A bit windy high up near treeline on Baldy Mountain this morning!
Jack & Rudy breaking trail in 10+ inches of powder as the haze you see in this photo is snow blowing all around us.
We skijored two laps on Baldy Mountain this morning. On the first lap we went high to near treeline. Once we got up in elevation, the snow was deep, deep, deep! Some of it from snowfall and some of it from wind blown drifts. Jack & Rudy had a very aerobic romp through the deep powder!
Breaking trail in about 18 inches of powder in this shot! POW!
But, we did spend the majority of the outing down "in the trees" lower on Baldy. The powder was only a couple of inches deep down lower in the protection of trees. Jack earned the nickname Powder Jack long ago for his love to run in shallow powder over set tracks. If the snow is shallow enough for him to keep pace in the powder, he'll always run there over set tracks. Thus, Powder Jack.
Only one person had been on this trail before us. Rudy chose to run in the existing ski track while Powder Jack chose to run in the shallow powder instead.
Come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. Powder Jack having a blast in the shallow powder running alongside Rudy in the single set ski track. Wheeee!
It's been a while since Rudy gave us one of his beautiful rodent swan dives :)
"Rodents under the snow! Incoming!" demonstrates diving Rudy.
Along with Rudy's fun dive, it is humorous to notice Jack in the prior photo. He clearly did not detect the same rodent activity as Rudy as he is still cruising uphill. It wasn't until Rudy completed his dive that Jack noticed what was going on! Of course, he circled back to check if Rudy really caught any rodents (no he didn't :)
We had some fresh snow overnight so we headed out to one of our favorite powder trails going up and down Baldy Mountain. Baldy is very steep, so we (or I :) need powder to keep the human alive on this steep terrain. Everyone uses the same initial trail to get up Baldy; but, after a couple of miles, you get into thinning trees as you approach treeline. Once the trees thin, people fan out every which direction to make their own path up & down upper Baldy. We found ourselves laying fresh tracks up our own route for a few miles. We then turned around to reuse the track we set on the way back down.
Well, initially Jack wanted nothing to do with our set track. He wanted to keep plowing in the fresh powder!
Jack blazing trail to the right while Rudy and I reuse the tracks we set on the way up. Powder Jack!
Eventually Jack decided it really is easier to reuse the track you set up on the way down. Come along for a fun clip of us reusing the track we set on the way up. First tracks up and then second tracks down!
A beautiful bluebird morning to enjoy a ton of fresh mid-April powder!
"So fun, so fun!" declares happy Jack.
"Fun indeed, but I smell moose!" adds Rudy sniffing the air
(we were in known moose territory :)
It was a pow, pow, POWDER day for the kids and I as we abandoned set trails to enjoy 8-10 inches of fresh snow over vast, untouched meadows!
The pow, pow, POWDER kids propelling me through 8+ inches of untouched
snow as far as the eye could see!!!!
As you can tell from the prior photo, the snow was a bit too deep for 11-3/4 year old Zorro to come along for much of the outing. How did we satisfy our need to run with the fun elder? Well, after plowing across the meadow above, we looped back around the perimeter of the meadow to get back to where we started. In the meantime, Zorro & Nancy walked out our initial tracks until meeting up with us back atop this vast meadow. We then hooked up with Zorro to get a mini run with the fun guy letting him use the track we set on the way out.
"Whee, thanks for setting a track for me little brothers!" says happy Zorro trotting in track.
"MY PLEASURE!!!! Anything else I can do for you?!?" asks cute Rudy.
"You two take the set track, I'll keep POWDER plowing!" demonstrates
powder Jack continuing to make his own track in the deep snow.
Above was a view from the front of the team. Here we are "on by" Nancy and a view from the rear with an additional cool view of Breckenridge Ski Resort across the valley. Pretty cool that you can see all the snow covered ski runs whereas the tops of the mountains are still blanketed in the clouds leftover from last night's snowfall.
Zorro & Rudy continuing to use the track we set out with Powder Jack
continuing to blaze his own. Cool view of the ski resort too!
After a short sprint with Zorro in our set tracks, we handed him back off with Nancy and the powder kids and I went out for some more. I'm not sure what is more cool: (1) The second photo above of us blazing our own trail in the vast untouched snow; or (2) The photo below of us returning to the same vast meadow as we continue to blaze our own trail while you see our trail from the first pass to our right!
The powder kids still going as you see our "first pass" tracks to the right.
Note that the skinny/bare tree in front and above Jack is the same tree
to the front & right of Jack in the second photo above.
