2025/2026 Season Opener

Let the 2025/2026 Skijor Season FINALLY Begin!!!!

Whee, we are back on skis & snow!!!!!
Smiles all around!

After a ridiculously dry October and start to November in Colorado, we FINALLY got our skijor season started this morning. This is the latest start we EVER had to a skijor season (and we've been doing this since 2010 - first with Max & Zorro and now with Jack & Rudy). My goodness, we typically get at least one and usually multiple outings in October and we've even had a few years with September starts. Jack, Rudy and I were starting to wonder if it would ever snow this season!!!!

To get the season started, though, we needed an assist from the snow making machines on Breckenridge Ski Resort. While we did get some new snow overnight, it was not enough to skijor without an assist. So, we went to one of the closed runs at Breckenridge where they are making snow in an attempt to open new terrain. Well, snow is snow - we'll take natural or man made at this point to get the season going!

Zipping along a ski run of mostly man made snow with an active snow gun
making snow to our left. Any snow is good snow!

It was actually pretty fun to skijor amidst the active running snow guns. We were galloping (Jack & Rudy) and gliding (me) in and out of active, man made snowfall. Wheeee!

A somewhat blurred photo from snow guns spraying snow down
upon us. Fun!

Now come along for a video view into the fun as we skijor along a this ski run amidst active snow guns. 

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Despite a much later than usual start to the season, some things remain the same with silly Jack & Rudy.

First, snow angels MUST be rolled at any turnaround point of the outing:

"Rub a dub dub, turnaround roll around!" goes the snow rolling goofs
already in "mid season snow rolling form" :)

Second, everyone is at full attention and all smiles awaiting end of run treats:

"We'd NEVER forget about end of run treats! Dish them out!"
says the happy & focused pair.

We needed an assist from the ski resort snow guns, but the 2025/2026 season has FINALLY begun: 3.1 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 15 MPH.

Pray for Snow - we need MUCH more!!!!!

Skijor the Ski Resort

Skijoring Breckenridge Ski Resort - wheeee!

The fun kids towing me to the finish of a "skijor the ski resort" outing
yesterday morning.

It has become an annual tradition for us. When Breckenridge Ski Resort closes Peak 9 for the season, we skijor the ski resort the next day. While the ski resort itself is still open, they start to shut down some of the trails as the season & crowds wind down. Well, Sunday was the last day peaks 9 & 10 (of the 5 peaks of ski runs at Breckenridge) were open. So, Monday was our annual "skijor the ski resort" on the closed trails on Peak 9. This outing is best shown through pictures versus me talking, come along for the fun ride:

We flew down wide trails high up on Peak 9:

Whee!

We floored it down narrower corridors of tree lined ski runs:

Zoom!

We zipped on by slopeside condos and hotels:

Wouldn't it be cool to step out on your hotel deck to see this
flying on by!!!!

So much cool video footage from the day. Let's go with the counterpart to the prior photo for the highlight of the outing. As I said in the photo caption: wouldn't it be cool to step out on your hotel deck to witness this flying on by :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Great time, right guys?

"Oh, the best! We love to skijor the ski resort!!!" says the happy kdis
with a nice trail map of Breckenridge Ski Resort in the background.
Peaks 9 & 10 are on the far left of this trail map.

Remember, ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing. Thus, our outings on the resort are always steep in elevation but lower in mileage: 4.8 miles traveled with 1500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 92 days on the trails covering 709.5 miles with 68,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Rudy 7000

6 year old Rudy surpassed 7,000 career skijor miles this morning!

Way to go handsome & powerful Rudy!

"I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of the 7000 miles!" declares happy Rudy.

For the curious, Jack is roughly 5 months older than Rudy, so his 7,000 mile event happened last month.

What did we do to observe Rudy's awesome milestone? Well, look closely at that first photo again. What do you see in the upper left of the photo? Yes, that is a chairlift! To celebrate "Rudy 7000" we skijored Breckenridge Ski Resort this morning!

We try to make this an annual tradition: skijor Breckenridge Ski Resort within a few days of them shutting down some peaks for the season. Technically, Breckenridge Ski Resort is still open; but, they shutdown operations on 3 of the 5 peaks as we got into the second half of April and leading into May. It is the most fun to skijor the ski resort with a layer of fresh snow (otherwise it is a bit icy for me). So, although the trails on Peak 9 closed for the season yesterday, we waited until this morning to skijor the ski resort as fresh snow was expected overnight. 

