TR: Gudauri Ski Resort, Georgia (January 2016)

A snowHead

Thanks T Bar, Canuck, Orange200, and altis.

A snowHead

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

http://youtube.com/v/737nKJJsqCA

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Was there anybody else there at all? Looks like your own private resort!

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Excellent reports and fabulous photos. Thanks.

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Wonderful photos and a great report Mike.

Certainly got the wife and I interested for next season. Did you hire a car to get out from the airport, or is there the chance for an airport transfer?

After all it is free

http://youtube.com/v/ZC9sJdNZbSo

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

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

http://youtube.com/v/t4rLMmtaC_U

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 Smile

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@Mike Pow, Smile

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SATURDAY 30 JANUARY 2016

My final day skiing at Gudauri, and got the skins out and explored the terrain from the summit of Mt Sadzele and the Sadzele chair.

The trail map is quite confusing in that there are two Mt Sadzeles and two Mt Bidaras

Gudauri Ski Resort Trail Map

While I was waiting for the shuttle to take me from Hotel Alpina to the gondola, the piste basher pulled into the car park and two Georgians staying at the hotel hopped on for a lift to the lift. One of them called me over and I was on too Smile

Took the Soliko chair to Kudebi chair to the Sadzele Chair and about 30 mins later I was standing on the first summit of Mt Sadzele (3279m).

I traversed and skinned round to the second summit of Mt Sadzele (3307m) which afforded me spectacular views of the ski area and the north facing terrain which dropped down to the highway.

As I was tavelling solo I skied the terrain that fed back into the resort.

Inside World

http://youtube.com/v/Wu1RghOc2J4

Then did laps into Kobi Pass finishing with the 1200 vertical metre run from the top back to Hotel Alpina.

Top of the Sadzele chairlift

View from Mt Sadzele (3307m)

Kazbegi (5047m) from Mt Sadzele (3307m)

The Sadzele 'bowl' from Mt Kudebi

Lines off Mt Sadzele (3307m)

Avalanche debris off Mt Sadzele (3279m)

Lines from Kobi Pass

Mt Bidara (3011m) and Mt Bidara (3174m) from Kobi Pass

Looking at the lines from Kobi Pass past Mt Bidara (3011m) and down to the highway at Bidara

We had dinner at Hotel Alpina and left the resort at midnight for the 2 1/2 hr drive to Tbilisi Airport for our 5.35 am flight back to the UK.

SUMMARY

We had a ball on our 10-day trip to Gudauri Ski Resort - 2 days travel, 8 days in resort - and can't recommend it highly enough.

It's not for everyone, but for those with a sense of adventure who aren't looking for hundreds of kms of piste skiing and a huge apres scene then it ticks just about all the boxes.

It's a high altitude resort with consistent snow cover and regular snowfall - ~ 10m per season. We had over 1m during our stay.

Wide variety of pisted terrain, which was deserted during our visit.

Unlimited off-piste terrain suitable for all ability levels.

Approx. 1200m vertical

Amazing scenery.

Wide variety of accommodation at all price points.

Plenty of restaurants and bars on mountain and for apres & dinner.

Great food.

Very welcoming people.

Unbelievabe value for money.

Our Costs

Bus from Cardiff to London Gatwick airport £72.00 (booking earlier in advance could halve this cost)
Flight £292.15 (booking earlier in advance, flights can be picked up for £230.00)
Return transfer aiport to Hotel Alpina £62.50
9-nights B&B Accommodation at Hotel Alpina £200.00
Lift Pass £76.12 for a 10-day pass which could be used at Bakuriana (could have got an 8-day Gudauri pass for £54.50)
Food & drink £250.00

Total £952.77 / 1230 euros / US$1370 / AUD$ 1936 for 10 days (8 days skiing)

To convert to your currency please use this link
http://www.xe.com/

You know it makes sense.

