Photo TR: Sat’khilamuro tsels Sakartvelo – Skiing in Georgia

[StokedPictures]

No, not the State in US and A. I mean the country that is located in the Middle East.


There you go to the second part




Some Georgian tunes for your ears.

Georgia is awesome. Little did I know about this country. I knew it lays somewhere by the Black Sea. They had a war with Russia and about South-Ossetia in 2008. That was about it. Then this winter I had the opportunity to visit Georgia for five weeks. When I came back I was absolutely enchanted from this beautiful and cultural rich country.

Wikipedia says:
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 km² and its population is almost 4.7 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

Ok. Now you know some of the basic facts. Let’s get started with some skiing.


The “boring” stuff:

Georgia offers two mountain ranges. To the south lies the Lesser Caucasus in the north we have the Greater Caucasus. Of the 69700 km^2 of Georgia 87% is covered with peaks. The biggest peaks rise up to 5200m. This makes a whole lot of skiing terrain. However, Georgia offers only three ski resorts and they are quite small. Let’s start with the biggest and most famous one: Gudauri.



A first glimpse of Gudauris terrain.


„Gudauri – Feel Good Aura“ is the slogan of the ski resort. There’s definitely a special aura at the resort even though they try to be as western as possible. Gudauri is located 120 kilometers north of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city. It is easy reached by car within two hours, this makes it the easiest resort to get to for foreign skiers. Get off from the plane in Tbilisi take a cab and you will be skiing the same day. That’s why you will find freeriders from all over the world but the number is still small. The complete Resort is south facing but due to the relative high location between 2200 and 3300 meter you will often find good snow.





Things start to get interesting when you go out of the ski resort and ski down into one of the adjacent valleys. Fortunately right next to Gudauri lays a pass which connects Georgia with Russia. Just organize a ride back and ski down the north facing 1200m descents.









Skiing in Gudauri



But, be aware: Sometimes the pass gets closed based on arbitrariness. You never really know when they think avalanche danger is too high. In that case your in for a sweet 3 hour hike back to the ski resort base station. ( It is actually really sweet since it runs through a stunning mountain landscape and several tunnels )










Hiking back to Gudauri.










This is how a taxi looks in Georgia. Lada for the win.




The second ski resort we visited is located in the province “Svaneti” in Mestia. The president of Georgia really likes this area so he decided to build a ski lift one year ago. The ski resort Mestia is basically one chair that accesses some good treeskiing.



Bears at the parking lot of the ski resort Mestia


With the opening of the ski resort last winter they also established a flight line Tbilisi-Mestia. This is a really beautiful flight in a small propeller plane but it only flies when the weather conditions are good. The only alternative is a 8-hour ride with a “Marschurtka” – one of the public minivans. This is why the ski resort is mostly empty and only few ski tourist go there.


The flight to Mestia


Hauling the gear into town



The feeling in Mestia is much more like I expected it to be in Georgia. The ski resort opens at 11 am ( Georgian’s apparently hate mornings ) a ski ticket costs around seen bucks and the atmosphere in the resort is just super friendly. At one point we got invited to ride up the mountain with the snowcat after the resort closed just to get invited to drink liquor at the top station.





Fun in the woods of Mestia


The stunning “Ushba” (4800m) next to the ski resort



That’s it for right now. In the following part we will start our real Georgian ski adventure and move out into the backcountry…  


Ps. Apologize my shitty English.

[montanaskier]

love the stoke from a not so known area...can't wait for more.

[el hefe]

That is so wicked. Would love to be able to do a trip like that one day.

[Cayuse]

Very cool. Was in Tblisi 25 or so years ago and really wanted to visit the mountains but it wasn't going to happen at that time.

[DeathVan]

Good looking trip!

I would like to see more of the towns and people as well.

[The Gnarwhale]

Incredible! That's a place I've been curious about for a while - rad to see you gettin' after it there!

[ACH]

Freaking radtastic.
Can't wait for you to post more.

[gpcharles]

and this is why I'm still on TGR.

god that was good. stoked for the real adventure!

[powpig]

A friend was telling me about skiing in Georgia just last week and this AM I did a search here for it, was gonna bump this back up but now I don't have to.

So anyone else got tales to tell of skiing in Georgia?

[mtskier]

I need to get georgia before I die.

[adimmen]

I love the reports from exotic locales.

[VTColdSmoke]

Fkn RAD!!!!! Thanks for the amazing stoke.

[Xocomil]

Need more.

[BFD]

good stuff. looking forward to the touring shots.

[fivefourtwo]

Looks like an incredible trip! Thanks for sharing.

[MapleLeafGillies]

sweet dude! Cant wait to see more! Were there many other skiers up there?

[AKPogue]

Nice TR. What is the story on the Bears?

[StokedPictures]

Thanks for the appreciation folks.

Good looking trip!

I would like to see more of the towns and people as well.

You will see more of the country and people in the second and third part.

sweet dude! Cant wait to see more! Were there many other skiers up there?

In Gudauri was a big group of German freeriders and some other riders that don't deserve the word free in front of it. (JONG's in AT) Still it was not busy at all.
In Mestia were some local rippers who did swap to freerideskis when we met them and showed us some of their goods. You can find untracked snow after a week without snowfall right next to the groomed slopes.
As soon as you go deeper into the mountains there is no other skiing soul within many many kilometers.

Nice TR. What is the story on the Bears?

The story I heard: A hunter shot the mother of the two cubs. He took them with him and raised and fed them at the base of the ski resort. They got quite used to humans and are just romping around on the parking lot. I don't know if the story is true though.

[AKPogue]

The story I heard: A hunter shot the mother of the two cubs. He took them with him and raised and fed them at the base of the ski resort. They got quite used to humans and are just romping around on the parking lot. I don't know if the story is true though.

That is cool if true!!!

[Mike Pow]

More please. Thanks.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Very cool. Thanks, SUI guy.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

Awesome
01234

[rod9301]

Thanks for the pictures. I was in georgia for a week

in 07, but just to climb mt.kazbek, it would have made an awesome ski. Loved the country and the food.

[MrPow]

This is amazing stuff. you guys are studs.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Wow - this is awesome.