International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) 2022 Republic of Georgia Trip Report

[Mattadvproject]

March 16th - first day with our local guide
We had the full crew (Dave, Rob, Rich, Eric and myself) and the sun was out. We met our guide Sergey and his German buddy up on the mountain at 10:30am. Our first lap was to head out to Bidara and this would require a long traverse and we'd have to put in the track. It was slow going at first as Sergey put in the track but once we made it to our drop in, we had a massive open face with a couple of thousand feet of untouched powder. The first 2/3 were awesome, then it got a little sun-crust near the bottom, but it was still an awesome run.

Sergey had organized a van to come pick us up and we were quickly back up to the resort and then back to a high-speed 6-pack chair which took us back to the upper gondola. We did another lap and that was almost as good as the first. Rob was really getting his confidence with the snow, grandeur of the terrain and his gear. Great to see him starting to relax a little and enjoy the skiing.

Our third run was down to the Kobi Valley, skiing near the piste until we got to the top of the first phase of the gondola. Then it was definitely backcountry skiing and avalanche hazard mitigation, skiing ridgelines and one at a time. The skies had clouded over a little but we were first ones in so it was untracked. We had some sporty sections to ski culminating in a steep face that had slid previously, with a few hidden rocks to detune the skis.

We finished with a long traverse next to the Georgia Military Highway back to the bottom of the gondola. That was a new line for me. Stoked. Then we headed back up and did one more lap down to Bidara as the sun was poking out again. 4 quality laps and an exciting day. Hopefully there will be more sun in the morning and then another storm is due to hit. Fun times!



- Matt

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

Looks like another stellar trip. What’s a beer go for over there?

 

[Mattadvproject]

Looks like another stellar trip. What’s a beer go for over there?

Thanks mate, yes, having a blast. The snow is not as good as Uzbekistan and there's a lot more pressure for fresh tracks. As for the beer, it depends on where you have it, but normally a couple of $'s. Similar to Uzbekistan, maybe slightly more.

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

Thanks mate, yes, having a blast. The snow is not as good as Uzbekistan and there's a lot more pressure for fresh tracks. As for the beer, it depends on where you have it, but normally a couple of $'s. Similar to Uzbekistan, maybe slightly more.

I’m gonna base my next trip on the price of beer…

 

[James]

I’m gonna base my next trip on the price of beer…

Dude a trip to a Walmart for a 30 pack will do that. 66cents/354 ml

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

Dude a trip to a Walmart for a 30 pack will do that. 66cents/354 ml

Ski trip, man. Ski trip to a place without Walmart. An Arby’s would be ok though.

 

[Mattadvproject]

March 17th - Whiteout!
Tough conditions in Gudauri today. The sun was out early and we started skinning to Upper Bidara (1.5 skin without the upper gondola running), but by the time we made it to the top, the clouds had rolled in, snow was falling and visibility was low. Still, we had enough light to see and the upper mountain turns were great. It's snowing hard now so tomorrow we'll be heading down valley for some touring and tree skiing. Should be fun.



- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

March 18th - I am a sweaty bog monster.....
It had snowed a decent amount at Gudauri the night before and we awoke to a nice new fresh blanket of snow (maybe 20cm's of fresh) but the visibility was not great, so we decided to hit the road and head downstream of the resort for some hiking and a backcountry tree lap (which is rare as there are not many tree runs in this area, it's mostly alpine). We drove out of the resort about 30 minutes and took some backroads to the start of our skin in a little random village.

We were lucky in that another one of the Snowlab guides (with a couple of guys from Belarus) was ahead of us, setting the track. We started in a little village, then entered a meadow. It got gradually steeper and then we entered the trees, then it got real steep. it was a really tough skin track, with some really steep kickturns and then plenty of trees and bushes in the way. In a couple of spots, being the large, oversize sweaty bog monster that I am, I had to take a ski off, kick it underneath a tree branch and then put it on, on the other side. That was a first....

Then it mellowed out and we found ourselves skinning up through more open trees and meadows before hitting our high-point and our drop in place. All in all, it took about 3 hours to make it to the start of the run. Then it was about 30 minutes through some open meadows, to make it to the bottom. The snow was knee-deep and untouched. The juice was worth the squeeze and despite the suffer-fest, was definitely worth it. I did get some big faceshots so I was very happy.

