So, I’ve decided to ski again after a long time. It’s one of my favorite activities, but at the same time, it’s pretty environmentally unfriendly and financially demanding (which you don’t realize as a kid in the Dolomites when your parents arrange everything for you so I really want to thank them for that, as I took it for granted). So the only way to go on this ski adventure was to cosplay as middle class and work a week at a bar in a mountain hut, with the catch that I could only ski for two hours each morning. Apart from the sexist comments from some of the guests, it was a great experience. I was there with my friend Marika, who practically moves there for the whole winter and sometimes even summer. Marika is a gorp-core hippie obsessed with the outdoors even before techno people took over this lifestyle. She lives in a van, is a bit of a witch, and has the most beautiful voice (lol, I know that sounds like an annoying cliché, but she is genuinely one of the most authentic people I know. And she’s one of those rare people who doesn’t feel the need to constantly self-present or perform her identity on Instagram, unlike the rest of us). In retrospect, I romanticize that week a lot. The mountains felt like the answer to everything - the peace, the lack of social comparison, and the fact that you just work with whatever the surroundings give you. It was incredibly calming. I speak from a very specific position, but the minimalism forced upon you there felt refreshing. Of course, I say this from a 'tourist' perspective, I can't even imagine the hard work involved and that over time, even working at a mountain lodge can quickly become tiresome.
By coincidence, it was my birthday while I was there, and the lift operators gave me flowers and chocolate, which was really sweet. No hidden messages, just flowers and chocolate. The photos I took were in moments when no one wanted to drink Aperol or hot chocolate or eat fried chicken schnitzel. Despite smelling like oil and kitchen fumes, we joked around and took blogger-style photos at apres-ski. These were the Krkonoše Mountains, where the ski tow was the slowest in the world, but that's exactly what made the experience so calming and beautiful.

사진작가:
katerina_pencova
업로드:
2025-03-12
앨범:
cottagecore and questioning life
More photos by katerina_pencova