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

[Mattadvproject]

Our second video from the 12th of March in Bakuriani when we went across to the other small ski area of Mitarbi. We could see the ski area from the top of the Kokhta chairlift when the clouds lifted but it took us a while to figure out how to get across. We had seen a trail from Kokhta to Mitarbi but there was a closed sign up on the side of the trail, so we didn't think we could take that trail. It wasn't until we spoke to a local guide and he said that the sign was just a cautionary sign as there was no way of getting back.....

We figured that if we couldn't ski back, then we'd just take a taxi, so we would roll the dice and see what happened. We saw on the trail map there was a short poma lift that looked like it would help take people from Mitarbi back over to the Kokhta side but when we got over there, we saw that the poma was not running. It looked pretty short though and it turned out that it was about a 4-minute bootpack to get back to the trail that would take us back to Kokhta, so very easy.

Mitarbi had two lifts, a 6-pack at the bottom and then a fixed grip, slower quad at the top. The terrain was pretty mellow, but we found some nice powder at the side of the runs. We stayed for a couple of hours before heading back to Kokhta. This is what it looked like.....



- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

Alrighty, time to get back to some skiing from this past season. I took a little hiatus from the Georgia trip editing to work on our 2023 pricing and my taxes (boo!) and now I have time for some more video. Here are the highlights from Bakuriani on the 12th of March with Dave.....

It had been snowing since we had arrived and they had had a lot of snow on the 11th, but the upper lift had been closed for most of the day. We awoke on the 12th to find boot-top deep powder and of course, no one else out. Snow quality was really good as the winds had dropped, temps were low and the wind-crust from the previous day was covered over.

We had plans to go check out Mitarbi, Tatra and Didveli, but with our own private little ski area and a very fast, 6-person chair to ourselves, it was hard to roll the dice and go anywhere else. We had a blast, working our way to the skier's left from the chair, then the right side, each time not crossing a track.

I tried doing some follow-cam with Dave but the snow was so light and every time Dave made a turn, it would billow up and hang in the air. For the person behind, it was really hard to see anything so I had to pull back. Sadly the Go-Pro died when we were skiing the tree's on the skier's right side which were really nice.

All in all, we got a great feel for Kokhta and Mitarbi but still have more to ski in Bakuriani. I have a feeling we'll be back again soon, especially when accommodation was $260 for 5-nights (next to the chairlift) and lift tickets are under $10 a day.....



- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

Gudauri - 15th March
The group was together and we had traveled up to Gudauri from Tbilisi, on the 14th March. The 15th was supposed to be a warmup day, check out everyone's skiing and then finish with avi training. I wasn't expecting to get much quality skiing in, but that changed (in a positive way). One of the group hadn't skied much powder before, so we did a few warmup laps in the off-piste next to the main trails. That is actually in the second half of the video. I saw rapid improvement there so next we headed up to Mt. Chrdili to ski a massive face (first half of the video) that still had a lot of untouched snow on it.

It's a very easy 20-minute skin from the shoulders of Mt. Kudebi. You take the Soliko 6-person chair and then traverse left, go around the side of the communication towers and then ski down the ridgeline until you get to the start of the hike up. You can skin or bootpack, both options are normally available. That gets you to the top of a wide, open face with about 50 quality turns. You need to get there soon after a storm, as the aspect will heat up quickly and the snow can change. This day, the snow was awesome. Then it's an easy bootpack out to get back to the trail back to New Gudauri.

After a lovely lunch outside in new Gudauri where we got to look back at our tracks as we feasted, we headed back to the hotel where we did several hours of beacon training outside. It had been a really fun day and a surprisingly good day for skiing! This is what it looked like......



- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

March 16th - Bidara Pow Pow

Our first guided day with the local guides. The plan was to put in a traverse line so we could ski over the side of Mt. Bidara, down to the Georgia Military Highway and once that was in, then it would make for a quick and easy lap. The first run down the sun was out and the snow was soft and fresh. We had transportation waiting for us at the bottom and we were back quickly to Gudauri to make another. The second lap down there was a slight sun crust developing as temps warmed up, but still fun skiing.

Next, we headed over to the Kobi side where the aspect is more northerly and we had a lovely lap from the mid-station of the gondola. We had a couple of nice pitches before having to pick our way down a steep face that had previously avalanched. Then we finished with another nice lap down to Bidara. All in all, a great day and a fun way to start the trip.


- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

Gudauri Magic Forest Ski Touring - March 18th

It had been snowing hard and the visibility at the resort was not great, so we decided to do some ski touring instead. We hopped in the van and headed away from the ski area, about 30-minutes drive down valley. We had a tough skin ahead of us, almost 3-hours.

It started off pretty mellow and open but as we got into the trees, the track steepened considerably. There were some very tight kickturns to be made, at times we were hanging onto trees and then skinning through them. It was definitely challenging.

We made it to the top of our run and had boot-top high, untouched powder turns, skiing from one section to another, enjoying many faceshots along the way.

We came out in a small village, with some cows that were blocking the road. We had to ski past them very slowly, as to avoid spooking them. We ended up in the house of our driver and were treated to a lovely late lunch of fresh bread, fried potatoes, red wine and the infamous cha-cha!

A tough but very fun day was had by all!




- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

On the 19th March, we made the skin up to the Lomisi Monastery. This was about a 3 hour skin, but much easier than the previous day's skin up as there were a lot fewer steep, tight kickturns. We had 3 dogs follow us up the skin track (gotta learn not to poop in the skin track pups!!) and it was nice to have the company.

We hung out with the monk in the bunkhouse and he provided us with tea, biscuits, chocolates and piping hit bread. That was greatly appreciated. We checked out the chapel and most of the crew tried on the heavy (80lbs) chain and did the obligatory three laps around the inside of the chapel for good luck.

The snow was really deep on the way down, around knee deep. We skied from one pitch to the next, with plenty of faceshots on the way down. All in all, an amazing all-round cultural experience with deep snow for the skiing. The pups all made it down safely too, staying in our tracks to make it a little easier. I think we all slept well that night....


- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

March 21st, our last day skiing in Gudauri and I think we saved the best for last. This was my favorite day of skiing with the group. I had a lot of good footage from this day, so I have split the footage into two.

This first video shows a run in the Mt. Chrdili zone. We had skied this massive face at the start of the trip, but this time we took the Kudebi 1 chair up higher so we could have a really long run down to the start of the boot/skin track up to Chrdili. I wanted to show you a nearly complete run, so you could see the vertical.

I stayed out skier's left and had fresh snow for most of the way down. It's not steep terrain, but it does go on for a while and on a sunny day, the backdrop is stunning. I nearly had a moment when I went over into a series of small wind lips/gullies but was able to harness the power of copious amounts of Georgian cheesy bread and stay upright.....

The skin up was pretty easy and then we pushed a little to the skier's left on top of the face. I dropped in first, the first few turns were awesome but then the face turned to sun crust and the skiing got really tough. I traversed to the left and then found a gully and there the snow was slightly shaded and still soft. The skiing was great again. I called up to the others to try and find the gullies. Then we had an easy bootpack back out onto a groomed snowmobile trail above New Gudauri.



- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

Time for our last video from Gudauri for the season! This was filmed on the 21st March and is the second video from that day. For me, this was the best skiing of the whole trip. We had 3 long, quality powder runs down from the mid-station of the Kobi gondola down to the Georgia military highway.

There was about 8 inches of settled powder, but being a north-facing aspect, the snow was cold and dry. The skiing was really fun with consistent, easy turns. We had a blast. The backdrop of Mt. Kazbegi (16,581ft) and surrounding mountains, stunning. The weather was perfect.

Each run finished with an easy traverse along the road (with a quick stop to cross from one side to the other), back down to the Kobi gondola and then 10-minutes to make it back to the mid-station for another run. The bang for the buck here was really high.

It was sad to end it, but this was a great way to shut it down. The Georgia trip was a great success in my opinion and matches the quality of our other programs. We'd proven the concept that a trip to Georgia, focused solely on skiing in Gudauri, could work. There is definitely enough terrain and diversity to keep any group occupied for 8 days.



Thanks to all for following the adventures. It was a great season, with fun trips to North Macedonia, Uzbekistan (probably the biggest surprise) and then Georgia. It was a massive relief to be able to travel again and get back to work. I'm optimistic for the future and hope that we can return to unrestricted international travel next winter. That would be huge. Hopefully in August, I will be reporting back from Chile and a return to Nevados de Chillan. Fingers crossed.....

Kind regards,

Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

I'll finish this blog off with a little highlights video I just edited together. We had some great days in Gudauri and it was a lot of fun putting this trip together. I'm thankful we had good snow, a solid crew and decent stability. I'm looking forward to returning in 2023..... thanks to all for following.



- Matt