The snow had wrapped the entire mountain range in a heavy, echoing silence. Amid the bone-chilling cold and rugged paths of Kurdistan, I witnessed figures carrying burdens of both hardship and hope. Kolbars whose steps in the snow tell a daily story of survival—where the price of bread feels heavier than ever, and the cold cuts deeper than any winter before. Walking alongside them was a raw confrontation with truth: a story of human resilience along the world’s harshest trails. Photographer: Hajar Ghorbani, Uramanat, March 2025