Panorama
Nothing beats First tracks

Panorama
Silence, stillness and repetition are skills we do not process. TV, Bluetooth, radio, MP3, streaming, email, snapchat, twitter- the constant bleep, donk, dink of ‘you have a message’.
Each day for the last 17 days I have woken not to an alarm but a groomer sorting the last of the snow. The almost silent perk of the coffee, the shock of opening the door to the minus chill as the first light hits the slopes – then hit repeat.
There is a hive of activity preparing the day that is smothered by the mountains that surround us. Those moments as the clouds fight the sunlight for dominance of the day, and the promise of something special.
There is then the grind of layers of clothes and boots and skis and poles and lifts – but then nothing.
Those moments when there is nothing but the shhhhhhhh of the snow and your breath – everything else – birds, animals and others are asleep. I don’t know what it is about grandeur and silence that completes us, but they make us not feel insignificant but part of the whole.
The rat race, the noise, the constant movement are white noise you can’t avoid it but if you can take just a few flakes, and few moments back with you an value silence, stillness and repetition like some manta of life – a few weeks holiday in the snow can mean some much more than first tracks.
But to be honest – not a lot beats first tracks!