February 4, 2018, Gudauri, Georgia
2/4/18
2101
6
In January, I flew out of Seattle on a 30 hour saga of airports, planes and layovers to meet some friends halfway around the world in the ex Soviet republic of Georgia.
Coming from the PNW, the snowpack and terrain here was completely alien and awesome. It was absolutely insane to get out on big open faces and rip any sort of turn. An excellent place for ski touring, so much to explore and tap.
If there was one outstanding tour highlight, it had to be the Lomisi Monastery tour. We started from the church in the small town 2000 feet below the monastery, in the shadow of a huge ridge separating the region from the South Ossetia autonomous region. We asked if there were supplies we could take up and were given some bags of clothes to toss into our packs. Easy skinning up a road and out of the treeline onto broad sheltered slopes that held a surprisingly light snowpack - much different than the crusty concrete reported a few days earlier. We eventually broke out onto the ridge next to the ancient stone refuge. After handing over our gifts to one of the six monks that live up there year round in sorta isolation (they did have cell phones and electricity), we were given some wine, tea, and a huge 2L bottle of coke - filled to the brim with white homemade wine. AKA, rocket fuel. In alpenglow, we parted, skinned the last of the ridge to a high point and dropped into beautiful, cold, sun-sheltered powder.
My friends have a blog about their motorcycle adventure around the world that this was a part of - I wrote a guest post here with more on the country and how it was to ski tour and speedfly there:
http://worldwidericks.com/2018/02/24/three-weeks-sakartvelo/
And what would this post be without photos:
Coming from the PNW, the snowpack and terrain here was completely alien and awesome. It was absolutely insane to get out on big open faces and rip any sort of turn. An excellent place for ski touring, so much to explore and tap.
If there was one outstanding tour highlight, it had to be the Lomisi Monastery tour. We started from the church in the small town 2000 feet below the monastery, in the shadow of a huge ridge separating the region from the South Ossetia autonomous region. We asked if there were supplies we could take up and were given some bags of clothes to toss into our packs. Easy skinning up a road and out of the treeline onto broad sheltered slopes that held a surprisingly light snowpack - much different than the crusty concrete reported a few days earlier. We eventually broke out onto the ridge next to the ancient stone refuge. After handing over our gifts to one of the six monks that live up there year round in sorta isolation (they did have cell phones and electricity), we were given some wine, tea, and a huge 2L bottle of coke - filled to the brim with white homemade wine. AKA, rocket fuel. In alpenglow, we parted, skinned the last of the ridge to a high point and dropped into beautiful, cold, sun-sheltered powder.
My friends have a blog about their motorcycle adventure around the world that this was a part of - I wrote a guest post here with more on the country and how it was to ski tour and speedfly there:
http://worldwidericks.com/2018/02/24/three-weeks-sakartvelo/
And what would this post be without photos:
Radical! Nice to see some varied trip reports out here. A friend of mine is in Georgia for work for a few weeks and is hoping to get some skiing. Looks great.
Exotic!
Been really wanting to head out to the Caucasus Mountains lately and have been learning a bit about this zone. Hard to say if it would be a better bet going for powder or corn. Looks amazing and such a unique culture.
awesome. Thanks for the great report!
Nice report!
I'm planning to be there on a motorcycle next fall, but will miss the skiing. Hard to say whether that's the right choice, but glad at least that someone's getting it. Meantime, I'll have a look at your friends' blog.
Mark
I'm planning to be there on a motorcycle next fall, but will miss the skiing. Hard to say whether that's the right choice, but glad at least that someone's getting it. Meantime, I'll have a look at your friends' blog.
Mark
author=Kyle Miller link=topic=39781.msg160189#msg160189 date=1519884163]
Been really wanting to head out to the Caucasus Mountains lately and have been learning a bit about this zone. Hard to say if it would be a better bet going for powder or corn. Looks amazing and such a unique culture.
From what I learned on my trip, and hearing from my friends who have remained out there for the season - I think corn is the way to go. Wind effect and transport was huge, and all of the really spicy cool stuff was either too unstable or just sheer ice. I would bring a tent next time too!
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