We finished our adventure with an a visit to our taxi driver's house, where his lovely wife had prepared fried potatoes and they had bought some fresh bread from the local bakery. The other guide (Rustam) was there with his two guests, a couple of young lads from Belarus. I didn't know how to react to that initially but pretty soon, they were condemning the war and we were giving toasts of f*ck Putin, so for a moment, all was well in the world. They proved that we should not judge a book by it's cover and they were just as pissed about the war in Ukraine as we were, same as our Russian guide Sergey.

The local wine and chacha (white spirit/rocket fuel) were flowing and we had a great time. That was a great way to finish the day and a very memorable day it was too. Tomorrow we head to the Lomisi Monastery and more hiking for our turns. I might lose some weight by the end of this trip. Huzzah!




- Sweaty Bog Monster

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

I’ve seen you sweat profusely. I’d hate to see bog monster mode.

 

[Mattadvproject]

I’ve seen you sweat profusely. I’d hate to see bog monster mode.

Yes, same thing. Sweaty Bog Monster mode is the same in Georgia as it is in Uzbekistan....

 

[Mattadvproject]

19th March - Lomisi Monastery Ski Touring
Apologies for the interruption, but the internets have been down here in Gudauri after a telecommunications cable at our hotel got crushed by excess snow. Now I can resume the blogging.....

We'd had even more snow overnight and the resort was shrouded in cloud, so it was decided that we would head down valley again for more ski touring, but this time we'd head up to the Lomisi Monastery. This is one tour that I had done before and had really enjoyed back in 2019 as it was such an amazing cultural day and wasn't just about the skiing.

We took a van down valley and were dropped off outside a church. We were getting geared up when a police car pulled into the snowy car parking area and immediately got stuck. The officers were laughing at their predicament and we helped push them out. Our crew made sure they got plenty of photos!

Then we hit the skin track and had 3 local dogs come join us. One was a tiny Dachshund mix, the other some kind of larger mutt and the other some kind of Irish Setter, something like that. It was nice to have them but often they got in the way, stepping on your skis if they were behind you or stopping in front of you to play fight. Good times! The little Dachshund got tired half-way up so Dave carried her up on his shoulders. She fell asleep at one stage.....

This skin track, although a longer skin, was definitely easier for me as it didn't involve any of the really technical steep, kick turns in and and around tight trees, that the previous day's tour had involved. It took us about 2.5 hours. We made it to the top of the Lomisi ridge and there was the Monastery. There are three buildings; the bunkhouse/living quarters of the monk, the gift shop (this place gets hundreds of visitors in the summertime apparently) and then the centuries old church.

We visited the monk first and he sat us down and provided hot tea, biscuits, chocolate and even hot, fresh bread. We had a mini feast and I got to meet his cat, his only companion. The cat was a grey Scottish Fold and I showed the monk a picture of our cat Gracie (she's a Bengal, rescue cat) and he was pretty intrigued by that. Then we headed into the church where it's customary for some to pick up the 80lb chain and put it around your neck. If you walk around the interior of the church 3 times, you are supposed to receive good luck (and a bad back!).

Then it was time to head outside again and skin up a little higher, to start skiing. The snow was very deep, about knee-high and no other tracks. We had a lot of faceshots on the way down (I'll post video of this later). We skied shelving sections, one at a time, often having to jump in the tracks to avoid getting stop, where it flattened out. It was that deep. We had a lovely section down low that was long and had a few little pillows on it. Super fun!

Then we hit the little village at the bottom and our ride was waiting for us next to the same church. The road was slow going back to Gudauri with all the tracks heading to the Russian border, but we made it back before dark and had a well-earned beer and dinner. Another memorable day!



- Matt

 

[James]

Are you feeding the dogs? I like the way they used your tracks.

 

[Mattadvproject]

Are you feeding the dogs? I like the way they used your tracks.

Oh yes, they stuck to the skin tracks like glue on the way up or else it would have been really hard going. On the way down, they mostly stayed in our tracks but sometimes would bust out into the powder where it was steeper. The little one always followed right behind the bigger mutt, they were clearly best of friends. I'm not sure if anyone was feeding them, the Dachshund and the Setter had collars on so they were someone's dogs. They were hungry though, as soon as you stopped and opened your packs they were in there trying to dive in..... I did see them eat the snow a few times. They do have to learn about not peeing and pooping in the skin track though, dirty dogs!

 

[James]

Very cool trip!

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

Very cool trip!

You really need to go on a trip like this. Bring your beloved Blizzard FIS slaloms…

 

[Mattadvproject]

Very cool trip!

