It is worth noting the characteristic shape (side carving) and the material—birch wood—which is exceptionally light, but, due to its lack of durability, was used very rarely for the production of skis; ash wood, beech wood, or—in special cases—hickory wood was usually used instead.

A characteristic feature of the northern skis—used in the Scandinavian Peninsula and in Finland—was the disproportion in the length of two skis in one pair: one was longer (the one exhibited in the collection of Małopolska’s Virtual Museums measures 260 cm) and is additionally equipped with a sliding groove; the other, shorter one was used for pushing off (in the case of the present exhibit, the other ski has not survived).

 

Mount Fuji is a major symbol of Japan and is placed even on banknotes. It is a holy mountain, the place where, according to beliefs, the protective gods of the country live. An expedition to its peak is like an entrance to a heavenly land bathed in golden light through a thick layer of clouds.

The exhibited type of ski was introduced by Norwegians as a mountain ski. Its dimensions—length, the width of the tip in the middle and in the tail—indicate that it is a “telemark” type. The ski has a bowed tip and is bent under the foot, but lacks a groove (its absence is characteristic of mountain skis). The Norwegian binding, made of reed—which was used in the late nineteenth century—is also noteworthy.

The beginnings of tourism in the Tatra Mountains date back to the 2^nd half of the 19^th century. In 1873, Galicyjskie Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie [The Tatra Society in Galicia] was established with its aim of marking out routes, building mountain shelters, doing ethnographic research and describing the uniqueness of the area (maps were created and meteorological phenomena were observed). All this brought tourists to the mountain trails.

Czarne skórzane buty narciarskie należały do Karola Wojtyły. Lewy but z pary jest bardziej zniszczony. 

It is hard to imagine Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains without tourists. They cross the town and mountain trails with great enthusiasm. The landscape attracts crowds wishing to rest in the shadows of the cool mountains, as well as artists who find an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the overpowering nature. It is assumed that the first painter of the Tatra Mountains was Jan Nepomucen Głowacki (1802–1847) and the first Tatra-related painting is the “View of the Carpathian Mountains from Poronin”, dated 1836. Later this theme was taken up by other painters, like Aleksander Kotsis. It was with him that in 1860 Walery Eljasz took his first trip to Babia Góra from which he saw the Tatra Mountains. A year later he managed to visit them. Since 1866 the mountains became his true passion. Eljasz came from Kraków, from a family where painting and art were the order of the day.

Highlanders kept tobacco (habryka) in leather pouches, the so-called miechóry, which were made of cat skin, sheepskin or rabbit skin. They also kept tobacco in pouches made from specially prepared pigs’ bladders, the so-called maharzyny, which were tied up with a leather strap. The tobacco stored in them did not lose its natural moisture and did not get mouldy.

Tytus Chałubiński’s herbarium of Tatra mosses is the most valuable botanical collection at the Dr Tytus Chałubiński Tatra Museum. 

Doctor Tytus Chałubiński (1820–1889), a man of broad horizons and multiple interests, a great physician with a passion for botany, is one of the legendary figures of Zakopane.