Hmm, both powder plowing shots are so cool. How about a side by side to enjoy them both?
Powder plowing pass 1 on the left.
Powder plowing pass 2 on the right with our pass 1 tracks to the far right.
Today's video is, of course, the powder plowing kids. Come along for a fun view of the energetic and aerobic kids towing me through 8+ inches of perfect powder!
An incredible powder plowing outing in mid-April for the kids with a mini addition of Zorro in between powder runs: 6.7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH. As has been the case the last few days - our top speed was HAPPILY slowed by deep powder!
2019/2020 Season to Date: 147 days on the trails covering 1008.2 miles with 91,600 feet of elevation climbed.
Nice view of "trail breaking tracks" behind Jack & Rudy and morning fog on the mountains of Breckenridge Ski Resort across the valley.
Breaking trail for the kids. Nice view for me :)
We gave Zorro most of the outing off today as I took Jack & Rudy on the complex backcountry trails on Baldy Mountain. This was Rudy's first skijor on Baldy and Jack's 4th (but his first without Zorro).
The kids got a valuable lesson today. Sometimes, deep in the backcountry, the set trail is only one Siberian Husky wide while the snow outside of the set track is extremely deep. As a result, you have to skijor single file. If you try to go side-by-side, either half your body is in snow too deep or one brother is in track while the other cannot keep pace in the deep snow out of track. It took a little bit of work and encouragement from me, but eventually the youngsters "got it" - simply go single file and you can actually go surprisingly fast!
Sprinting Rudy behind Jack as we go surprisingly fast in a single file configuration.
Of course, everyone wanted to be the "brother in front" at first. This lead to an unapproved discussion between the kids when we first started learning single file skijoring. But, I was impressed that only one such unapproved trail discussion broke out - pretty good for the first time :)
"I WANT to go first!" says Jack to Rudy.
"No! Let's play instead!" responds Rudy.
After I intervened in the unapproved discussion, we all got going and did a perfect single file skijor for many miles. Jack took lead about 75% of the time and Rudy took lead the other 25%. This is exactly what I hoped would happen as Jack has more "lead dog" tendencies than Rudy.
Eventually we got onto the more popular trails on Baldy. At this point there was a set track in the middle with shallow powder out of track. If the powder is shallow, Jack will typically run in the side powder and let Rudy (or Zorro & Rudy) have the set track. We call him Powder Jack for his love of the side powder when it is shallow enough to keep pace:
Powder Jack on the right with in track Rudy on the left.
Today's video highlight goes with the prior photo. Come along as Rudy is running in the set track while Jack happily takes the side powder which is shallow enough for him to keep pace. Powder Jack.
We stopped once to turn around and, well, we stopped...
"You stopped, we roll, roll, roll!" demonstrates the snow angel twins.
Finally, we met up with Zorro to let him join for a short run to the finish. Love this photo of the happy trio:
All smiles as the trio tows me to the finish. Once again, we have Zorro & Rudy in the
set track while Powder Jack is in the shallow side powder.
A great day teaching Jack & Rudy about "single file backcountry skijoring" while giving Zorro most of the day off and then a fun run to the finish with Zorro: 8.1 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.
2019/2020 Season to Date: 57 days on the trails covering 389.2 miles with 37,700 feet of elevation climbed.
"HEY! We were using that! RUDE!!!" says the snow loving trio to the evil plow.
"RUDE! Just plain RUDE!!!!!" says Zorro, Jack, Rudy and me :)
It was an interesting skijor for us this morning with a bunch of constraints.
First constraint: I had a "jury summons" to appear for jury selection at 9am this morning. What a rude morning constraint to deal with.
Second constraint: The ski resort reported 13" of new snow overnight at we had over 7 inches at home. So the trails would have between 7 to 13+. No way was I going to miss a morning like this because of some rude jury summons.
Third constraint: At 11.5 years old, Zorro is not really up to breaking trail in a foot of snow anymore. But, with the rude jury summons, we did not have time for Jack, Rudy & I to set a trail first and then add Zorro in to reuse what we packed. Rude jury summons!
The solution? Attempt to skijor French Gulch Road. Two reasons: (1) vehicles drive this in all depths of snow to get to trailheads and a few houses back in the gulch; (2) plows get to this road last on the schedule as they need to do the more populous streets first. As we arrived to French Gulch Road at the edge of the town limit, it was perfect. One vehicle had driven up the road with no plows yet. As a result, we were able to skijor up the road in perfect setup. Jack, Rudy and I took one tire track to let the kids haul me up. Zorro, meanwhile, took the other tire track to run alongside us while letting Jack & Rudy do most of the uphill work. A perfect use of young Jack & Rudy along with elder Zorro!
