The blizzard was starting to gain strength. I could feel it because, like a sandstorm, the wind took the form of small whirlwinds that sent the snow flying in tiny flakes that reached my nostrils. I was literally breathing in the snow, and even though my suit protected me, the few parts of my body exposed to this hostile environment gave me the sensation of complete immersion...

I still had to keep moving forward. The snow continued to pile up in the valley, and despite my boots, it was hard for me to put one foot in front of the other... It was broad daylight, but the light barely filtered through this white, snow-laden sky. To be honest, it was so difficult to move that I was navigating by sight, with my back bent and my head down, just to avoid falling flat on the ground... I could hardly enjoy the scenery as I was too busy lifting my boots with all the caution I could manage.

It was then that my face started tingling. I immediately recognized the sensation of the needles on my skin. It was the same as during my childhood when we used to make garlands for our parents that would soon decorate our doors... I had just bumped into a fir tree. The smell, too, was instantly familiar. A scent both light and deep, coming from the very heart of this forest that bordered the valley. In fact, the presence of this fir tree indicated that I had just entered it. Yes, I had finally reached my goal and could thus find shelter in it for the night. A simple tent would suffice. For the rest, I had my trusty insulating tarp and my triple-layer sleeping bag.

I raised my head to face the fir tree and even had to step back a good two meters to see its top, because of how tall it was. Its branches, as deep green as its scent, stood out in majestic waves against the milky sky. Thank God, night had not yet fully fallen, which still made this spectacle possible. A spectacle to which the tree, coming to prick my icy face, had invited me, as if to tell me that survival is nothing without the contemplation of beauty.

LATER ON : 

The night in this forest promised to be short. I love nature, but the extreme conditions were making this journey more complicated than expected, especially since my food supplies were dwindling drastically, as of course I was eating more. It wasn’t for lack of calculating the rations, but the energy required for me to make progress in the snow had a real impact on my consumption. As for the state of my body... It was critical too. Ten days without washing, and my body, which hadn't left my suit, had become sticky. It was hard to manage even a bit of basic hygiene in these conditions.

If my calculations were correct, I needed to leave at dawn to make sure I could cross the forest the next day and reach the transitional lodge where I planned to spend the following night. I just hoped the information had been updated and that the lodge still existed ! I had been camping in the cold for 10 days, so needless to say, I was looking forward to this moment.

But for now, I was in my tent, immersed in that mysterious silence. That enveloping silence that neither said yes nor said no. All the birds, squirrels, and rabbits had long since retreated to their burrows and nests. I too had a shelter : the tall bare pines protected me from the blizzard, too dense to let it through, and the stars shone, true to themselves, their little golden lights speckling the black velvet canopy of the sky.