Well, the wait was PERFECT! We had a wonderful layer of light snow over the otherwise hard packed trails. Jack & Rudy really love this activity. I can feel their excitement in the force behind the gangline attached to my waist :)

We had fun flying on by trail signage on the resort:

"Don't need no silly signs, we know where we are going!" says the fun kids
flying on by some of the trail signage.

We had fun flying under both stationary and moving chair lifts:

Crossing under a lift, no reason to slow down for that :)

We had fun zipping alongside chairlifts:

Fresh snow all to ourselves as we fly down this untouched ski run
going alongside a chairlift.

When we are out after they close Peak 9, we always run into a few others. There will be the occasional skiers who have skinned up the trails to come back down. But, more common is coming across resort employees. We will see them on both snowmobiles and the occasional moving lift as they are carrying out shutdown tasks on this peak. The employees always smile, wave and cheer us on as they see the crazy guy skijoring a ski resort behind two powerful sled dogs!

Zipping by some resort employees as you see the passenger giving us
a nice wave (I waved back :)

So, let's put it all together for today's video highlight: flying by trail signage, cruising under chairlifts, running along side (a moving) chairlift and encountering the occasional resort employees on snowmobiles and riding chairlifts. All this is set against wonderful active falling snow all around us with the occasional big gust of wind, as you'll see in the video.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

What a fun morning. Let's celebrate with end of run treats in front of the Breckenridge Trail Map in the background:

"That was FUN!" says the happy, happy kids awaiting treats in front of
the big trail map poster.

Remember, ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing, as a result we always trade an increase in elevation for a decrease in distance skijoring the resort: 7.4 miles traveled with 1500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 131 days on the trails covering 1125.4 miles with 111,400 feet of elevation climbed.

The 6 year olds, Jack & Rudy, have now each surpassed 7,000 career skijor miles! Impressive! 

Rudy Saves the Day

Hey Moose, could you move over a bit so we can play on through?

See the moose? Look directly up from Rudy's right ear.

Still not convinced it is a moose? How about zooming in as much as I can without blurring the photo? I'll keep Jack & Rudy's ears in the zoom for reference to the photo above :)

Yep, big lady moose directly up from Rudy's right ear!

As we encountered this moose in front of us this morning, I shouted out "Hey moose, could you move over a bit so we can play on through?" What did she do after I yelled this out 3 times? Well, she simply turned her head to stare at us. I was about to give up and turn us around when Rudy belted out one of his patented wildlife moose screams. Tada, that worked, Rudy's scream caused her to saunter off into the trees. Rudy Saves the Day!!!!!

Where were we skijoring today? Well, we went back to Breckenridge Ski Resort as the resort is still not open for the season but there is a lot of snow to use on the mountain. We spent part of the day skijoring in snowmobile tracks that employees have laid all over the mountain as they prep to open next week:

Cruising along as we are following snowmobile tracks and passing
under a ski lift.

Then, as you get a little higher in elevation on the mountain, there is TONS of untouched powder on the ski runs. I know which runs are light in weeds & rocks from summer hikes, so it was safe to go powder hopping in these stretches of ski runs. Wheeee!

Untouched powder all to ourselves!

Back to the snowmobile tracks, come along and watch as we glide along the ski resort and cross under one of the ski lifts and then approach another lift (we had to stop right before the second lift due to exposed ground).

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Turnaround time has one absolute guarantee - Jack rolling snow angels. Rudy, though, is the constant wildcard. What will be his turnaround antic - wooing or rolling? I have fun trying to guess which Rudy will come out at our turnaround - I am only right about 50% of the time!

"Always rolling!" declares snow rolling Jack.
"I already screamed at the moose, so I'm rolling today!" adds silly Rudy.

Back to the base of Peak 9 to end the outing and we found a nice step up to one of the service buildings for Jack & Rudy to get close to my level for end of run treats. In between the first and second treat and the kids were still savoring the first :)

"Slurp! Yum! Got more?" slurps the funny kids.

Another fun day making use of the trails on Breckenridge Ski Resort before they open for the season: 7.3 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 5 days on the trails covering 39.1 miles with 4400 feet of elevation climbed.

Skijor the Ski Resort

Smiles all around as we complete our Skijor of Breckenridge Ski Resort this morning!

Wheeee!

It has become an annual tradition for us, when Breckenridge Ski Resort closes Peak 9, we go out and skijor the ski resort. Technically, the ski resort is still open as they attempt to stay open as far into May as the snowpack allows. But, come mid-April, the crowds start to shrink and the resort begins to shutdown some of the ski runs to match the need. The first to close are usually the runs on Peaks 9 and 10 (while they keep the runs on Peaks 6, 7 & 8 open). Once they close Peak 9, it is time for us to get out and skijor up and down downhill ski runs.

