Day 7: Snowshoeing in the woods

Our legs didn't feel up to skiing two days in a row, so we decided to revert to snowshoeing again today. We had really enjoyed the walk in the woods which we did on Saturday, but in places it had been quite difficult walking on such powdery snow in normal shoes, so we thought it would be fun to re-do the walk, but this time on snowshoes.

We began walking along the side road which leads towards the path. We were carrying our snowshoes at this point, as the snow on the road wasn't very deep.

When we got to the path, we stopped to put the snowshoes on. Putting them on is still the most difficult part, but we seem to be finally getting the hang of it now  We managed to get all the straps pulled tightly enough that we only had to stop once to adjust mine during the whole walk, and they didn't fall off at all.

You'll see from the picture that we had decided to bring the snowshoe poles with us today as well. Or rather, I had now realised that we actually had snowshoe poles  Originally when Tim brought a pile of poles back from the shop I assumed they all related to the skis, but then realised belatedly that we had a set each to go with the snowshoes as well. That should make going up and downhill a lot easier

Snowshoes on, and we were off.

It was about minus 4 today and Tim was finding it a bit warm

I was still happy I had all my winter gear on though, as we made our way through the forest and towards the little valley we'd walked through the other day.

It was just as beautiful there today

Quite a lot more snow had fallen overnight (we'd had to grit the path outside our apartment this morning) and so I think the path would have been really heavy-going in places with normal boots. With the snowshoes on we were speeding along though, especially once we got into a rhythm with the poles.

Partway round, we decided to stop and try another selfie

Then we were off once again...

...until we got to the little ski cafe which marks the halfway point of the walk.

From there, we continued on the narrower path with lots of bent-over trees

Some of them seemed to be even more bent over this time than last, and there were a couple of places where the trees were now so low we had to duck under them (which we definitely didn't have to do the other day).

It was about 2pm by this point - and it hadn't been a particularly bright day in the first place - so we needed to walk briskly to get through the rest of the walk before darkness fell.

The snowshoes definitely helped with that

We soon came to the place where there is a steep downhill slope to negotiate. It was loads easier with the poles!

Finally we were almost back at the road, where it would be time to take off the snowshoes again.

We made it, just as the street lights were starting to turn on

It was another really fun day in the snow