the trails covering 236.4 miles with 22,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Fresh

Laying fresh tracks up a wonderful stretch of snow covered & untouched terrain!

Fresh tracks fun. Wheeee!

We returned to the upper elevation trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center once again this morning. There was fresh snow on the ground but not enough to open up any trails lower in elevation. Not a problem, Jack, Rudy and I had a great time laying fresh tracks up the highest elevation trail at the nordic center. The higher we got, the more fresh snow we found!

Here is a fun shot of our return on this high elevation trail as Jack & Rudy powder through about 4-5 inches of fresh powder.

Powder fun!!!
The tracks to our left are our "out tracks" on this same trail.

While we found some nice powder at our highest points, most of the day was spent on 1-2 inches of fresh snow. But, with wide trails we were able to lay fresh tracks both directions.

Laying fresh tracks on the right side of the trail after laying fresh tracks
up the left side of the trail.

Now come along for today's video fun. I really like this section of trail as it has a few gentle corners. It is so fun to ride behind Jack & Rudy flying along the straightaways and then tucking into a corner with them. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

At one junction of trails, I paused to decide whether to continue forward or hang a right. Well, I stopped...

"You stopped, we roll!!!!" demonstrates the snow rolling goofballs.
Don't they look like the happiest guys on earth as they roll in the snow.

Back to the trailhead for our usual end of run treat party. I love how focused Jack & Rudy are on me as they await the treats. Such good boys!

"You have our FULL attention!" declares the happy kids.

A fresh tracks fun run this morning: 8.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 14 days on the trails covering 110.1 miles with 11,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Freshies

A beautiful Fresh Tracks Thursday for our skijor this morning!

Jack & Rudy zooming, laying fresh tracks, in about 4 inches
of fresh powder. Yay!

Our outing took us once again to the upper elevation trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center. With a pre-existing packed base in areas and 3-5 inches of fresh snow, I knew we'd be in for a treat most of the morning. Can you just feel the power from Jack & Rudy in this photo?

The power twins towing me quickly through fresh powder!

Sometimes I really like to watch Jack & Rudy skijoring in slow motion to appreciate their sheer power. This is especially true when they are powering through fresh snow. Come along for today's video highlight - a slow motion clip showcasing Jack & Rudy's powder power, wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We did a large loop on the trails this morning, so that meant we were laying fresh tracks the entire outing!

Fun shot of the powder kids in the morning sun.

At our midpoint of the day, I paused to check our time out on the trails. Well, I paused...

"You pause, we Stop, Drop & Roll!" says the goofy snow angel rolling kids.

Finally, there's nothing as fun as enjoying end of run treats after a morning of powder power running :)

"You have our FULL attention!" exclaims the happy kids.

Super fun fresh tracks morning; 8.2 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 9 days on the trails covering 69.5 miles with 7300 feet of elevation climbed.