We never know what we are going to find, condition-wise, when we head out to Peak 9. Sometimes we find a groomed trail (as they groom for maintenance and other operations) and sometimes we find ungroomed slick terrain. This morning we found a groomed trail; but it quickly turned towards Peak 8 (which is still open), so we could not follow that trail. Instead we cruised around ungroomed trails on Peak 9 for a while. A bit slick, but still fun:

A bit slick, so polite Jack & Rudy are keeping speeds to a minimum.

Then, partway through the outing and look what we ran into coming up the trail!!!!

A groomer! A groomer! Yay!
"Cool!" says fascinated Rudy.
"Thanks dude, now the human will let us GO fast!" adds Jack.
The groomer driver smiled and waved to us as he passed by.

Alrighty - a groomed trail. Jack and Rudy know what to do with that!!!!

Zoom! Thanks Mr. Groomer!

It was zooming the rest of the day on this freshly groomed trail. Here we are near the end of the outing cruising by Beaver Run Resort.

Groomie Zoomie!

Now come along for a fun "skijor to the finish" on the great groomed trail we came upon. If you are wondering about Jack & Rudy at about 20 seconds into the clip (as they slow a bit looking around). Well, there was a bunch of employees to our left doing "shutdown work" and nosy Jack & Rudy wanted to see what was going on. Once past the employees, we pick up the pace again. Nosy kids!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

How fun, let's go have end of run treats in front of the ski resort trail map:

"Ready!" says the happy, happy kids.
Nice shot of the trail map behind Jack & Rudy.

Remember ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing. So our "skijor the ski resort" outings are typically short in distance but large in elevation. Today: 6.3 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 136 days on the trails covering 1207.6 miles with 110,300 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Skijoring the Ski Resort

One of our favorite annual traditions: Skijoring Breckenridge Ski Resort!

Kicking up dust in shallow powder as we zoom under a ski lift. Wheeee!

We started this tradition back with Max & Zorro. Then, Zorro introduced it to Jack and then Zorro & Jack introduced it to Rudy. Finally, Jack & Rudy have continued to carry on the annual event. We try to "skijor the ski resort" every year when they start to shutdown terrain for the end of season.

Technically speaking, Breckenridge Ski Resort is still open for operations as they try to keep some terrain open as far into May as conditions allow. The resort has ski runs spanning 5 peaks (named peaks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) and they close peaks 9 & 10 in mid to late April and shift all operations to 6, 7 & 8. They then start to close off parts of 6/7/8 as the snow melts until everything is eventually closed. Well, Peak 9 is our favorite peak, so we are thrilled that it is one of the first to close as it usually still has snow to use (it's not profitable to staff & keep all 5 peaks open in April/May).

We try to get out on Peak 9 within days of it closing and this year it closed for the season yesterday. We never know what conditions we are going to find on the peak. But, the ski resort tends to keep grooming a few tracks on the peak for a couple of days for both maintenance and to give locals a chance to ski up & down terrain that all the tourists are told is closed :) As usual, we were thrilled to find a groomed track along one of the runs on Peak 9 - wheeee!

Catching air as we FLY along the groomie zoomie ski run on Peak 9.

This year, though, we had some added entertainment. The resort got upwards of an inch or so of new snow overnight. As a result, there was fresh snow sprinkled across all the runs on Peak 9. With a light layer of powder, we are able to ditch groomed trails and fly up & down any run we chose! Without the new snow, the ungroomed runs would have been too tracked up from yesterday and then iced overnight for me to be able to safely skijor behind Jack & Rudy. But, as you see in the first photo and next photo - we were able to ditch the groomed trails and make our own way laying fresh tracks on endless ski runs. So fun!

Laying fresh tracks as we FLY along a beautiful ski run!

Come along for the video counterpart of the prior photo. It does not get much more fun than this! New snow on fast & endless ski runs. Zoom, zoom, zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As I mentioned, all the locals know that Peak 9 is still secretly "open for skiing" if you know how to get yourself up the mountain. Who needs a ski lift when you have snow machines? Yes, either snowmobiles or sled dogs are the preferred way to get up the mountain today :)

Jack, Rudy & I completing our morning outing as a snowmobile is
towing other skiers up to enjoy the "locals only" ride down too :)

Some use snowmobile to get up, some expend the effort to "skin up" themselves and then some use sled dogs to get up the mountain. I prefer sled dogs!

"Us too! Who wouldn't prefer sled dogs?!?" asks happy Jack & Rudy.
These smiles are at one of our turnaround points after the kids towed me
up. Rudy is just finishing rolling his snow angel to cool off before
we started back down.

