Skiing: Movatn towards Holmetjern

View from Tømte-Nordmarka

New approach Thuesday night. I went skiing after work in the dark. Equipped with a headlight I headed out in the woods, moving from Movatn towards Holmetjern. I travelled out by train and was to return the same way in two hours. The distance to Holmetjern is approximately 10 km and there's an elevation gained of just over 300 metres. I'm not very skilled when it comes to skiing, but I went to see how far I could go before I needed to return in order to catch the train back. The woods were quiet and there weren't many people out there. I was alone during greater parts of the skiing. It's wonderful to be out in the woods at night. The silence and darkness is very welcome after the noise and stressfullness of the city at daytime.
The long ascend at the beginning is becoming a far less demanding part the more I ascend. The track has hardened a bit because of lack of new snow and in the beginning it was a bit slippery. A bit up I turned better and I moved forward at a descent pace. This is actually the first time I've been in the woods at night skiing and it was both interesting and enjoyable. Luckily I'd been there at daytime because the surrondings are very different at night. Anyhow I moved forward at a steady pace, increasing as the terrain levelled at the top of the ascend and soon arrived at the crossing to the cottage Gørja. Right after that there's a descend before the last ascend towards Holmetjern. I managed to descend a bit, but started the return with just around one hour left before the train was bound to leave. As it turned out I needed just over 40 minutes to return, leaving me to wait for 20 minutes for the train. At the turning point I was 2,75 km from Holmetjern. At my pace I'd need another 20-20 minutes, resulting in a very thight race to arrive in time for the train.
However, I turned back and soon started the long descend. It went faster than I'd experinced before as the snow was very hard and slippery. The headlight was excellent enabling me to keep a close look at what lied ahead of me.
Overall a very good workout. I've planned to weekly sessions on skies the rest of the winter season. One will be a shorter session at night from Movatn. My overall target for the season is to reach Holemtjern and return in time to reach the train. I'll have to do that within just under 2 h.

Technicals:
-Distance: 14,64 km
-Time: 1h 34m 49s
-Average pace: 6:28 min/km
-Average moving pace: 5:57 min/km
-Elevation gained: 241 m(16,5 m/km).
-Calories: 952 kcal.
-Average heart rate(max): didn't measure
-Skies: Madshus
-Weather: Clear skies, quiet, -1 to -4 degrees celsius-good conditions!