Day 3...Pain is weakness leaving the body

It was a bit chilly when we headed out in the morning.... a green wax day again.
I had once again arrived at the ski hall ready and raring to go... with the pair of boots that I had yesterday afternoon.

Squished toes but non slip heels.
The plan for today was to join the beginners ski tour and then go for a uphill/downhill lesson in the afternoon.
All good. And then one of the instructors came round to some of us in the beginners class and suggested that we join the intermediate short tour. Hmmm thats a bit scary.. especially when the lesson on stopping is this afternoon. Hey ho.

So off we went, striding and gliding. A line of shuffling skiers in the classic track.
It was cold still but once again, my clothes seemed to be ok.

Today I had swapped a sweater for my down gillet which had the advantage of having a chest pocket, meaning I could put my phone in there protecting it from the cold a little more.

As we climbed up towards a mountain, I felt pretty good. I was however a little concerned because what goes up, has to go down at some point.... and I had no idea how to stop! I think most of the other beginners had at least done some downhill skiing so had some clue.  On one of the slightly less shallow downhills, I was shown how to stick a ski out of the tracks and slow myself down like that.... it was a start... but with people in front and behind me, I was worried about crashing into people.

We basically meandered along on a general uphill trajectory to the back side of the mountain and then followed the Troll marathon trail for a short while. This trail, when fully cut, goes all the way to Lillehammer. Fortunately today we were not following that all the way.

We then cut off the tracks... off piste... and littery began wading through some very deep snow. The further back you were , the easier it was as you just stuck your skis in the tracks from the people in front. That said... every now and again, you sunk down to your knees in a deeper pocket of snow.

The boots.... better fitting on the ankles ... v important... but smushing my toes... quite painful. Still.... nothing to do but put up with it.... its a bit like descending Ben Nevis with constant agony of toes bashing the front of your boots constantly. V uncomfortable but usually doesn't result in any damage.

On we went wading round to the front of the mountain, and then we started to zig zag down... still pushing through mounds of fresh snow.
During this time K was concentrating sooo hard on the ski tips of the person in front, that I barely looked up at the view.

When we stopped to admire, we could see more mountains in the distance and the hotel, now well below us.

By now, legs were starting to hurt too but we kept on plodding on... through the snow until we reached a very steep icy downhill.
We promptly took off the skis as the downhill ended in a bridge and it would have been quite possible to smash headlong into it.
Walked down the slope then skis on and back across more deep snow... up the hill this time until finally we came to the road and a flat area! woohoo. Going across that was much easier and we soon found ourselves back in the tracks and moving quicker towards the hotel.

Once back... due to toe smushing, I again swapped the boots ready for the afternoon lesson.

A very quick lunch, then back out there again, this time on a steep hill. Fortunately, having put myself firmly in the beginners group, we were close to the bottom of the hill. Time to learn to stop!

We spent a good hour, sliding down the hill in a poor version of the snowplough, eventually stopping close to the point where our momentum would have run out anyway.... occasionally coming to a swifter halt on our backsides.
Then once down at the bottom, we had to clamber back up in a penguin like walk.... all good fun.
After we had kinda got the hang of stopping, it was time to try and turn. This I found slightly easier as I only had to concentrate on one leg.

After the lesson, I then did a quick potter in the tracks down to the shop and back as the light was fading, got back to the hotel  and inspected my feet. This third set of boots had caused ankle rub again and both heels were without the top layer of skin. More compeed required!!

Anyway, legs stiffened up big time and by the time dinner had finished moving hurt! Not surprising as the tour had been about 6.8 miles!! I was also knackered and promptly fell asleep so am just finishing this blog in the morning.

Legs ache badly... and Im still pretty knackered but its time for breakfast, so I gotta move. Lets see what this day brings!!