Brilliant Mike. Ardderchog.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

This is great, thanks so much for the info. Looks like you had a brilliant time!

A friend and I are heading out to Gudauri at the end of the month (4 nights there plus some time in Tbilisi) so now very excited!

Can I just ask you who you booked your transfer to the resort through? And if you had any suggestions on the best things to do there when not skiing then that would be awesome too.

Cheers!

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Mike Pow, wow great trip. Terrain looks awesome and seems like you struck gold with nice combination of freshies and sunshine! Wherever next?

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Yeah magic trip. Timed it to perfection. Snow-forecast.com delivered.

Today Happy

http://youtube.com/v/5hgMAvb1WZ8

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2848205#2848205

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Good report and photos.

Similar to Iran resorts.

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Sweet TR Mike.
I always liked the look of Georgia and your photos confirm the great terrain, food, wine etc.
Your TR refreshed my thoughts of a trip there.
Hope Nerys enjoyed it too?

After all it is free

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Thanks again for the help with planning our trip earlier this year. I just wanted to add some quick reflections on our experience in case anyone else is thinking of heading out to Gudauri, which I'd highly recommend!

To build to MikePow's comments, I'd add that:

The GOOD:

- Skiing in Georgia is a real adventure and totally different to anything I've done in the Alps. Where else can you find yourself chatting in a cable car with a monk being taught how to ski by a nun because he needs to ski up/down from the monastery where he's going to spend the winter?!

- The scenery is absolutely stunning in good weather. Beautiful high mountains as far as the eye can see, with very little development to spoil them.

- It's a very cheap trip once you've got your flights and if you can find a cheap place to stay (not as easy as I thought it would be but there are some good options, see below). Lunch and a beer by the slopes can be had for less than £5, hire for <£10 per day and a transfer to the resort (using local minibuses) from Tbilisi for <£10 too.

- I'd really recommend looking at staying and skiing with http://freeride.ge/ who were a very impressive outfit, running a combined hotel and guiding/instruction service. The guiding is done by a very talented young Georgian skiier called Iva and other local guys, and the accomodation is run by his parents. The hotel is quite basic but cheaper than almost anything else we could find and comfortable enough with good food and friendly hosts. It's not on Tripadvisor etc. but definitely recommended. The guiding was very safe/professional, seemed good value (40 euro for a half day) and was a great way of opening up back country routes that it might not be easy to access yourself. There are more than enough options to keep you going for a week or more and though we were really just starting out with off-piste skiing, I'm sure there's plenty of challenge whatever your level. Iva is sponsored by Red Bull (look up Iva Tsiklauri online) so I'm sure he can really help push you!

- We were also able to do an afternoon of heli-skiing through freeride.ge - who book spare slots in the (extremely professional/expensive looking) helicopters run by an Austrian outfit in Kazbegi. This was a fantastic experience - the terrain was actually fairly easy, reflecting our limited abilities, but great powder and you really do get dropped in the middle of nowhere - and the absolute highlight of the trip. It was also only £100 each, so an absolute bargain and dangerously tempting to go multiple times!

- It's well worth combining the trip with a few days in Tbilisi, which has some great nightlife, beautiful buildings and is even cheaper than the mountains

- The ski resort is about 45 mins from Kazbegi monastery, framed against the mountains, which made for an excellent day trip, if you want a break from skiing whilst in the mountains.

The NOT SO GOOD:

- The resort is on the main road to Russia - this cuts right through the middle of it - which adds to the adventure but also makes it a bit gritty, with plenty of large and dirty Russian trucks (and truck drivers!) tearing through it. Be careful on the roads, especially at night as they absolutely do not stop. Hiring a car and driving up would probably be possible, as the roads were in quite good condition, but the driving is pretty crazy.

- The resort is quite strung out, without any easy way to get between different parts of it besides walking along said road - which isn't always a very pleasant experience. It is possible to ski between hotels if you know the right track but its far from ski/ski out in most places and hotels are either close to the slopes but quite a walk from the town centre, or vice versa - so think carefully about which one you go for.

