Documenting the Mountains I Visit in My Own Unique Way

Kajak.mk’s stories about people who celebrate life will not stop as long as new local heroes keep emerging—those who do small things of great importance for the development of tourism. On our list, we add Sasho Popovski, a man passionate about mountain adventures.

Sasho shares that his adventures began when he was just 12 years old, and he still remembers the first day when he and his friends visited the Neolica mountain lodge. He says that on that first mountain day, they felt like they had conquered Mount Everest, and that was the main motivation for him to start hiking actively. He mentions that he has been actively hiking for the past 11 years and that most weekends throughout the year have been spent in the mountains, on his bike, or running.

He considers his home mountain to be “Baba Mountain,” which we know as Pelister. According to him, this mountain is home to everyone living in Bitola, and the reasons are more than clear. Pelister’s diverse terrain offers tours of various types and difficulties—whether shorter or longer walks through the pine forest from the village of Magarevo to Kopanki, Jorgov Kamen, the viewpoint below the peak Stiv, or longer routes to the Pelister summit via the rocky path, the “Bolnitsi” trail, through Shiroka, the paths to the Pelister Eyes (Big and Small Lake) via Debel Rid and Sapunchitsa, and many others. 

For Sasho, Pelister is the ideal mountain for shorter mountain training tours before or after work, while on weekends he often goes with friends on longer circular hiking routes, starting and finishing on foot from home to home. Several times a year, through organized marches or smaller group tours, they also visit many other places and mountains across Macedonia and the surrounding areas.

Among his favorite places in Macedonia are Korab, Jablanica, off-road cycling tours on Bistra or through Mariovo, cycling tours from Bitola to Ohrid via Galičica, as well as the circular tour around Lake Ohrid.

When he goes to the mountains, he usually chooses routes that are physically challenging but not technically difficult, requiring no additional hiking gear beyond hiking boots and poles. This allows him to enjoy the views and sounds of nature and to capture good photos or videos. He combines this with his other two hobbies related to hiking and cycling: photography and video editing.

“Although my photos are far from professional, a few of them have been awarded in contests like ‘Wiki Loves Earth’ and the EHO Mountain Film Festival,” says Sasho. He adds that editing short video clips with mountain themes and background music is another favorite hobby of his. The recordings and edits are amateur, but they often receive positive feedback from people who watch them on Facebook or YouTube, which motivates him to keep carrying his GoPro camera along.

He highlights as a success the video montage from Pelister that became an overnight hit, featuring our one and only Evgenija (Zarina Prvasevda), known as the “Nightingale of the Mountain,” singing the song “Nightingale Sings in the Mountain.” This video has over 360,000 views and more than 2,500 shares.

You can watch his videos at the following links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbvXgXgnq1k
https://www.youtube.com/user/vidivideo410019

Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/saso.poposki/
Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user74189791