Off-season small ski resorts
Capturing silent places
Visiting small ski resorts just after the end of the operational season offers a unique and contrasting perspective. Unlike the well-known alpine destinations, these local resorts are modest in size and popularity. They primarily serve nearby communities, where local families bring their kids to discover the joy of skiing—and to fall down, laugh, and try again.
During the peak of winter, these resorts are full of life. Children of various skill levels fill the slopes, their voices mixing with the hum of ski lifts and the activity of instructors and resort staff. Parents and relatives gather at the base, watching, encouraging, and often capturing the moment on their phones, hearts pounding with a mix of pride and panic. The environment is dynamic, filled with energy and the sound of winter recreation.
But when the lifts stop spinning and the snow starts melting, a strange calm takes over. The chatter of children disappears. The warmth of family gatherings vanishes. There are no workers tending the slopes, no machines humming in the background. Just silence.
In that stillness, the resorts take on an otherworldly feel—like long-abandoned outposts on a distant, frozen planet. You wander through traces of a recent human presence: ski tracks fading into slush, colorful signs pointing nowhere, and empty chalets standing quietly under a soft sky. You find yourself wondering: Where did everyone go? And why does it feel like they left in such a hurry?
The photographs in this series were taken between mid and late March in 2024 and 2025, in two lesser-known locations tucked in the southern Swiss Alps, in the Canton of Ticino:
Campo Blenio, in the Valle di Blenio
Mogno, in the Valle Lavizzara
Both resorts (like many other similar ones in the world) sit at relatively low altitudes and face increasing challenges due to climate change. Warmer winters and reduced snowfall have shortened the ski season, yet these areas continue to operate, sustained by local enthusiasm and community traditions. For many families, these slopes hold personal significance—places where generations have taken their first steps on skis.
Despite environmental pressures, the persistence of these small resorts speaks to a broader cultural and emotional connection to winter sports, community life, and the alpine landscape.
Campo Blenio
Mogno
