Georgia Advanced Ski Tour 7 Days - Gudauri and Mestia

Gudauri, Mestia

Duration
7 أيام
Stay
6 ليالٍ
Country
Gudauri, Mestia
Package Price for Two People
$1,400

Overview

This 7 day advanced ski tour in Georgia is for people who already ski and want harder terrain, not a sightseeing trip with an hour of snow in it. We go straight to Gudauri on arrival day: three nights at the base, the Sadzele sector at 3,279 metres, and open bowls above the treeline that make real off-piste terrain when you take a mountain guide. Then we move west into Upper Svaneti, an isolated region behind the Caucasus range reached by a full day on the road through Kutaisi, Zugdidi and the Enguri dam. There you find Tetnuldi, which starts at about 2,265 metres and reaches 3,165, the longest continuous descent in Georgia, and the village of Mestia with its stone defensive towers built centuries ago. This is not a programme for beginners or children; if you want easy snow read Gudauri or Bakuriani: Comparing Georgia Ski Resorts, and for a calmer winter week with a city in it see Georgia Snow Tour 7 Days - Gudauri and Tbilisi. The Arabic-speaking driver is not a luxury here: the Svaneti road is long and narrow, running through tunnels and along slopes above the Enguri reservoir, and driving it in winter is work for someone who knows it. More ski programmes in Georgia Ski Packages.

الباقة تشمل

  • ✔ Private car with an Arabic-speaking driver for all seven days, on winter tyres suited to the Svaneti road
  • ✔ Pick-up from Tbilisi International Airport and the climb to Gudauri the same day, with no night wasted
  • ✔ Three nights in Gudauri, one night in Kutaisi on the way and two nights in Mestia
  • ✔ Two and a half days on the Gudauri slopes including the high Sadzele sector and the Kobi side
  • ✔ A certified mountain guide arranged for an off-piste day, paid locally
  • ✔ A full day at Tetnuldi in Svaneti, home to the longest continuous descent in Georgia
  • ✔ A visit to the Svan defensive towers in Mestia and the Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography
  • ✔ Drop-off at Kutaisi International Airport or the return drive to Tbilisi, whichever your ticket needs
  • ✔ Booking on WhatsApp https://wa.me/995550000663 with a company officially registered in Georgia

Trip Itinerary

  1. اليوم 1: Day One | Straight from the airport to Gudauri

    You are met at Tbilisi International Airport and we head north the same day, with no night in the capital, because this programme counts mountain days rather than travel days. One hundred and twenty kilometres on the Georgian Military Highway climb the Aragvi valley past Ananuri fortress and the town of Pasanauri, then the final bends up to the resort at around 2,200 metres. Check-in, equipment rental in the evening and a proper boot fitting, with a word to the rental shop for anyone who wants a wider board for soft snow. An early night, because the first lift is early tomorrow.

  2. اليوم 2: Day Two | The high sectors: Kudebi, then Sadzele

    A full day working the mountain from the bottom up. We start in the Kudebi sector to warm the legs on long blue runs, then move after a couple of hours to Sadzele at 3,279 metres, the highest point in Gudauri and the start of the long, wide, treeless descents. The real advantage here is that the resort links four sectors, so you can spend a whole day without repeating a single run. A quick lunch in a mountain hut rather than dropping back to the base, and down after the lifts close.

  3. اليوم 3: Day Three | An off-piste day with a mountain guide

    A day unlike any resort day. With a certified mountain guide we head out into the open bowls between the Gudauri sectors and towards the Kobi valley on the northern side of the pass, where the snow is ungroomed and the fall lines are long. The day begins with safety equipment and using an avalanche transceiver, standard practice in off-piste skiing and never skipped. The route is chosen on the morning itself according to snow conditions and the guide's judgement, and it may change completely. Heli-skiing can be arranged locally as a separate booking, outside the price of this programme.

  4. اليوم 4: Day Four | The long road west to Kutaisi

    A genuine transfer day: we come down the Military Highway then turn west for some two hundred and ninety kilometres to Kutaisi, Georgia's second city and its old capital. The distance is manageable on the motorway, roughly four and a half hours with stops. In the afternoon we visit Gelati Monastery above the valley, with its mosaics and the academy that was a centre of learning in the Middle Ages. We stay the night in Kutaisi, at low altitude and in far milder air than the mountains, a deliberate rest before tomorrow's mountain road.

  5. اليوم 5: Day Five | Past the Enguri dam to Mestia and Hatsvali

    We leave Kutaisi in the morning for Zugdidi, then climb the Svaneti road: about one hundred and thirty-six narrow kilometres alongside the turquoise Enguri reservoir, past the Enguri dam, one of the highest arch dams in the world, and through short tunnels cut into the rock. We reach Mestia in the afternoon among its stone towers. Anyone with energy left can go up to nearby Hatsvali for a run or two through the fir forest; it is a small resort, but it is closer than Tetnuldi and better suited to the end of a day.

  6. اليوم 6: Day Six | A full day at Tetnuldi

    The reason for coming to Svaneti at all. Tetnuldi starts at about 2,265 metres and reaches 3,165, offering the longest continuous descent in Georgia; the slopes are entirely exposed and the view opens on to the Tetnuldi summit and the twin-headed Mount Ushba that sets Svaneti apart from anywhere else in the Caucasus. There are fewer lifts than in Gudauri and far fewer people, and a strong skier can spend the day on long runs back to back. Late in the day we return to Mestia for the Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography and its old icons.

  7. اليوم 7: Day Seven | A Mestia morning and departure

    A last morning in the village: climbing one of the defensive towers that are open to visitors, to understand how a Svan family sheltered inside it, and a coffee on the central square. If the Ushguli road is open that day you can go up to it, but it is a high village and the road there closes often in winter, so we do not promise it. After that we descend some two hundred and forty kilometres to Kutaisi for the transfer to its international airport, or continue to Tbilisi if your flight leaves from there, a choice made before you travel.

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