Day 5... Variety is the spice of life

Today was billed as a 'rest day' ... well at least a rest from Classic skiing.
Having watched both types of cross country skiing, classic or diagonal stride and freestyle or skating style... I was very keen to try them both. This holiday basically provided instruction in the classic style but I had asked one of the other instructors if I could get a lesson in skating.
Initially it looked as though I would have to miss the snowshoe tour this morning but after 4 people including myself had signed up, it was moved to the afternoon so I got to go on the snowshoe tour after all.

I had been warned by people who had been here before that the snowshoe tour was in no means an easy option for the day, just utilising different muscles than the ones used for classic skiing. Great... those muscles needed a rest!

So I was down in the ski hall very promptly at 9am ready to get on the snowshoes. I had had to squeeze both heels into my hiking boots for this and after redressing both heels decided to put a thin pair of socks on first before the thicker socks. Firstly I tried my merino wool socks but it turns out that although it felt good on the left heel... the right heel was agony and I was limping as I walked. So my solution was to put the slightly thinner ski sock on the right and keep the thicker merino sock on the right. Near perfect... no heel slippage on either side!! woohoo

On went the snow shoes... essentially crampons with a tennis racket around the foot. It enables a platform to stand on deep snow without sinking much... at least in theory. In reality it turns out that you still sink down with each step and depending where you are in the line of people, it is either harder (not many people treading down the snow in front of you) or easier (back of the q of people who have stomped the snow flat. I was near the front of the line... and though I wasnt breaking trail... it was still bloody hard work... and that was downhill!
The beauty of the snowshoes was that we could get amidst the trees, whose branches were laden with snow and ice and glistening in the weak daylight.  Once amidst the trees, animal tracks were visible in the soft snow... even the tracks of an elk... but they managed to hide themselves well and the tracks were the only clue to their silent presence. 

And so we plodded on.... down towards the river and then due to some poorly placed barbed wire fence went up the hill to go wound the field.

Eventually we arrived at our destination... the Myfallet (or waterfall), which, because of the -9 to -15 degree C temperatures, was now frozen. Stunning...

The wsy back was mainly uphill, so although we went off-piste for some of it... the steepest part of the hill was completed on pressed tracks. Not that it made it easy. Clomping up a hill with snowshoes is a good workout for sure and I kept up a pretty good tempo. We then sauntered back with one last deep snow track to plough through. I had been second in line for quite a while now and my legs were beginning to bonk... even if the rest of me was ok (bonk is the cycling terminology for hitting the wall).

We made it back to the hotel with just enough time to grab a bit of lunch before this afternoons challenge.

The 4 of us who were stoopid enough to sign up to learn a totally different way of skiing were ready and waiting 45 mins later. We were assigned a pair of skating boots and skis, together with the much longer poles that we would need. Then we went to the nursery pen!

Here we started without poles or skis to learn the basic rythm and movements that make up freestyle skiing. There are 2 main tecniques.... V 1 and V2.  V1 is used for acceleration or uphill and essentially the lead leg does the most work. The poles touch the ground at the same time as the lead foot/ski, meaning more power is in that movement. V2 is used for covering ground quickly and is where both poles push the ground with each foot placement... this requires more gliding on each foot.

We went up and down the nursery trying to put all this together sufficiently enough to propel forward and I found it ok and managed not to fall over once!!

We were all having so much fun learning that a 1 hour lesson turned into nearly 2. Rob was a great teacher and by the end I could even turn around fairly efficiently.

He left us to practice so we went around a few more times trying to switch from V1 to V2 and back again.

By now I was reasonably knackered so decided to expend every last drop of energy I had by trying to go up a reasonable sized slope in V1. I actually made it.... ok I stopped halfway to catch my breath and getting going again was hard.. but I actually made it up the hill!

I enjoyed this so much that im hoping to get out on skating skis one more time this week.

After that I was done it so chilled out before dinner.

Wednesday night dinner around here is a special buffet which incorporates as many traditional norwegian dishes as possible. So I ate Moose, Reindeer, lots of types of fish including a fermented one... lots of sour cream and some barley soup with vegetables and berries and cheese and.... and... and...

the list went on. 

I ate a little of everything and it was pretty damn good!!

Then 8pm came and my bed was calling. Apparently I may be able to see the northern lights between 1 and 2 am so my alarm is set and my fingers are crossed!

So today variety was truly the spice of this holiday and it was great to try a few new things. Back to classic style tomorrow as I have signed up for the short intermediate tour again.... sucker!