Spring Crust

From yesterday's skijor outing: it's "Spring Crust" time of year!!!

Jack & Rudy catching air on the perfect spring crust. 

While the onset of Spring is always sad because that means our season is winding down, Spring is great for one thing - the Spring Crust! With warm days (well above freezing) but still cold nights (many hours below freezing), a hard crust forms in vast, open meadows every morning. This crust is hard enough to support Jack & Rudy running and me on skis. It really is fun to abandon set trails and just "go your own way" through vast, open meadows. 

Another open meadow, another great crust, another
shot of fast running Jack & Rudy. 

Now look closely at the prior photo. You can see skate ski tracks to Rudy's left and between Jack & Rudy. You can also see a path of classic ski tracks far to our right. Yes, the magical Spring Crust at Rabbit Ears is known to all avid cross country skiers in this area. We encountered four different small groups of 1-3 skiers throughout the day's outing. Whenever there was a skier in front of us, Jack & Rudy floored it to catch up. They love catching anything in front of them :) 

"Here we come, you can't out ski us!" says the fun kids flooring
it to reach the skier in front of us. 

We did indeed catch the skier. As we caught up to him, he stopped to greet Jack & Rudy, laughed and said "You guys are fast, nobody has ever caught me from behind!" (he was a very talented skate skier). 

Of course every meadow comes to an end and that means you turnaround to run back across the meadow you just traversed. Well, the turnarounds do not go unnoticed by Jack & Rudy :) 

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes the snow rolling sillies. 

Each meadow we traversed got the same reaction from the comedians when we turned around to go back across it. Come along for today's video highlight to see what I mean. We had just come to the edge of one meadow when I called out a left to turnaround. Well, watch what really happened: stop, drop and roll from the goofballs. Once they finish rolling they look back to me with such happy faces (they are clearly very proud of their snow angel rolls :) until I say "Ok, here we go," and OFF we go - zoom! Fun and funny kids. 

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

To end the day, if you have met Jack you know he is a big kisser. Rudy, not so much, but Jack is a constant kisser. Here's what I mean: 

"SMACK!" goes Jack to my left cheek as I'm getting the end of run
treats out of my right pocket.

Fun day on our first Spring Crust outing of the season: 7.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 93 days on the trails covering 717.3 miles with 69,500 feet of elevation climbed.

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.

Breck Nordic Finale

The fun kids catching air on the wild Gluteus Maximus Trail at Breckenridge Nordic Center!

Whee! It's quite the ride behind Jack & Rudy on steep and winding
Gluteus Maximus Trail!

Today was our last skijor at Breckenridge Nordic Center for this season as they close tomorrow. So, Jack & Rudy made the most of the outing. They seem to always know when it's a skijor finale of any sort and they seem to pick it up a notch! Smart kids :)

Catching air again near our highest point in elevation for the day.
What a beautiful bluebird morning!

Everywhere they took me, it was the same thing: pedal to the metal, catching air!

The hover huskies at it again :)

It was also a warm day for Jack & Rudy (above freezing the entire outing), so you know what that meant had to be done a turnaround time:

"Stop, drop and ROLL to cool our jets in the snow!" goes the snow rolling sillies.
Don't their faces look like they are in absolute heaven?

Today's video highlight is Jack & Rudy towing me to the finish of the day's outing. There are some fun hairpin curves along this stretch that are wild to take on skis at Jack & Rudy speed. As this clip is the end of our outing and our final day at the nordic center, consider it our Breck Nordic Finale Finale :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

While the snow walls to climb for end of run treats are melting and shrinking, Jack & Rudy are still experts at finding the best available wall to climb!

"Found a nice wall right here. Now how about those end of run treats?" asks
the happy kids.

Today's tally: 8 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 91 days on the trails covering 704.7 miles with 67,300 feet of elevation climbed.