Sleep deprivation, some bad decisions, poor timing and boring weather resulted in zero pictures yesterday. I was hoping for better today, and I guess it was… at least I slept better.

It was one of those days which start with some disappointments but end up just fine. I tried to catch the moonset, but it was too cloudy for that. I wasn’t too bothered about that though, just made my way to start of my planned skiing trip. I took the snowmobile trail from Hållan towards the Malmbäckstugan cabin, except the funny thing is that the trail that I followed actually swung a little bit north from that, and then ended right in the middle of nowhere. What I mean is that they had prepared the trail only halfway – I could see Malmbäckstugan ahead of me on the left, and the trail markings were leading to the Lill-Skarven mountain right in front of me. Which was a bit strange, considering that the map said that this trail would go to Malmbäckstugan on the left. So what would I do? Turn back and scramble to come up with Plan B, or ski ahead on the fresh snow to get on the south-north trail between Tänndalen – Bruksvallarna? Since I already had had to resort to a plan B yesterday, I decided to make my own trail so I headed on. There was a fairly hard crust on the snow which carried me most of the time, except for the last 200 m with the crust breaking constantly under my skis. Had it been like that for the first 200 m, I would have turned back!

No more mishaps (not counting the part where I dropped my GPS unit right on the ski (as opposed to the soft snow all around the skis) and the screen cracked) on the way to my car so I just drove back towards Messlingen and admired the beautiful sunset light on the mountains around me. The cloudwork was a bit patchy, so for example Ånnfjället was just gorgeous while Mittåkläppen and Stor-Axhögen were shaded. While I was looking at Stor-Axhögen and wondering if the clouds would part for long enough, I saw the peak of Helagsfjället behind it, bathed in the orange light – so straight to Flatruet for a closer view! It was just amazing… I don’t often get to see a winter sunset in the mountains!

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Could someone please tell me the secret to blister-free skiing? I’ve tried two kinds of boots, I wear Compeed plasters, I put on extra padding between my heel and the boot, worn double socks… but it still hurts! So the Compeed prevented blisters on the area the plaster covered, but now I have a blister right above it. Is there anything that works?! New feet?