The Last Season
For Respekt CZ. Slovakia, 2025
Viktor Beránek spent nearly fifty years running “Chata pod Rysmi”, the highest mountain hut in the High Tatras, at 2,250 meters without helicopter supplies or modern infrastructure.
As plans for modernization emerged, he was unexpectedly replaced after a controversial selection process. The new vision stood in sharp contrast to the porter tradition and off-grid life he had preserved for decades.
This work has been awarded the Canon Junior Awards “Discovery of the Year” at Czech Press Photo 2025.
As plans for modernization emerged, he was unexpectedly replaced after a controversial selection process. The new vision stood in sharp contrast to the porter tradition and off-grid life he had preserved for decades.
This work has been awarded the Canon Junior Awards “Discovery of the Year” at Czech Press Photo 2025.
1/9 Viktor Beránek, the longtime hut keeper of Chata pod Rysmi, has shaped the character of the high mountain refuge for decades with a simple, traditional way of running it.
2/9 The trail from Štrbské Pleso to Chata pod Rysmi is about ten kilometres long and climbs roughly 1,000 metres, reaching the hut at 2,250 metres via steep passages, some secured with chains.
3/9 The hut has always been supplied without the use of helicopters. Porters usually shoulder about 70 kilograms; some carry 100 kilograms or more, moving slowly and stopping briefly every few minutes. Beránek himself once set a Tatra record by carrying 122.5 kilograms up the mountain.
4/9 Beránek says he is worried that new ideas for the hut – from satellite internet to more modern comforts – could change the character of a place long valued for its remoteness.
5/9 The debate over the hut’s future comes amid wider tensions in Slovakia, where political polarisation, nationalism and heated public arguments increasingly shape public life.
6/9 There is neither internet nor mobile phone reception at the hut. That is precisely why many tourists go there.
7/9 The staff, who spend several days in a row at the hut, only find out what is happening in the world from tourists. Viktor himself, for example, did not hear about the 9/11 attacks until three days later.
8/9 After more than 48 years at Chata pod Rysmi, Beránek must hand the hut over to a new tenant after the owners, the Slovak Tourist Club and JAMES, chose not to renew his lease.
9/9 For many, the dispute has become a symbol of how conflicts over control, money and direction can reach even the most remote places.