TR: Gudauri Ski Resort, Georgia (January 2016)

[Mike Pow]

Having a shorter than normal season on Hokkaido, Nerys & I were on the lookout for a snow sure European destination for a late January 2016 trip.

When we were representing Kiroro Resort at the Helsinki and London Ski Shows last October our neighbouring stand was Ski Georgia.

No not the land of peaches & peanuts, but the land of wine, mountains and arguably Europe's best snow.

The pictures and prices looked inviting, so whilst I was on Hokkaido I followed the ski reports daily to see if a late January trip was doable.

I'd previously travelled east to find snow when Central Europe had been hurting

TR: Western Balkans Part I - Popova Shapka, Macedonia (January 2011)
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=102070


TR: Western Balkans Part II - Brezovica, Kosovo; Savin Kuk & Kolasin, Montenegro (February 2011)
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewt...zovica#2345924


and with consistent snowfall since Christmas and snow forecast for the first part of our proposed holiday, flights & accommodation were booked on Wednesday night (20th January) for a Friday morning departure to Gudauri Ski Resort.

Here are a few links to web sites, trip reports and videos which helped with our decision to head to Gudauri Ski Resort.

Ski Georgia
http://www.skigeorgia.ge/

Gudauri Ski Resort
http://www.gudauri.info/

Gudauri Snow Forecast
http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Gudauri/6day/top

Heliksir, Heliski Caucasus
http://heliski.travel/

The 10 Dishes That Will Make You Fall in Love With Georgian Food
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/i...ry-dishes.html


Trip Reports

March 2013 Trip Report
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...atsvali-Mestia

Skiing in Georgia
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...hlight=georgia

Gudauri, 10.3.2015
http://blog.inmontanis.info/?p=3151&lang=en


Videos

Friends of Georgia


Georgia Caucasus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyrur5zjt7Y

Ski and Snowboard Georgia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Md6B8V3ULw



FRIDAY 22 JANUARY 2016

Travel day.

We left Cardiff Bus Station, Wales at 5am for the 5 hr journey to Gatwick Airport, London.

Due to the last minute booking, the cheapest flight we could get was Turkish Airlines Gatwick to Tbilisi (capital of Georgia) via Istanbul leaving at mid-day.

However this did give us a very generous luggage allowance of 40kg.

With a 7 1/2 hr travel time (including a 1h 20 min stop at Istanbul) and 4hrs of time zones, we got into Tbilisi at 23.30

We had contemplated spending the first two nights in Tbilisi, travelling up to Gudauri on Sunday afternoon to avoid the weekend crowds but decided to head straight to resort instead.

We'd booked 9 nights bed & breakfast at the Alpina Hotel through booking.com and organised for a driver to meet us at the airport.

http://www.hotelalpina.ge/en/


As we cleared immigration, the immigration officer handed us a bottle of Georgian wine each and wished us a great holiday. Now that's what I call a welcome.

After changing £500 into Georgian Lari (Gel) at an exchange rate of 3.6 Gel to the £, we loaded the car and set off.

The route takes you right through the heart of Tbilisi, which is an impressive mix of ancient and modern architecture tastefully illuminated at night.

The car journey to resort took 3 hrs and it was snowing as we arrived at Hotel Alpina.



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SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 2016

We woke at 9am and headed down to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast that was included in our stay. Breakfast runs from 8-10 am.

Coffee, tea.
Hot & cold cereal.
Cheese, cold meats, bread
2 hot choices changing daily - fried eggs, omlette, sausages, fries
Cake

Booking.com had shown that Hotel Alpina was ski-in, ski-out. This is incorrect. It's just ski-in, and only for adventurous intermediates and above. The 'track' home was ungroomed for most of our stay.

* It's since been changed to just ski-in *

A free shuttle takes you down to the chairlift or gondola at 8.00, 8.30 and 10.30

Outside of those times you can get a taxi for 10 lari each way.

Around 10-15cm had fallen overnight and it was snowing steadily with low visibility and only the three lifts on the lower mountain running - the Pirveli & Soliko quad chairs and the Gudaura gondola.









Plenty of terrain to keep us happy and by day's end we were skiing boot top to knee deep light powder.

We had lunch at Vitamin at the top of the Soliko quad and ordered way too much for not a lot of money. The portion sizes are big.

Georgian cheese mix, mushroom soup, schnitzel, fries, green tea, glass of wine, 3 bottles of water for 56 lari.