Thanks @James appreciate the kind words. Plenty more to come....

 

[Mattadvproject]

21st March - Kobi Valley
This turned out to be my last day of skiing as I was sick on the 20th and 22nd March (upset stomach) and what a day it was. The sun was out again and temps were on the rise. There was still plenty of fresh snow around after the previous storm had finished. Sergey suggested skiing over to the Kobi Valley side but we started with a run down from the top of the Mt. Kudebi chair along the ridge and then hiking up to the top of Mt. Chrdili and skiing the large face above New Gudauri. The first part of the run was great, we had a long run down with nice powder for most of the way down to the start of the hike up Chrdili. It was only sun-affected for the last few turns.

We'd done the hike up Chrdili at the very start of the trip and it was nice for Rob to see just how far his skiing and touring skills had come (a massive way). The skin for him this time, was really easy. It had been skied in a few places and some snowmobiler's had been high-marking in a few places, but there were still several open corridors of untouched snow. I dropped in first and had some lovely turns up high, but then the snow developed a sun-crust on it down lower and the skiing was really tough. I slowed down to look for any changes in aspect and found a shallow gully and with that slight change of aspect, the snow in the slight shadows was still cold and powdery, so I had some fun turns. I called the group on the radios and advised them to find any gullies they could.

Then it was time to head up higher and over to the Kobi Valley side where it's mostly north-facing terrain. We skied some powder on the way down to the mid-station of the gondola and then headed far skier's left. The views of Mt. Kazbegi (16,581ft) and the surrounding mountains were stunning. What a backdrop for skiing. We had a long, untouched, open face down almost to the road. The snow had settled to around 8 inches of fresh but it was consistent and predictable skiing and possibly the best terrain and turns of the trip (for me at least). We traversed to the right and hit the road. It was a gentle gradient but an easy traverse, back to the gondola with one stop to cross to the other side of the road. We could see the large construction site where they were building the tunnel through the mountains to below Gudauri (a handy bypass for truckers/traffic heading to the Russian border).

We liked it so much we did 2 more laps in the same zone, working further left with each lap. Our final lap was to the other side of the area, in a zone we had skied previously, but this time, we stayed right on top of a long ridge and had lovely untouched snow for most of the run down. Then the clouds started to roll in and Rob, Rich and I called it quits (Dave, Sergey and Herbert stayed out for a couple more) and skied back down to the hotel. It had been an amazing day of skiing, a nice change to working so hard with the skinning, with plenty of easily accessible laps. I was sick the next day (khinkali did not agree with me) and the guys skied the same zone again.

Now we are in Tbilisi, getting ready to leave tonight. When I get back to Granby, I will edit together some of the video footage which should give you an even better idea on the fun we've had. Until then!



- Matt

 

[James]

Nice to see snow on pretty mountains.
How was the avy risk situation?

 

[Mattadvproject]

Nice to see snow on pretty mountains.
How was the avy risk situation?

Avalanche risk was low at the start of the trip, then increased when the big storm came in, lowered for a couple of days and then right at the end, started to go up again as it warmed up. On my last day of skiing, 21st March, we saw some recent naturals and then a skier-triggered slide, not far from where we had been skiing. Thankfully no one was buried or hurt on that one. Careful terrain selection was key to staying out of harms way during the trip and Sergey, our lead guide, did a great job of route selection in keeping us safe.

 

[Mattadvproject]

Back home safe in Granby. What a great trip to Georgia.....

I still have a lot of content to add as now I will be posting all the edited video's from the trip. We'll start on the 12th March when my buddy Dave and I had our first day of skiing at Bakuriani. We'd had about 8 inches of new snow and the Kokhta high-speed 6-person lift was across the road from us. We got up there and there were only 3 other people competing with us for fresh tracks.

Snow quality was great with light and dry powder, we had quite a few faceshots. There were a few sticks coming up from out of the snow, so we didn't know exactly how good the coverage was (I lost a ski on the second run when I hit a hidden stump, you can see it careering down the hill below me, thankfully it didn't go too far and we uncovered it after a few minutes of searching).

We had many runs to the left and right of the chairlift, enough fun for several hours. Then we headed over to Mitarbi, the other little ski area with two lifts, adjacent to Kokhta. I'll post that video separately as it would make for too long of a video if I made just one video. Here's a look at the skiing from Kokhta on our first day.....



- Matt