Sledding and Skiing after the Storm

We were so excited by our one big snowstorm of this winter. So the day after the Ely Birkebeiner, we grabbed our sleds and headed up into the mountains to join some friends.

Maggie, our red heeler mix, was loving the snow. She was pretty-well behaved with Boomer, the golden lab.

The dogs weren't too savvy about sledding, though, frequently getting in the way!

We have a favorite sledding hill, a two-track road down a north-facing slope, so the snow doesn't melt so fast. We had to make some runs to pack down the snow.

It was beautiful where we were, but we could see the snow blowing off the peak over 12,500 feet high.

A friend was out cross-country skiing.

That inspired Desert Girl and me to get out our skis again. Desert Girl got all dressed up (who doesn't?) and we set off from the yard.

It is so incredibly fun to be able to ski right from your house.

We found it a little easier to ski in tire tracks. It warmed up fast, so by the next day we didn't have the right conditions. You just have to do it while you can!

We did get back to the sledding hill one day after school. You can see the bushes poking through the snow a lot more, but the sledding track was still in good shape. I even went down a few times, even though it terrorizes me (I keep envisioning broken bones). But there was still enough snow to crash and not hurt, so that was good!

We're back to a dry, warm period, which has its pluses. But we'd sure like some more snow this winter!