A 6am trail run, a GoPro, and untouched trails

The other morning I woke up to a surprise: 20cm of fresh snow had fallen over night. Just a week ago, I had been biking in shorts. That was a clear signal to have a quick coffee and to grab my running shoes.

At 6am I was the only one out there. Not a track, not a voice. Just the soft crunch of untouched snow and the kind of silence that makes you want to move slowly so it lasts longer.

There’s something genuinely awesome about being first out on the trails. No footprints, maybe the tracks of an animal. No one to pass, no one to acknowledge. Just the trees, the fresh air, and that particular grey-blue light that only exists in the first hour of a winter morning.

My trusted GoPro Hero 13 joined me on this run. There was no photographic agenda – I just wanted to capture the beautiful moment and not tinker with any camera gear. Sure, it would have been great to have ‘real’ camera. There were certainly a few scenes that offered themselves for a great photograph. But the outdoor and running experience were more important that morning. I just love the quiet atmosphere after a good snowfall. That’s where the GoPro simply performs. There is no setup, there is no maneuvering – you can just capture some images (or videos). And I have said this many times before: the quality you can get out of this small thing is pretty darn good. All the images here were shot in RAW and processed in Lightroom.

Some runs you do to train and push yourself. Some you do for sanity. This was a special morning.