Skied back to Alpina off-piste and had a light dinner of nuts (10 lari), olives (15 lari) and gin & tonics (10 lari per drink) in the lounge bar.

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SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2016

It hasn't stopped snowing since we arrived in the early hours of yesterday morning.

At least 40cm overnight and epic conditions over the entire lower mountain, with Nerys enjoying her deepest day on skis.

The upper mountain is closed until the storm passes through, which looks to be on Wednesday.

The snowplow crew hadn't made it up to the hotel, so we had to ski down to the lifts.

And at day's end we had to make the path down the one ungroomed run on the mountain to get home.

But in between it was magic.

The Village




And I didn't think I would find Hokkaido powder outside of Hokkaido, but I was very much mistaken. And very happy to be proven wrong.

Midnight Plane to Georgia




We had lunch at the restaurant at the bottom of the soliko quad chair - two burgers, glass of wine, green tea for 41 lari and dinner with Alex and Michele from Paris at Glintwein at the base of the gondola.

[Mike Pow]

MONDAY 25 JANUARY 2016

Nerys & I were the only two guests staying at Hotel Alpina.

So instead of the buffet we gave them a time for breakfast and transfer down to the lifts.

Another 15-20 cm of snow overnight and still snowing with low visibility as we began our day.

The powder was heavier than yesterday - the wind had got to it and created a wind crust on the surface - but it was still gut deep with plenty of face shots.

Skied back to the hotel at day's end and enjoyed a relaxed dinner of pizza and G&Ts in the lounge bar.

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TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 2016

Nerys & I still the only two guests staying at Hotel Alpina.

Solid breakfast of Glamorgan type sausage and fried eggs.

Morning view from the balcony of Hotel Alpina



After three days of snow the sun finally made an appearance. In and out sunshine on the mountain. Clearest day so far.

Beginning To See The Light




Sunset view from the balcony of Hotel Alpina









Abandoned building

[BigDaddy]

Sounds and looks amazing. Following with with serious interest, as I know I could convince my wife to go. Her BFF just wrote a book about Georgian wines that comes out next month, but I had no idea the skiing was so good. Thanks for posting with all the critical details

[Mike Pow]

Sounds and looks amazing. Following with with serious interest, as I know I could convince my wife to go. Her BFF just wrote a book about Georgian wines that comes out next month, but I had no idea the skiing was so good. Thanks for posting with all the critical details

My pleasure.

The wine was great

More to come, with a breakdown of costs.

[BigDaddy]

Nice... I sent my wine friend the link to this and she said they produce the "svanti salt" in those mts, too? And she said it's super cheap once there, and wants to plan a trip for next winter. This could just be the Holy Grail I have been dreaming of... great skiing for me and fun for my wife?! Without the St. Moritz hotel expense!

[Mike Pow]

Yeah it is

BINGO

[swissiphic]

Mein Gott!!! Google earthing the area looks like a back country skier's dream!

[abraham]

Mein Gott!!! Google earthing the area looks like a back country skier's dream!

Check out these reports http://www.coaststeepskier.com/wphome/?cat=272

Yeah it is

BINGO

cool trip! No Wales reports this year? I'm not seeing the pictures on my phone in the app for whatever reason.

[Mike Pow]

Mein Gott!!! Google earthing the area looks like a back country skier's dream!

So many lines, so few people

[Mike Pow]

cool trip! No Wales reports this year? I'm not seeing the pictures on my phone in the app for whatever reason.

It's a great place.

Had one day in the Brecon Beacons before heading to Hokkaido.

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=121689

Waiting on the next snowfall

[Mike Pow]

WEDNESDAY 27 JANUARY 2016

Still just Nerys & I staying at the hotel

Went out early to take pictures of the sunrise.





























Nerys at Hotel Alpina









Gondola Base Area

















Nerys on the 8-person Gudaurau Gondola





Bluebird day with the Kudebi lift open for the first time during our visit.

Amazing views.

Great grooming and deserted slopes but inconsistent powder off piste. A heavy wind crust meant getting bogged down at times - as can be seen at the end of the vid

No Brakes





Nerys on Tatra






Nerys skiing Tatra






Nerys skiing Soliko 1

[Mike Pow]

The view of Mt Sadzele from Mt Kadebi






Dropping the cliff band on Mt Kadebi


















Nerys on Mt Kadebi






Enoying a late lunch at Vitamin with Nerys. 45 lari for 2 glasses of wine, 2 bottles of water, Adjuruli Khachapuri and kebab.






