I see many colours in grey and white

My first morning, having gone to bed at around 7pm, I woke up early with all the joys that a snow filled winter day... with no work... can bring.  Over eager I prepped my kit, filled my flask, and then realised I had another hour until breakfast opened... and it was still pitch black outside.  Turns out it remained pretty dark until I had had breakfast and got my skis and faffed about a bit. Wierdly I was a little nervous.. it had been a year since I had been on a pair of skiis and this was also in a new place. Would the tracks be harder, would the people here be less tolerant of newbies?  Only one way to find out and I picked up my skis and made my way to the start of the trails, fortunately only about 200m from my accomodation.. not quite ski out, but very close. 

Where was everyone?  It was spectacularly quiet and as I reached the trailhead I was glad to see I was the only one there. There was a board showing all the routes, easy to hard and showing how far they were. I was definately sticking to the easy tracks and took the advice of the lady at Top Safari who had suggested a route for 1st time out.

Deep breath and step into the skis, locking my feet in, push to the edge of the downhill... another deep breath, and down I went, not flying but certainly falling with a little more style than I thought I would. The basics came back pretty quickly and soon I was striding and gliding happily along.

The world at first glance was white and grey... a monochrome existance. But look longer and variations within become apparent. Far fron being dull and boring there were so many colours within the white and grey... the sky had a faint reddish hue under the grey whispy clouds which scudded across the pale blue/grey of the sky. The snow was creamy and brilliant white but sometimes a bluish tinge crept in or a reddish hue perhaps reflected from the sky. It was so beautiful and so peaceful I found it difficult to contain my joy at just being.

The tracks were fortunately easy enough, with a couple of downhills that were fast enough to make me grin as I managed to stay upright. I got to the turnoff and decided to attempt a small bit of moderate track which led to the prospector trail  apparently past an old gold mine. I had still seen hardly anyone and when stopped the tranquility invaded everything.

I set of on the short but of moderate track, which had an uphill that I was struggling with... I got to a point where I was out of the tracks trying  to use the other methis of getting up a slope but failing miserably. With my skis threatening to slide back down, dragging me with them, I stood sideways on the slope. An older gentleman, clearly practiced in this skiing malarky came to the top and said what I think was something rude before sweeping away downhill. I unclipped the skis and walked the rest of the way, muttering to myself about how he had probably been skiing since he was 1, and it was only effectively my 7th day on skis ever!  But I didnt let it bother me overly and continued the short distance to the prospector trail turnoff. 

This was a little harder than the easy trail it said it was, a few downhill corners to negotiate, which no one has ever told me how to accomplish without the skis coming out of the tracks? 

I came to a steep downhill, followed by a steep up. hmmm. Down I went ok... but stopped at the bottom of the up, unclipped and started walking, when I noticed movement at the top.... Reindeer, 3 of them. As quietly as I could I trudged to the top and then got out my camera. They didnt seem overly bothered by me, just slowly walking away... I clipped my skis in and slowly and as quietly as possible glided after them. I managed even to get some film of them. I assume they were wild ones and it felt a huge priviledge to see them even if they are 2 a penny round here, I dont know if they are.

The rest of the skiing passed by without incident, the only fall coming when I was stood still and my ski just went out from under me, leaving me a mess on the snow. Its hard to get up with the skis on and after abiut 5 minutes of legs and skis tangling I finally managed upright again, fortunately  no one saw this, so you could argue that it didnt count....

I had skied about 10km and decided a short break over lunch and then back out on the lit tracks as it was getting dark. My hope of seeing the Northern lights would be a bit blighted by the trackside lighting but the sunsets around here are almost as spectacular so I resolved to watch the sun go down. I skied back to a spot that I had found on my morning run... and stood and watched silently as the sun fully disappeared over the horizon, though to be fair, it had hardly got above it all day.  The red that swept over the sky and then the dark blue hue that took over was beautiful and I skied back to the hotel very satisfied with my first day out there. 

My legs were a little sore, muscles, joints and tendons that I dont usually use were making themselves felt and I wondered if I would be able to move at all tomorrow. It could be an interesting morning!