May Yay

Great day for a 10+ mile skijor in May - Yay!

An approving look from my partners at our turnaround point on the trails this morning.
"So much fun! Love snow!" exclaims giddy Max.
"Toes on snow - go, go gooo!" declares happy Zorro.

If you know where to go, the skijoring is still excellent in early May! Today we ran the "most preserved" trail at Rabbit Ears Pass. By "most preserved", I mean that this trail stays skiable the longest into Spring of all the trails at Rabbit Ears. One reason is that the trail is primarily in the forest so the snow gets tree protection from the sun. The other reason is that this trail is at a higher elevation than most other trails at Rabbit Ears. You do a quick 500 foot climb from the trailhead to get above 10,000 feet and then you spend the rest of the outing on rolling terrain at an elevation that lasts longer into the Spring.

Come along for the day's fun:

Zooming along the rolling terrain above 10,000 feet elevation.
Perfect conditions as far as the eye can see!

Cresting just above 10,000 feet after the initial 500 foot climb. Sure you can see some brown
off the trail; but notice the shelf directly to the left of Max's back foot. This shows you that,
despite some exposure off the trail, we are still on a 3+ foot snowpack on the trail! Nice!

Back to the endless, rolling terrain at the higher elevations. So nice up high!

After getting the approving smiles at our quick break in the first photo, it was all business before restarting the run.

"Must cool off first! Rolling snow angels!" says funny Max.
"Ready - white as far as I can see, why go back?" asks intense Zorro ready to go all day.

A 10+ mile skijor in May? Beautiful! 10.2 miles with 950 feet of elevation and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 136 days on the trails covering 1171.8 miles with 122,750 feet of elevation climbed.

Fast Day

A great day to "catch air" atop Rabbit Ears Pass:

Airborne, flying Siberians - wheeee!
What a beautiful day, what a beautiful snowpack atop Rabbit Ears Pass in May!

Max & Zorro were excited to find perfect conditions at Rabbit Ears Pass as we uncorked the skijoring engine all day long. It was zoom, zoom, zooooom! When we are going super fast, I typically have one ski behind either Max or Zorro and the other ski outside of the two (I alternate back & forth between them). This lets me get their pull for speed (the inside ski) yet have an emergency brake for unplanned events (the outside ski). The result, though, is I typically get some nice profile shots of the one who I am not behind. Here we go:

Great profile of long Max! Such a pretty sprinting Siberian.
Nice shot of sprinting Zorro from behind with a great shadow shot.
Notice the slush bombs flying up behind Max's feet.

Now aligned behind Max as we get a great profile of out-stretched & airborne Zorro.
A nice view from behind of sprinting Max.

Put the last three shots together and you get the theme of the day: zoom! The other theme of the day was "slush bombs". With warming May temperatures, you get slush coming off Max & Zorro's feet and flying into the human. The following video highlight gives you a feel for the slush bombs: you can see them flying in the air, you can see them hit the GoPro now & then and the "clicks" you hear in the video are slush bombs hitting the GoPro case. For every click you hear, there is at least one hitting me in the face instead of hitting the camera - need some slush flaps on these two...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A fast & fun day:

"We are having a BLAST!" exclaim the happy pair at our turnaround point of the day.

Great May conditions atop Rabbit Ears Pass this morning: 9.2 miles with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1161.6 miles with 121,800 feet of elevation climbed.

May Opener

Yes it is May and yes we are still on snow! Yay!!!! What a great May Opener this morning.

Zoom we go on some great conditions for May!

May is the "month of melt" for the Colorado Mountains; so every day we get on the trails is a special day. We still hold out hopes for 1-2 snowstorms in May; but the reality is that we are in the month of melt. As a result, we make the best of all the snow we can find...

"Things were great on today's terrain!" exclaims giddy Max.
"Toes on snow means we GO!" states happy Zorro.

We could not resist making an extended video for today's highlight reel. A few things to watch & listen for in today's highlight. (1) Listen (or watch) closely for the "slush bombs" flying off Max & Zorro's feet and into the camera (and my face) - the "clicks" you can hear in the video are slush bombs hitting the GoPro. (2) Mostly nice terrain but watch for the ice patches that appear along the trail - at least it was ice and not dirt! (3) Pretty nice for May.....

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A few good "view shots" along the way today:

Oops, this side trail ended in dirt; but we get a nice view of the ski runs on Peaks 9 & 10 of
Breckenridge Ski Resort across the valley.

Trotting along as the ski runs on Peak 6 at Breckenridge Ski Resort come into view on the
mountain far in the foreground.

But, if you ask Max & Zorro, the best view was...

"Moose Tracks!!!!! Fresh Moose Tracks!!!" state the intense pair plunging their noses
into the moose prints. We never found the owner of the tracks; but they were fresh enough
to generate some excitement in Max & Zorro's noses!

A May Day on Snow is a Great Day: 7.9 miles with 950 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 134 days on the trails covering 1152.4 miles with 121,000 feet of elevation climbed.