I said yesterday that I wasn’t even feeling thirsty during my trip, but it was apparently just wishful thinking. I got a headache in the evening which only got worse during the night, and it’s the kind of a headache that comes from dehydration and that painkillers don’t cure. So I had a restless night, but then when I got up and started moving around, it started to feel better. So I took off on my trip as planned and this was an exciting one.

The excitement was provided by the lake. I wanted to ski up to my favourite place Kappruskaftet, which meant that I had to get across the Messlingen lake. I did some scouting yesterday and found out that there were snowmobiles and ice fishers all over the place, there was no snow or water on the ice and when I spoke with one of the fishermen, they told me that the ice was over half a meter thick. It was like a triple assurance and my mind was so much at ease that I wasn’t even nervous when I started my trek over the lake! Ironically, the nervousness set it only after I had reached the other side and started to make my up to Kappruskaftet. Since I had never taken the winter trail, I didn’t know exactly where it was. There are trail markings on the ice but I could see the markings disappear far in the distance and that didn’t make sense to me, so I thought that the marked trail goes towards the Kappruet ski lift and the trail up to Kappruskaftet is rarely used. So I took the first best snowmobile tracks up and realised pretty soon that this was just not right. I checked the satellite image on my phone and saw that I had taken off too soon, I should’ve just continued on the ice. But no matter, the snow in the forest was holding well so all I had to do was to go up diagonally which would then take me up to Kappruskaftet approximately in the same place where the trail comes up.

It turned out that my mistake was a blessing. With this diagonal route I took, it was the easiest ascent up to Kappruskaftet I had ever done. So much better than going straight up that even after I reached the trail, I decided that the next time I want to ski up, I will do the diagonal deliberately!

As I was skiing around, I felt that the bad night was weighing me down so I sat down to have my lunch. The coffee and energy refill fixed it though so I skied around a bit more and said hello to my favourite mountain birch (today’s 365). The weather was extremely dull though and photo opportunities were too hard to find so I took myself down to the lake again, this time following the trail. When I got back to Messlingen, there was a big crowd on the ice – the traditional fishing competition. That’s how good the ice was.

I’m not saying that I got rid of my fear of ice, but I think it was a big leap forward. I’m a little bit proud of myself now!

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Out of the vertical and landscape versions of the same picture, which is better? I think I prefer the landscape version but I can’t decide.