Nerys on the home run to Hotel Alpina

[Mike Pow]

THURSDAY 28 JANUARY 2016

Another beautiful sunrise for the only two guests at Hotel Alpina.









Hotel Alpina





Another windless bluebird day on the mountain, with the Sadzele lift and the terrain it accesses open for the first time during our visit.





Whilst there's a professional Ski Patrol at the resort, there's no avalanche control undertaken. Hence the timeframe for opening up lifts and terrain after heavy snowfall and a wind event.

Nerys & I spent most of the day skiing the groomed and ungroomed runs off the Kudebi chair

Kudebi chairlift station









The off-piste terrain accessed from the Kudebi chair






Solo and tandem paragliding (with and without skis) is offered from Mt Kudebi





The terrain accessed from Mt Kudebi









The terrain accessed from Mt Sadzele





Lines off the Sadzele chair









Nerys









Lines and terrain off the Sadzele chair





Amazing views and terrain off the Sadzele chair













Mt Bidara





Amazing views and terrain off the Sadzele chair, Mt Kudebi on the right





Late lunch at Vitamin again and then a cruise home on Tatra and the 'ski track' back to Hotel Alpina

Else

[The Tortoise]

Amazing. So that's what it is like to have your own personal ski hill.

[BFD]

Looks like a great trip. Way to get off the beaten path. Glad you were rewarded with good snow.

[Mike Pow]

Amazing. So that's what it is like to have your own personal ski hill.

Cheers.

Ha ha.

Gudauri is around 2 1/2 hrs from Tbilisi with not many towns en route.

Tbilisi residents look at the webcams and then decide if they want to make the drive (~5hrs).

Our first weekend it was snowing non-stop so very few drove up.

Mid-week outside of national holidays the majority of Georgians are at work, so the slopes are deserted.

Apparently it gets busier in February and March when the weather becomes more settled.

[Mike Pow]

Looks like a great trip. Way to get off the beaten path. Glad you were rewarded with good snow.

Fantastic place.

We'd been watching the snow for a while and snow-forecast.com was on the money.

3 days of blower snow
1 day of mixed overcast & sun
4 days of bluebird

The wind got at the powder on the overcast day leaving a wind crust up to 20cm deep.

Made for some tricky turns the first two days of bluebird - well tricky for me on 116-82-111 skis - but with about 20-30 cm top-up up high the last two days were boot top smooth powder.

Happy days

[swissiphic]

thanks for the pics, man oh man, that terrain.... salivating like pavlov's dog.

[Mike Pow]

thanks for the pics, man oh man, that terrain.... salivating like pavlov's dog.

My pleasure. So much terrain, so many lines.

Got a few more pics to process which shows the extent of the terrain.

[Mike Pow]

FRIDAY 29 JANUARY 2016

Another fine day on the mountain for Nerys' last ski day.

10-15 cm of new snow had fallen up top, and the slopes were deserted once again.

Nerys at the top of the Kudebi chair





Nerys skiing Kudebi 3













The Gudauri base area, with the gondola base in the foreground.





Show Me The Way




We enjoyed an al fresco lunch at Maya's Restaurant at the bottom of the Soliko chairlift before skiing back to Hotel Alpina.





Sunset from Hotel Alpina





We had dinner at Glintwien with superb salmon kebabs,

Eggplant Phkali





and grilled mushrooms with sulguni cheese





before tieing one on at the nightlcub below. Great night

[thin cover]

This is awesome, thanks for putting it up. That first video is pretty ridiculous.

[BigDaddy]

TC, let's go next week!...

And to dispel any rumors, I hear Georgia is 95% Georgian Orthodox, so no ISIS.

[Mike Pow]

This is awesome, thanks for putting it up. That first video is pretty ridiculous.

My pleasure.

Yeah we got the motherlode the first three days. Couldn't see for shit which made it difficult for Nerys, but full on Hokkaido blower.

Pity the wind smashed it, because that kind of snow in sunshine would have been all-time

[Mike Pow]

TC, let's go next week!...

And to dispel any rumors, I hear Georgia is 95% Georgian Orthodox, so no ISIS.

Not much snow forecast in the next 6 days but with clear skies the touring potential is off the charts.

Very friendly people.

[BigDaddy]

Was only kidding about going next week. (Don't have the jet until the following week... )

We are meeting this March to talk about going next year, tho. It's a dream at this point, but that's how it starts, right?!