So much fun today. Let's go thank retired mentor Zorro for pioneering this annual tradition:

"So Fun!!!!" declares the ecstatic kids.
"I taught them EVERYTHING I know!" adds proud Zorro.

Remember that ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing, so our outings on the resort are always very high in elevation without as much mileage as we do on a normal skijor: 6.4 miles traveled with 1400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 138 days on the trails covering 1169.7 miles with 109,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Return

Another great morning Skijoring Breckenridge Ski Resort. Wheeee!

Jack & Rudy zipping along as we pass by trail
signage at Breckenridge Ski Resort.

We had so much fun skijoring Peak 9 yesterday that we got up early to go again today. As I described yesterday, Peak 9 is now closed for the season but you can still find a groomed trail or two (or more) as the ski resort is still doing maintenance and other tasks on the mountain. This does not go unnoticed to locals in the area. Everyone who lives here knows that Peak 9 is still useable with a random groomed trail here and there. You just have to skin or hike up the mountain to make use of the "tourist free" terrain :) As a result, we encounter the occasional kindred spirit along the way:

Jack & Rudy flying along as the "dot" in front of us is a
snowboarder coming down the mountain.

Come along for the fun video counterpart to the prior photo. Watch closely and you can see the snowboarder coming down in front of us. Jack & Rudy were intrigued and wanted to catch and inspect the moving object in front of us. But, alas, the snowboarder crossed by before we got to him. So we might as well continue flying along the trail we are on :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Yesterday we had a ton of soft powder to gallop through when not on groomed trails. Unfortunately, those same powder trails from yesterday were punchy trails this morning. Not solid enough to be a crust but hard enough to be punchy. But, once we got high enough in elevation, the untouched snow was soft again. As a result we went powder plowing for a while when we were above 10,500 feet in elevation.

Powder fun! Wheeee!

But, the majority of our outing was spent below 10,500 feet in elevation. Not a problem, we just stuck to every groomed trail we could find!

Flying along a groomie zoomie as we cross under a chairlift.

Remember ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing. Thus, we climb a lot of elevation on our tours around the resort. After each big climb, the silly kids needed to cool their jets before launching back down:

"Aahh!" declares the snow rolling giggle twins.

Back to the base area to meet up with our retired mentor, Zorro, to show him how well he taught us the last 2 years!

"Hi Zorro!" smiles Jack & Rudy.
"Looking good, I taught you well!" adds inspecting Zorro.

With a steep skijor on the ski resort this morning, we were able to surpass 100,000 feet of skijoring for the season. Yes, Jack & Rudy have towed me up (and launched me down) over 100,000 feet in elevation! Today's tally: 8.7 miles traveled with 1600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 143 days on the trails covering 1166.3 miles with 100,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Skijoring the Ski Resort

A beautiful "fresh tracks Tuesday" on this late April morning!

Jack & Rudy laying fresh tracks in about 4 inches of
fresh powder. Wheeee!

But, wait, look at the prior photo a little closer. What is that far to our left? Hey, a chairlift! What is that dead ahead of us? Hey, the Peak 9 Base Area of Breckenridge Ski Resort! Yes, that's right, today was one of our favorite annual traditions: Skijoring the Ski Resort! We try to get out on the ski resort trails shortly after they close for the season. Technically speaking Breckenridge Ski Resort is still open. But, the resort has ski runs across 5 peaks of the 10 mile range (Peaks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). With dwindling tourist traffic in April, the ski resort will shutdown operations on peaks 6, 9 and 10 around mid-April. Peaks 7 & 8 will stay open as far into May as the snow remains. 

Back to today. Peaks 6, 9 and 10 are now closed for the season and Peak 9 is our favorite peak to "Skijor the Ski Resort" so off we went this morning. For the first few days after these peaks are closed, the resort will still groom select trails for maintenance, training and other resort operations. If you are lucky, you can catch a freshly groomed trail on one of the closed peaks. Well, luck indeed, check out this fun photo:

Jack the "skijor bowling ball" and Rudy the "skijor missile" FLYING
along a freshly groomed track on Peak 9 as we cross under
a chairlift. 

Today was probably one of our best ever skijors on the ski resort. Why? Well, we had a nice dump of fresh snow overnight. Around 3 inches at the base of the mountain and upwards of 10 inches mid-mountain! So, whenever we ran out of a groomed trail, we transitioned to perfect powder trails along the way. POW!

Jack & Rudy plowing through over 8 inches of powder
along this trail under a chairlift. Pow, pow, POW!

