From a ski lift terminus

A ski lift once ended here.

It carried skiers up the slope above Bratrouchov in the days when the western Krkonoše still ran without grooming machines, snow cannons or chairlifts. At the top stood a small technical building — the terminus. A motor, a wheel, an operator, cold.

Then the lift stopped running. The lift disappeared, the building stayed.

When we bought the place, it wasn’t a pretty spot. It was a forgotten spot — and those two words aren’t the same thing.

The concrete base that held the lift wheel was still there. We could have removed it. We left it. It’s not nostalgia. It’s the only thing on site that proves what was here before.

The technical building is a chalet now, for six people. We tried not to make it a stage set for mountain romance — no antlers on the wall, no checked curtains. Wood, stone, glass. Things that will look better in ten years than they do today.

The lift doesn’t run anymore. The quiet it left behind is the most valuable thing here.