Perfect Conditions

Absolutely Perfect Conditions skijoring Rabbit Ears Pass this morning!

Flying along in a snowmobile track. Look at how high that snow wall is to our right!
There was no snow on this trail just 48 hrs ago - wow!

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the first "super storm" of the season arrived in Colorado Thu to Sat morning. The snow report said Rabbit Ears Pass got upwards of 2 feet of snow Thu morning to Sat morning. As a result, we expected a day of breaking trail in super deep snow as shown below:

Breaking trail in roughly 2 feet of fresh powder. What an aerobic workout!

As you can see above, the 2 feet of fresh snow was there. But, after not much trail breaking, we encountered a fresh snowmobile track. What a treat - we were expecting a slow day of breaking trail and instead were treated to a fast day sprinting in a set track. Of course we do not mind breaking trail, but it is certainly a treat to get a "paved trail" by a snowmobile to really open up the throttle!

Watch for yourself as we fly along the trail following a fresh snowmobile track - zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Zorro provided a great moment of comedy as we were sprinting along. Realize that most of this terrain was down to dirt & puddles just 48 hours ago. So, we would occasionally see where the snowmobile had cut down to a puddle. Remember, Zorro hates water and he will attempt to long jump any mud or water we encounter on the trails. Look closely at the following photo, you can make out a little bit of mud (brown spot) on the trail under Zorro. As we were flying along the terrain, he would "sense" an upcoming puddle and throw himself into a long jump to avoid any such obstacle. What a loon!

"MUD!!!! But I can FLY!!!" exclaims airborne, long-jumping Zorro.
"Silly, just run through the little water hazard!" demonstrates Max.

At our quick midpoint break and the usual antics:

"Aaahhh, love rolling snow angels!" declares Max.
"Yum, yum, love eating snowcones!" says Zorro.

Nothing quite like expecting to break trail all day and finding a snowmobile sprint track instead! 9.3 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 9 days on the trails covering 73.7 miles with 7100 feet of elevation climbed.

Welcome Winter

Welcome Winter! We sure have missed you!!!

Snow all around us, snow falling all day. Snow, snow, snow everywhere.
Yay - winter finally came!!!

Our first "super storm" of the season rolled into Colorado on Thursday. No more skiing on shallow snow and dodging rocks. We headed to Vail Pass this morning to enjoy the beautiful, fresh powder. It continued to snow our entire outing. "Welcome Winter! We sure have missed you!"

Zoomed in a little to show the active snow. Zorro's black fur makes a perfect background to show
off the actively falling snow. Notice all the big & small while flakes you can see against his
backdrop. What a wonderful snow day!

We were laying fresh tracks all day long. Watch for yourself in this fun & short clip from the outing:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

There is about a week or so left of hunting season in Colorado. A couple of hunters did not pay close attention to the forecast to get off Vail Pass before the snow started piling up. We stopped to offer a hand getting them unstuck. They said, "Thanks but no need, we are almost out." Then, after glancing at my sled dog pals, one concluded with, "We probably should have used sled dogs instead of trucks - then we wouldn't be stuck!" Ha, never underestimate the power of sled dogs :)

"We could pull them out!" suggest Max & Zorro always up to a pull challenge.

Great snow all over Vail Pass this morning as we enjoyed an 8.6 mile run with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 8 days on the trails covering 64.4 miles with 6500 feet of elevation climbed.

Pray for Snow

After yesterday's fun outing at Rabbit Ears Pass, we returned for more fun this morning.

One of the occasional stretches where we were able to open up the throttle a little bit
(but not much!)

It is still hunting season in Colorado, so we are sharing our trails with 4wd vehicles that are trying to get to the same terrain as us. Unfortunately some of the best "hunting terrain" in the state is also some of the best "early season snow terrain" as well. As a result, we find the trails chopped up by vehicles in between each new snow.

We expected this but since it was nice up high yesterday and not too warm, we were hoping the hunting vehicles did not do as much damage to the terrain as they did. Well, we were wrong...

Most of the day looked like this photo: tire tracks for Max & Zorro with center snow for my
skis and intermittent puddles in the tracks.

Surprisingly, as bad as the previous photo may look, it is actually safe terrain to maintain a gentle jog or trot for miles and miles. The skis ride fine down the center and Max & Zorro trot in the tracks and hurdle the puddles. The caveat is that you cannot skijor anything steep on this type of terrain; but keep the elevations modest and you can trot for many miles! Occasionally we would get a nice stretch of all snow to increase the speeds...

All white for a while as Max & Zorro take the same tracks to pick up the speed a bit.

We did hit a handful of "oh my god" patches. Here is one such patch:

Yikes - look at all that exposed ground! But, enough snow to still keep a gentle jog as I have
the skis on the shoulder as Max jogs in the mud and Zorro on the snow (Zorro NEVER lets
his feet touch dirt or mud if he can help it!)

At our midpoint break and Max provided some entertainment for Zorro and I:

"Watch me roll a snow angel - wheeee!" demonstrates silly Max as Zorro and I watch.

Once we saw the vehicle damage to the trail, we quickly adjusted our route for the day to keep the elevations minimal. As a result, we were able to trot a surprising 8 miles by keeping the total elevation climbed to only 600 feet. It was "trotting for miles and miles" as we could keep going but never really open the throttle as our top speed was a modest 14 MPH. An 8 mile gentle jog on snow - it is still better than summer. But, PRAY FOR SNOW - we need more!

2015/2016 Season to Date: 7 days on the trails covering 55.8 miles with 5700 feet of elevation climbed.