- There isn't a whole lot to do in the evening, with few bars and restaurants which it isn't easy to get between. There are definitely a few spots for a night out (we skiied with some Latvians who had managed to stay up drinking until 4am the night before) but you really need to go looking for them and most will be pretty rough and ready.

- The ski area of the main resort is quite limited and will be skiied out by strong intermediates within a day or two. You probably need to be a beginner/improver (in which case the runs are fine and I imagine the tuition would be very cheap) or confident enough to start skiing off-piste to get the most out of a trip here.

- The snow when we went in March was starting to wear quite thin - very icy on the south facing slopes of the main resort and little new snow on the off-piste runs close to the resort. The resort also seemed bizarrely reluctant to use their snow cannons on the nursery slopes, which were starting to wear through completely in places. But the snow levels generally are pretty impressive, they get metres and metres through the season, so I think we probably just had a bad week.

Hope that's helpful to anyone thinking of going. If you're wavering I'd just say GO! It's not perfect but a real adventure with some fantastic skiing potential.

Cheers,
Mike

@mikecrow, useful info! Re. the snow, remember it's the same latitude as Greece! Despite the altitude, the spring sun is pretty strong that far South.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Mike wins again - excellent info.

A snowHead

Looks incredible. Did you get much of an idea what the ski hire is like? Mine are knackered, and I'm moving to Georgia in August, considering buying a pair of skis, but if I can get freeride skis there, I'll save myself the hassle (will be moving a lot of kit)

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

That was an experience. Sadly, no MikePow pow, but that may be asking too much at this time of year. I’ll try and record what we’ve learned.

Practicalities. Tbilisi is the airport for Gudauri, being 120 kms south, but Wizz have a direct flight to Kutaisi from LTN, if time is not an issue. Georgian Airways now fly direct from LGW. Unfortunately, all flights leave late and with the three hour time difference land around 07.00. losing a night’s sleep is not how I choose to start a holiday so I looked at the alternatives.

Couple of anomalies of Georgian’s website, if there are no flights on the outward date you choose, it doesn’t show any flights. Keep trying, and when you hit a date with an outbound flight, all flights appear. Secondly, the displayed price is the base fare - so don’t get too excited. It’s a full service airline, meal, 23Kg hold and 8kg carry on included. Ski carriage is $80 per leg, unless you fly from Vienna, Bratislava or Moscow. There are direct flights from most European capitals, we could have flown from Schipol at 10.40. I called the airline to ask about a round trip back to LGW but my Georgian wasn’t good enough.... Settled on a flight from CDG which was half the price of LGW at 235 euro.

Most private services are priced in USD, although payment is universally accepted in Georgian Lari, which is currently around 3.4 to the pound. Cash dispensers are everywhere and credit cards accepted.

Public transport from the airport to Tbilisi is .5 GEL, $15 for a taxi. There’s a scheduled minibus service from Tblisi to Gudauri six times a day for around $5, or $60 for a private transfer. One of the minibuses was still liveried from its previous life with Paradise Wildlife Park.

The FCO has Georgia as a ‘green’ county, although there are two red areas, described on local maps as ‘not currently under the control of central government’. South Ossetia is not far west of Gudauri, giving the phrase ‘do not go off piste without a guide’ added meaning. The roads, cars and driving standards are dire. Car hire is for the brave. The police however are well resourced, with new vehicles and impressive stations. They and the other emergency services we saw, drive with the blues permanently on.

Plenty of accommodation in Gudauri, but location is key. I’d recommend the app ‘Gudauri Map’ to confirm where places are. Most are adjacent to the steep main road, so if you’re not ski out, you need to know how you’ll get to the lifts. There’s no resort shuttle and no footpaths.

Help!!

TR: Gudauri Ski Resort, Georgia (January 2016)

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