Sustainability
Light on
the mountain.
No resort, no lifts, no new building, no permanent mark on the terrain. We run the smallest operation a real cat-ski week allows — and we're honest about the footprint we do have.
Our approach
The most sustainable thing about this place is everything we didn't build. No lifts, no pistes, no concrete, no resort. One small guesthouse, twelve guests a week, and a mountain we leave exactly as we found it.
Low impact by design
Built into how we operate, not bolted on.
No resort to build
No lifts, no pylons, no snowmaking, no pistes, no permanent infrastructure on the terrain. The mountain stays wild.
One small group
Twelve guests at a time, one group on the whole plateau. We're never scaling up to fill lifts — the size is the point.
We reused a building
Rather than build new, we winterised an existing summer refuge on the Peaks of the Balkans trail. No new construction footprint on the plateau.
Leave no trace
Snow melts and tracks vanish. When the season ends, there's no sign we were ever there — and that's how we intend to keep it.
Off-grid operation
The guesthouse runs on its own power and water, sized for a single small group rather than a resort's constant draw.
Local supply
We work with people and suppliers from the region wherever we can, keeping the operation rooted in the communities around the mountains.
The community
Tourism that stays
in the valley.
Freeride Albania is a local operation. The founding team comes from Kosovo and Albania, and day-to-day logistics, suppliers, and coordination are handled on the ground by people from the region — Nol Krasniqi and Virtyt Gacaferri among them.
Co-founder Pavlin Polia helped develop Theth, in the same mountains, from a remote village into one of Northern Albania's best-known destinations. We're applying that same approach here: build slowly, work with locals, and let the income from visitors reach the communities who live alongside the mountains.
- Founded and run by a team from Kosovo and Albania
- Regional logistics and suppliers used wherever possible
- Built on direct experience developing Theth tourism
- A new winter season for a previously closed area
What we don't pretend
We're not going to call this carbon neutral.
Cat skiing uses snowcats, and snowcats burn diesel. Most of our guests fly to reach us. We're not going to dress that up — a week in the backcountry has a real footprint, and pretending otherwise would be the kind of marketing we built this place to avoid.
What we can say honestly is this: we run the smallest operation a genuine cat-ski week allows. Twelve guests, two machines, one reused building, and nothing permanent left on the mountain. We'd rather do a small thing carefully than a big thing loudly. If you want to know exactly how we operate, ask us — we'll give you a straight answer.
