G'day Pugs,
Well, I don't want to tempt fate, but finally, after nearly 2 years, the prospects of actually being able to run some ski trips this season, are looking good! It's been a tough 18-months without a proper income (as it has been for many people, I'm sure), but international travel has been pretty much shut down. I did try last winter to run some trips to Kosovo and North Macedonia (whose borders were open), but for different reasons, they didn't end up happening and Chile didn't eventuate either......
Thankfully the Delta surge is now on the decline in many countries and borders have reopened. I had to pivot and look to some new destinations as my traditional trips to Japan and India, are still off the cards as the borders are still closed there (we'll be back in 2023), so I switched focus to some new destinations where the borders have been reopen for some time, plus Georgia where I have been running trips since 2019.
I will be skiing and training the staff again at Granby Ranch through December, but after New Year, I will be switching focus to running our trips. The season starts in North Macedonia on January 8th. I'll be flying to Skopje and then transferring to the resort of Popova Sapka. There I will be running two cat skiing trips with a local operator. I have two groups booked in, one from the 8th to the 17th of January and then the second is from the 19th to the 28th of January. A lot of the guests coming on this trip were booked in for Japan for 2022 but switched to North Macedonia as the Japan border is still closed. We'll have 6 day's of cat skiing with each group, with the potential for 2 half days in the resort. We'll finish each session with 2 night's in Skopje with 1 full day of siteseeing. This should be a really fun trip and I'm excited to be working with a really experienced Macedonian team on the ground, it makes my life a lot easier when running a site-unseen trip.
Then I'll have about 8 or 9 days back at home in Granby before heading off to Uzbekistan. This will be another site-unseen trip, also working with an experienced local guide. I have a group of return guests/friends who are up for an adventure. I'm very happy that my wife is coming on this trip (as is one of the other wives) and we'll have a really fun group. I'm hoping to head out to Uzbekistan a little early with my wife so we can do some sightseeing and explore the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand. Samarkand looks amazing! If we'd have had more time, then we would have visited some of the other ancient cities of Bukhara and Khiva, but we don't have time for that unfortunately. We should have a day to explore Tashkent as well (plus we have 2 night's, 1 full day in Tashkent at the end of the trip) and I'm looking forward to that. Dates will be the 10th to the 26th of February.
The potential for skiing in Uzbekistan looks really good. They are another one of those emerging, former Soviet countries where skiing is just getting started and there's a lot of new infrastructure being put in. We'll be staying at Amirsoy resort, about 2 hour's drive from Tashkent. Amirsoy is new, having only been running for 2 or 3 seasons. It's small, but has great sidecountry access with nice looking powder easily accessible from the resort. They have a brand new high speed quad chair and then a gondola and we are staying in their 5-star chalets with ski in, ski out access. We are close (only 15-minutes drive) from two other areas; Chimgan and Beldersay, both with great sidecountry access (although the amenities there will be much more basic). I'm hearing that in the near future, all 3 resorts will be connected. So, 3 ski areas within close proximity, great sidecountry access and good snow, with a local guide to help us access it all. Should be a good time I hope.
The final trip will be to the Republic of Georgia, from the 8th of March to the 7th of April, after a week bach home. I have 2 sessions in Gudauri (still got some room for a few more people, if anyone is interested) and we'll start with a little exploration for a few days, to the ski area of Bakuriani in the lower Caucasus. That will be a little roll of the dice as it looks like conditions can be variable, but terrina looks good and there's not many people looking to ski powder. It could go either way for us but it looks like a fun adventure. Nothing ventured nothing gained! At least it's super cheap there, we have our own two-bedroom stand-alone house, next to the chairlift, for only $260 for 4 nights. Pretty crazy! Lift tickets are only $12 a day and they have a lot of new, high-speed lifts. We'll have 3 full days of skiing. We don't have a guide booked currently, so we might just have to figure it out ourselves, which we've done many times in the past, so nothing new there.
Then the work proper starts with two sessions in Gudauri, with the first session on the 14th to the 25th March and then the second session is from the 27th March to the 7th April. Again we are working with experienced local guides and have nice, ski in ski out accommodation. I'm excited to get to know Gudauri a lot better; the first time there in 2019 we only had 4 ski days before we had to head north to Mestia, so I only got a taste of how good it can be (and it can be VERY good). I should know Gudauri very well by the end of the two sessions. Hopefully it will make up for our last trip in 2020 at the start of the Pandemic where we had to turn around halfway on our way there..... then cue 18 months of the Pandemic..... uuugh.
Currently all of these countries have open borders and flights are running. I will be booking some of the flights this weekend. North Macedonia has no restrictions for fully-vaccinated visitors. For Uzbekistan, we'll have to take a PCR test 72-hours or less, prior to departure and Georgia has no restrictions for fully-vaccinated travelers. Those are the current restrictions, if Delta continues to subside, then maybe there will be even less restrictions. We'll see. Either way, the borders are open, flights are running and we are going. Can't wait to be traveling again and kickstarting the business. It's been too long. Fingers crossed everything keeps moving in the right direction. I'll follow up with some more detail about each destination, with some photos and video's so you can see what it's like in each destination.