This excellent combination of "groomed and POW" made for an incredibly fun outing. Come along for an extended video highlight of one of our laps. We start out FLYING along the fast groomed trail. Then, it's time for us to change directions so I call out a "Left" and Jack & Rudy transition onto a powder trail with me and off we go powder plowing. What a fun morning!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Remember that ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing, so the trails are steeper than our typical outings. That meant Jack & Rudy had to roll and cool the jets after each climb before we launched ourselves back down:

"Rub a dub dub, cooling the sled dog jets!" declares
the silly kids.

Finally, a fun shot of us arriving at the base of Peak 9 to meet up with Zorro and Nancy!

Happy kids towing me to the finish.
Excited Zorro greeting us to join in for end of run treats!

Such a fun day on the ski resort, we might go back tomorrow! 6.4 miles traveled with a top speed of 24 MPH and 1300 feet of elevation climbed (remember, ski resorts are steep :)

2020/2021 Season to Date: 142 days on the trails covering 1157.6 miles with 98,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Skijoring the Ski Resort

An annual tradition - Skijoring the Breckenridge Ski Resort!

A truly unique & fun adventure, right guys?

"Oh yes, we have such FUN skijoring the ski resort!" declares the ecstatic trio :)

Normally our annual "skijor the ski resort" happens in mid to late April when Breckenridge Ski Resort closes Peak 9 on the resort (Peak 8 is often open until Memorial Day). But, all 30 ski resorts in Colorado (as well as virtually all others in North America, if not all) are now closed to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. So, today was a rare day as our annual "skijor the ski resort" happened in March! Technically, the ski resort closed back on Sunday, but we waited a few days for the shock & crowds to die down before hitting the mountain ourselves. The mountain is still open for "uphill access", meaning if you are willing to ski up, then you can ski down. Well, very few people have the stamina or energy to ski up a ski resort, so you can bet you are way beyond the 6 foot distance rule to prevent virus spread :)

Anyway, the ski resort is a little too steep for 11-3/4 year old Zorro to come with for a run long enough to fully exercise the kids, Jack & Rudy. So, we started with the kids before adding Zorro in for the end. Love getting towed uphill by my young buffaloes!

The Power Kids putting all their strength into their shoulders as we
start our skijor up the resort at the QuickSilver Super Chair.

Jack, Rudy and I did 3 "up/down" laps on the resort around Ten Mile Station. Each up/down was a different path, but all three culminated at Ten Mile Station. The reward for each steep up was a fast and fun down. Wheeee!

Zipping along as we cross under a chairlift near Ten Mile Station.

Jack & Rudy were having a great time going up/down, up/down and up/down; but we did pass by the same building, Ten Mile Station, three times. The first time we passed by the backside and then next two were the same general angle on the front side. Well, despite trying to stay upright the entire outing, the 2 year olds could not contain themselves on the 3rd pass by.

"C'mon man! Three times by the SAME structure! What did
you expect from us goofy kids! C'mon man!" says the goofs pausing
to stop, drop & roll on the 3rd time past.

Now, remember few things. First of all, a ski resort is designed for downhill skiing so the pitch of the runs is meant to produce forward momentum. Second, they use lifts to take people up as few can propel themselves up once, much less more than once! Meanwhile, Jack & Rudy happily towed me up three times!

Now, come along for a view of the downhill action. But, a few things to note: I am on cross country skis (not the best for downhill slaloming!) and Jack & Rudy would prefer to go straight downhill. I slalom the best I can on XC skis but occasionally have to overcorrect far left or far right as the skis are not slalom grade. This has me telling my partners "left, left" or "right, right" a few times to get them to overcorrect with me. Unique and fun!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Realize that this is Rudy's 2nd and Jack's 3rd time ever skijoring the ski resort and the first time for both without Zorro's guidance. Given that, I'd say they did pretty good listening to my left and right overcorrections despite their desire to go straight down!

Ok, done with a few laps to exercise the kids and as you saw in the first photo above, time to add Zorro to the team for the finale fun. We picked up the fun elder and went up a bit while Nancy went back down. Eventually we turned around for the final leg of today's skijor the ski resort!

Flying trio as we approach (and go by) Nancy on the side of the trail.

Too much fun to pay attention to mom today :)

Zooming on by we go!

Wheeee - hang on dad!!!!

On by Nancy and still FLYING down the ski run.
Hang on human!!!!!

What a fun day for one of our truly unique annual traditions: 6.5 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 125 days on the trails covering 848.7 miles with 77,800 feet of elevation climbed.