Fairytale woods: modern fantasy

"Snowshoe through fairytale woods," the brochure said. It sounded delightful. Fairytales are good, right? So my wife and I booked our vacation in the Icelandic resort, packed the kids off to the grandparents, and headed out the door with dreams of open, vast expanses of snow, toasty fires, and overstuffed feather comforters waiting for us at the end of the night. We never expected to be fighting for our lives--being *severely* out of fighting shape, no matter my weekly handball game and her daily jogging--and we didn't expect the rewards we got at the end of it either, and I'm not talking about the gold. Although the gold was nice, or will be nice, if we can ever get a pawnbroker to accept it.


Inspiration: A line in a NYT travel article: "Once a week, the trails are groomed to perfection, and the lodges’ caretakers will shuttle your belongings forward, leaving you free to cross-country ski or snowshoe through the fairy tale woods unencumbered."
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Mostly, I like the idea of these protagonists dealing with something like that. I suppose that makes me old.