Skijoring at the Mount Massive Mushin Leadville, Colorado

Skijoring is not for the faint-hearted. If you do it with one dog, the course is nearly 4 miles. And no, the dog is not necessarily going to be pulling you the whole way. You need to ski pretty hard, too. This at 10,000 feet of elevation.
The oldest contestant did the course in 48 minutes. He got a big cheer.
The fastest guy did it in under 15.
Here's how the dogs get around when they're not mushing:
The insertion process is interesting to see!
The lucky dogs have a hole big enough to stick their snoots out and catch some rays.
Here are some other dogs I met:

Pointers make surprisingly good mushers.
Most of the dogs were eager to be petted.

Some of them were there for the sled-racing. More dogs, longer course.
Here's Gunda the Australian shepherd crossing the finish line.
Skijoring season is over for Gunda, and now sheep season begins. His owner told me she lets the sheep wander at will in the forest. At nightfall, she tells Gunda to go bring them home, and he does.
Gunda is a good dog! And ready for some belly-rubbin'.

Whoosh

Copper Mountain is about an hour and 10 minutes from Denver. That's where I learned how to ski, so I have a soft spot for it. The skies stayed mostly gray, with tantalizing patches of blue in the distance. The video below makes it sound horribly windy, but it wasn't.
Had I known, I would've spoken louder ("It's a great day for skiing at Copper Mountain").

I was pretty well bundled up and stayed warm, but my legs are out of shape! We just did a half-day, and stopped at Tommyknocker in Idaho Springs on the way home for some fabulous tomato-artichoke soup and a quesadilla.

Far and near

(A few extra photos from Friday.)

From the top of a mountain you can see a long way. It's nice to have map to put a name to all you can see. (If you click the photo you can see it much larger.)
Breckenridge ski area is to the right above the map. It would take maybe 45 minutes to drive there.

The wind was really fierce up top when we arrived, though it settled down later.

In the afternoon, I traded snow and long views for 60 degrees and a close-up with a pasque flower (Pulsatilla). Pasque means Easter, which is about when this blooms. Except this year, when Easter came very very early.
The purple is pretty, and what makes it interesting is its exceptional hairiness.
There's something about hairy ...

The best part of skiing

Taking the damn boots off.

The tasty part of skiing

The better part of skiing

The worst part of skiing

Putting the damn boots on.

Uplifting

Yes, the road really did look like this! Lots and lots of lovely snow looming over us on the way to Arapahoe Basin, about an hour and 10 minutes from home. While in town, the little snow we have is rapidly melting and it feels almost springlike. Good to have the snow in the mountains where it belongs, to ski on and to provide lots of water come summer.

It wasn't too crowded, though the lifts were running full in the newly opened Montezuma Bowl on the backside of A-Basin.
Our liftmate obliged us with a portrait.

Great day

Speaking of the slopes

This is U.S. 6 near Arapahoe Basin. Photo by R.J. Sangosti, borrowed from the Denver Post website. I'll be skiing there tomorrow, after getting up at the crack of dawn. So it's an early bedtime for me tonight. Please do not tell me to break a leg. Thank you.

Skiing at Breckenridge

For some reason YouTube isn't taking uploads from my phone, so this is a couple of days late.

I'll be back up there tomorrow for more!

On the lift!

Skiing by day, hockey by night

Sticks n Stitches night at the Colorado Avalanche! They're playing Phoenix. Phoenix? Not the first place that springs to mind when you're talking hockey. Knitting, though . . . totally hockey.

Picture-perfect day

Some photos from Friday's skiing. (The previous two posts were sent from my phone.) Next up: National Wesern Stock Show.

No Jane, no pain

Another excellent day of skiing.

Merry mountains!

What better day to hit the slopes? Easy drive, no traffic, everyone's happy. Moonbeam's Mom and I had a blast. We had to leave early (I had to get back to town for another holiday dinner), but that was good: We're now inspired to get out and ski more, more, more! (Sometimes it's just so hard to get out of bed early for it. But then I'm glad I did.)