Wheeee - riding the "2 year olds" tow rope up one tire track while
Zorro keeps pace alongside us in the other track.
We did this configuration all the way out French Gulch Road for a little over two miles before we had to turn around to get me home in time for jury duty. Time to turn around and guess what... :)
"Turning means rolling snow angels first!" says the powder twins throwing themselves into
the deep snow first.
"Kids! What else can you say but 'kids'?!?" says onlooking Zorro.
Once turned around, everyone wanted to get in the same tire track for some downhill speed. Unfortunately only two sled dogs can fit in a single tire track. I spent 50 yards or so making sure everyone knew he could use the right track while the other two used the left track (with various 'over to the right' commands and others). But, alas, nobody wanted to run in the right track alone. Instead, everyone quickly settled on the "Powder Jack" configuration. Zorro & Rudy took the tire track and Jack happily ran in the middle powder right next to the track.
Powder Jack! Go, Jack, Go!!!
Impressive shot of Jack kicking up powder while still keeping pace with Zorro and Rudy
in the tire track.
Come along for a minute of impressive Powder Jack as he is able to "kick up powder" while still keeping pace with his in-track partners. I think Zorro & Rudy actually pulled back a little to make sure Jack could keep pace and they could remain in the set track. Impressive powder Jack and polite Zorro & Rudy - wheeee!
How long did Powder Jack go? Well, refer back to the original photo above. He maintained Powder Jack until we ran into the rude plow coming up the road. Rude! Anyways, once there was a wide plow lane, nobody wanted to run in the powder anymore. That's completely understandable but all the work then fell upon me to avoid obstacles on the road that the plow had exposed!
My partners making use of the fast plow lane while I ride with one ski in the lane and the
other ski in the side powder. I kept switching my weight between the "fast lane ski" and
the "safe/slow lane powder ski" to keep pace while avoiding hazards. I hate when I have
to do so much work :)
End of a short but very fun morning run:
"That was fun! What a great workout!" says happy Powder Jack.
"Look at patient me awaiting my 'end of run' treats!" adds cute Rudy.
"You have my full attention!" declares Zorro.
The "13 inch snow report" from the ski resort was as of 5am and it had been snowing nonstop since then. So, we were somewhere in the 15-20" range by the time we got home. I made one last check on my rude jury summons (it was still 'on' as of 7am) and, YESSSSS, jury duty canceled as of 8am due to inclement weather!!!! Woo Hoo!
Yay to jury canceled but boo to cutting our run short to be able to make it: 4.2 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.
2019/2020 Season to Date: 39 days on the trails covering 257.9 miles with 25,800 feet of elevation climbed.
Great conditions far back in French Gulch this morning. Powder Fun!!!
Great shot of the power trio towing me through 5+ inches of powder in the upper
terrain in French Gulch.
It is still October, so there was just enough snow to have a blast in French Gulch and there was also just enough lack of snow to be cautious now and then :)
An example of lack of snow below. Zorro HATES water, he will never touch it and will long jump any water obstacle we encounter on the trails. We had a couple of obstacles this morning. Jack and Rudy do not mind getting their toes wet; but Zorro will pause, align himself and then long jump any water obstacle!
Nice long jump from Zorro as he clears the water obstacle. It wasn't that big so only a little
hop was really necessary. But, Zorro does a long jump anyway just to make sure he misses
all the water!
Another example of just enough and almost not enough... Come along and watch as we are cruising along the trail until the end of this clip when you hear & see my ski catch a rock. I almost wipeout but there was just enough snow to recover and continue. Phew :)
For the most part, though, the day was perfect (especially for October). Fun shot below as Zorro & Rudy are in set tracks on each side of the trail while Jack & I ride the powder middle. Jack loves powder and will always take the powder path if he can.
The bookends (Zorro & Rudy) cruising the sides with powder Jack down the middle.
Finally, any amount of snow is enough to roll snow angels, just ask Jack & Rudy.
"Oh my, here they go again!" comments Zorro about his little brothers.
"Got Snow? We Roll!!!" demonstrates the goofball twins.
Just enough snow to have a great morning skijoring French Gulch: 5.6 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.
2019/2020 Season to Date: 4 days on the trails covering 19.7 miles with 2100 feet of elevation climbed.
