Powder Day

It was a wonderful POW, POW, Powder Day in fresh snow on untouched trails in the backcountry this morning!

Jack & Rudy blasting through upwards of 7 inches of fresh snow
as they tow me along.

While the ski resort reported only 5 inches of fresh snow, we found MUCH, MUCH more in the backcountry on the mountains across the valley from the resort. Clearly our side of the valley won in last night's snowfall! We started in upwards of 7 inches of powder as you saw above. But, then we climbed up and out into the backcountry. The further (and higher) we went, the deeper it got! Near our high point we found ourselves in a stretch of upwards of 15 inches of untouched, fresh powder. WooHoo!

Jack & Rudy now blasting through upwards of 15 inches of powder! POW!

Now let's put the last two photos together as a video highlight. I love watching Jack & Rudy in slow motion in deep powder as you can really get a feel for their powder plowing power at this speed. Come along for two back to back slow motion powder highlights from the outing. In the first half Jack & Rudy are blasting through upwards of 7 inches of powder while the second half features them blasting through upwards of 15 inches of powder. Impressive kids!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Along the way we got rodent diving entertainment from the two comedians. It doesn't matter how deep the snow is, they can sense those pesky rodents under the snow. We were cruising along at a gentle pace when all rodent broke out to Rudy's left...

"RODENTS to the left! Incoming!" goes beautiful rodent diving Rudy.
"What? Really? Here I come!" adds Jack noticing Rudy's antics.
The real trail goes up from Jack in this photo so this was quite a far
dive off trail for rodent detecting Rudy!

Rodent dives are, of course, contagious - just ask Jack!

Jack's dives are not as high arching as Rudy's but they are still
very effective :)

Despite some very pretty dives and lots of digging in the snow, nobody came up with a rodent in their mouth. Phew :)

Our outing today was an "out & back" as we wanted to reuse the trail we worked so hard to set on the way out to go a little faster on the way back. But, with such wonderful deep snow, it was still a very aerobic ride back in our outgoing tracks!

Really cool shot of the ski runs of Breckenridge Ski Resort across the
valley from us. As you can see from all the powder coming up around
Jack & Rudy, running in our out track was still very aerobic this morning!

Great powder day, right guys!

"We loved it and we'll accept end of run treats since we failed to bag
any rodents!" states the proud & happy kids.

A fun day slowed by deep snow but with smiles on all of our faces all outing long: 7.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 85 days on the trails covering 713.0 miles with 68,600 feet of elevation climbed.

 

This and That

We did a little of this today...

Laying fresh tracks in a nice layer of new snow over pre-existing
snowmobile tracks. Pretty terrain and views too!

So that we could earn some of that...

Flying on a freshly groomed nordic trail. Zoom!

This initial leg of the outing was an out & back in the backcountry on Prospect Hill. On the return leg, we get some really nice views of Breckenridge Ski Resort across the valley from us:

Zipping along in the cover of clouds while the ski runs of Breckenridge Ski
Resort are lit up in the sun across the valley from us.

Now come along for the video counterpart of the prior photo. Pay attention as we round the initial left in the video and you'll see the ski runs of Breckenridge Ski Resort on the mountains across the valley from us. After the initial left, it is time to floor it along an open straightaway. Then, we all slow in unison to get my skis around a tight hairpin right and then it is "off we go" again. Whee! Great teamwork by my pals taking me gently through tight turns!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Done with the backcountry shots and back to our finish leg of the outing. Jack & Rudy love catching air on fast nordic trails. Zoom!

The hover huskies catching air on the trail at Gold Run Nordic Center.

Now for the day's comedy from the kids. If you've followed along you know that Jack ALWAYS rolls snow angels at any pause or turnaround on the trail. Rudy is the wildcard, it's either rolling snow angels or belting out woos from him at pause or turnaround points. Which was it today?

BOTH! Rudy wooing as he just finished rolling a snow angel (notice the
indentation in the snow behind him - that is his snow angel).

So there you have it, it is now one of THREE things to get from Rudy the wildcard at any pause on the trail: snow angels, wooing or the multi-talented BOTH! Funny kid.

Finally, back to the trailhead to celebrate another glorious outing with end of run treats:

"I'm glad you enjoyed my angel/woo combo, I'll keep working on it!" says
silly Rudy.
"I'm going to stay with strictly snow angels, you know I am GREAT at them!"
adds Jack who has rolled at least one snow angel (and usually many more)
on EVERY skijor outing of his life.

Another very entertaining backcountry to nordic skijor outing: 9.8 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH (on the groomie zoomie nordic trails, of course).

2023/2024 Season to Date: 84 days on the trails covering 705.8 miles with 67,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Frisky

Uh-oh, unauthorized antics breaking out on the trail this morning....

"I triple dog dare you to play with me!" asserts the typical unauthorized
instigator Rudy.
"You KNOW I won't back down!" responds cool Jack.

Okay, authorized antics breaking out later...

Perfectly allowed "stop, drop & roll" at a turnaround point on the trail :)

As you see in the first photo, the kids were quite frisky out on the trails this morning. A couple of reasons: first, we took yesterday off so Jack & Rudy were itching to get going fast and second, there was active snow falling on us all outing long - active snow makes for frisky sled dogs :)

We started this morning's outing touring old mining ruins following snowmobile tracks in the forest:

Cruising through an old ghost town of mining buildings in Dry Gulch.

Then, as we usually do after skijoring around Dry Gulch, we dropped onto the wide trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. Once again, our timing was impeccable as we were first on the freshly groomed trails. After an unauthorized game of tag & wrestle to celebrate being first tracks, Jack & Rudy got down to business and were FLYING around the trails.

The kids flying fast with cool snow poofs coming off their feet from
the nice, soft groomed trail.

How fast were they flying around? Well, the GPS registered us topping 25 MPH! Zoom! Come along for a glimpse into 25 MPH skijoring as we are zipping along this perfect trail. Also, notice the active snowfall coming down around us during the clip. A fresh groom and active snow really turns Jack & Rudy ON!!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After doing two laps on the uppermost nordic loop, we transitioned onto the main trail to take us to the trailhead. I did not realize until I got home that snow was collecting on the camera during this leg. So, we have one initial shot with a little "snow spot" and it only got blurrier from here on out...

The blur in the dead center of this photo is a snow induced water spot.
The spots continued to collect and grow from here on out.
Oh well, we'll trade clear footage for fresh snow any day!!!

Back to the trailhead and everyone is very proud and satisfied with today's zipping outing:

"What 'unauthorized play'? We were perfect all day!" suggests the happy
kids with selective memory of the outing :)

Zooming! 9.6 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 83 days on the trails covering 696.0 miles with 66,800 feet of elevation climbed.