Is ‘Off Piste’ just another way of saying ‘Lost’?

There are lots of lovely ski trails around Beitostølen. Beautifully groomed, with little groves, like rail tracks, cut into the edges so that skiers can cruise around all day and barely have to think about where they are going.

Mrs P demonstrates the prepared ski trail

Hang on… what’s going on with Mrs P’s hat? Let’s zoom in…

Help! It’s (the lesser known member of) the Hair Bear Bunch.

It’s not a hat. It’s hair! And lots of it. Mrs P demonstrates why she was known as “Hair Bear Bunch” at school.

Meanwhile, back on the subject. We have cross country ski gear, so are not restricted to the trails. As soon as it looked interesting we headed off into the wilderness.

As in all things, I follow where Mrs P goes…

…After all, she certainly looks like she knows what she’s doing.

We stopped for lunch in a sheltered spot and ate in total silence. Not because we have been married FOREVER, but because it is so rare to hear absolute silence (can you ‘hear’ silence). Peace perfect peace. Spoiled only by me chomping on my sandwich and complaining that Mrs P’s looked bigger than mine.

After lunch we headed back into the wilds where I decided to give Mrs P a lesson in skiing through dense trees.

Heading into trouble

Trees are always ‘fun’ to negotiate. Our skis are about 5-6 feet (180 ish cm) long and the trees a veritable tangled mess of trip hazards. Interesting to negotiate, especially when going downhill. You can’t really turn on this type of ski. All you can really do is point at a gap and hope for the best.

“Are you sure this is ‘practise’?” Said Mrs P after 20 minutes of fighting down through the undergrowth. “Are you sure you’re not just lost?”

“How very dare you!” I replied while checking the Garmin for the umpteenth time.

Left hand down a bit!

As the sun sank slowly in an azure sky, it was all too soon time to return to the main trails and head back to Beitostølen. Day 2 of our mini ski adventure had been just perfect.

It certainly beats a day in the office.

Hopefully we would be back in time for tea and medals.

I wonder what day three will be like?

Actually, I know what day 3 was like. Tune in for more when I expound on our distinctly dodgy mountain climb and yet another unexpected meeting.