- Matt
Well, I don't want to tempt fate, but finally, after nearly 2 years, the prospects of actually being able to run some ski trips this season, are looking good! It's been a tough 18-months without a proper income (as it has been for many people, I'm sure), but international travel has been pretty much shut down. I did try last winter to run some trips to Kosovo and North Macedonia (whose borders were open), but for different reasons, they didn't end up happening and Chile didn't eventuate either......
Thankfully the Delta surge is now on the decline in many countries and borders have reopened. I had to pivot and look to some new destinations as my traditional trips to Japan and India, are still off the cards as the borders are still closed there (we'll be back in 2023), so I switched focus to some new destinations where the borders have been reopen for some time, plus Georgia where I have been running trips since 2019.
I will be skiing and training the staff again at Granby Ranch through December, but after New Year, I will be switching focus to running our trips. The season starts in North Macedonia on January 8th. I'll be flying to Skopje and then transferring to the resort of Popova Sapka. There I will be running two cat skiing trips with a local operator. I have two groups booked in, one from the 8th to the 17th of January and then the second is from the 19th to the 28th of January. A lot of the guests coming on this trip were booked in for Japan for 2022 but switched to North Macedonia as the Japan border is still closed. We'll have 6 day's of cat skiing with each group, with the potential for 2 half days in the resort. We'll finish each session with 2 night's in Skopje with 1 full day of siteseeing. This should be a really fun trip and I'm excited to be working with a really experienced Macedonian team on the ground, it makes my life a lot easier when running a site-unseen trip.
Then I'll have about 8 or 9 days back at home in Granby before heading off to Uzbekistan. This will be another site-unseen trip, also working with an experienced local guide. I have a group of return guests/friends who are up for an adventure. I'm very happy that my wife is coming on this trip (as is one of the other wives) and we'll have a really fun group. I'm hoping to head out to Uzbekistan a little early with my wife so we can do some sightseeing and explore the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand. Samarkand looks amazing! If we'd have had more time, then we would have visited some of the other ancient cities of Bukhara and Khiva, but we don't have time for that unfortunately. We should have a day to explore Tashkent as well (plus we have 2 night's, 1 full day in Tashkent at the end of the trip) and I'm looking forward to that. Dates will be the 10th to the 26th of February.
The potential for skiing in Uzbekistan looks really good. They are another one of those emerging, former Soviet countries where skiing is just getting started and there's a lot of new infrastructure being put in. We'll be staying at Amirsoy resort, about 2 hour's drive from Tashkent. Amirsoy is new, having only been running for 2 or 3 seasons. It's small, but has great sidecountry access with nice looking powder easily accessible from the resort. They have a brand new high speed quad chair and then a gondola and we are staying in their 5-star chalets with ski in, ski out access. We are close (only 15-minutes drive) from two other areas; Chimgan and Beldersay, both with great sidecountry access (although the amenities there will be much more basic). I'm hearing that in the near future, all 3 resorts will be connected. So, 3 ski areas within close proximity, great sidecountry access and good snow, with a local guide to help us access it all. Should be a good time I hope.
The final trip will be to the Republic of Georgia, from the 8th of March to the 7th of April, after a week bach home. I have 2 sessions in Gudauri (still got some room for a few more people, if anyone is interested) and we'll start with a little exploration for a few days, to the ski area of Bakuriani in the lower Caucasus. That will be a little roll of the dice as it looks like conditions can be variable, but terrina looks good and there's not many people looking to ski powder. It could go either way for us but it looks like a fun adventure. Nothing ventured nothing gained! At least it's super cheap there, we have our own two-bedroom stand-alone house, next to the chairlift, for only $260 for 4 nights. Pretty crazy! Lift tickets are only $12 a day and they have a lot of new, high-speed lifts. We'll have 3 full days of skiing. We don't have a guide booked currently, so we might just have to figure it out ourselves, which we've done many times in the past, so nothing new there.
Then the work proper starts with two sessions in Gudauri, with the first session on the 14th to the 25th March and then the second session is from the 27th March to the 7th April. Again we are working with experienced local guides and have nice, ski in ski out accommodation. I'm excited to get to know Gudauri a lot better; the first time there in 2019 we only had 4 ski days before we had to head north to Mestia, so I only got a taste of how good it can be (and it can be VERY good). I should know Gudauri very well by the end of the two sessions. Hopefully it will make up for our last trip in 2020 at the start of the Pandemic where we had to turn around halfway on our way there..... then cue 18 months of the Pandemic..... uuugh.
Currently all of these countries have open borders and flights are running. I will be booking some of the flights this weekend. North Macedonia has no restrictions for fully-vaccinated visitors. For Uzbekistan, we'll have to take a PCR test 72-hours or less, prior to departure and Georgia has no restrictions for fully-vaccinated travelers. Those are the current restrictions, if Delta continues to subside, then maybe there will be even less restrictions. We'll see. Either way, the borders are open, flights are running and we are going. Can't wait to be traveling again and kickstarting the business. It's been too long. Fingers crossed everything keeps moving in the right direction. I'll follow up with some more detail about each destination, with some photos and video's so you can see what it's like in each destination.
- Matt
