News

The first pics of our cabin. A company in Tbilisi is building the cabin for us. Usually they reconstruct minibusses.

The cabin will have 12 seats, a independent heating system and huge windows.

After the telecom provider switched of the antenna in Bakhmaro as every year, our meteo station stoped sending data.

The local municipality arranged now that the antenna is working all season and the provider installed solar panels to keep it working without power in the winter. Since Sunday it is sending data again.

12'000 liter Diesel for the entire winter. Already bought and stored in Bakhmaro - would be difficult to drive with the Pistenbully to a gas station ...

Today was the delivery of our Diesel-tank. Because Bakhmaro cannot be reached by road in the winter we need to purchase the Diesel alrweady now and store it in a tank on the mountain.

The tank would be good enough for 2 Snowcats. But that is the plan for next year ...

In a meeting with the Governor of Guria we could explained our situation, pointed out some milestones and discussed further proceedings.

It was the last day of our October Tour to Georgia. Next time we will be in Georgia, when the snowcat will arrive.

We have received the first pictures of our weather camera. Thanks to Irakli who found out how to do the settings of the cellular module right.

Now we get everything hours a picture from Bakhmaro to monitor the weather conditions. On snowy days it can be that the lense is coverd by snow but the sun will melt the snow or ice-crust.

Together with Irakli I could install the meteo-station on 2'100 meters. We used an old building to fix the pole.

It will take two weeks before we will receive the first data. We also left the weather cam on a tower to try its funktionality. Later we will remove it to a place with less wind to monitor the snowfall better.

There are already 25 cm of snow on 2'100 meters. The road is still easy to drive but soon it will be impossible to reach Bakhmaro without a snowcat or snowmobile.

We creceived the floor map of the two cottages. In July we could just see one of both cottages from inside.

The owner is changing the toilet for us, so we have a European style toilet. In the other cottage are two more toilets. It is not a lot but will do for one season.

We will have six bedrooms for 8-12 freeriders, a dining room in the 1st cottage and a livingroom in the second one.

The first of our partners has published our offer. Now we are waiting for replys..

A big thank you to Guidefinder for your trust in our product!

Transfiguration holiday.

The traditional horse race took place in Bakhmaro this weekend. Every summer the festival with several thousands of visitors takes  place in August. It is the highlight of the summer season. Horseriders from all over Georgia are joining the race.

Have you ever driven a SnowCat?

PB 300 Polar: 430 HP (PS), 12l cylinder capacity, 7.5 tonnes. This will be great fun in December ...

Checking different offers in the moment. I like this one. Feels good to sit on 430 HP. You like to test? You can join us ...

Meeting with the Head of the Minicipality of Chokhatauri.

After the meeting we drove up to Bakhmaro for a site visit.

Meeting with Gia Salukvadze, State Representative-Governor in Ozurgeti. I could present our project to the Governor, describe what we want to do and explain what we need.

The outcome of the meeting is that the Governor is supporting us and our project. He welcomes the private initiative to stimulate tourism in Guria.

Four hours of hiking in fresh powder (up to 20cm falling the night before). To get started early I spend the night in the car in the Sanalia Bowl.

I must admit that I was a bit reluctant to start before dawn because of bears and wolfs. No problem in a group, but this time I was just by myself and I was not up to run into a hungry bear right after its hibernation.

The last trip for this winter has started. The aim is to follow-up on some talks we had on the trips before and to retrive some material including the weather station, we have build up in the Sanalia Bowl in November.

The trip starts with some perfect days in the Gudauri area.

The spectacular mountains including Mt. Ushba (4'710m) and Mt. Tetnuldi (4'858m) are a highlight of Mestia.

So far just a few ski touring enthusiast have discoverd Svanetia as skiing destination. Most slopes have been untouched and we experienced a real remote mountain atmospere.

This picture, taken by Jochen, became quite popular in Social Media and was shared a lot.

Mestia is a top travel destination in the summer. With the new Tetnuldi Ski Area it will become a winter destination as well.

The towers of Mestia are famous and a very nice photo object. We stayed four nights in Mestia and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, the empty slopes and  the good Svanetian food. We also climbed one of the towers and could not imagine how up to 80 people could climb up there to run for shelter in times of conflict.

After saying good by to our fellowship, Jochen and myself hiked up a peak southeast of the little village. The snow pack was great but it was too warm as everywhere in Europe.

Downhill we skied the northface into a small valley. At around 2'000 meters we came into an open beech forest. We called it Little Japan as it reminded us of the great tree runs on Honshu.

We have started our 2nd Snow Exploration. In the next 10 days we want to see Bakhmaro,  Mestia and the new Tetnuldi Ski Area. 

If weather allows we want to see Bakhmaro on Sunday and hike up to Sakornia Peak on Monday. It should be a great view, in particular at sunset.

It is time again to pack up the ski bags. Tomorrow we start again to explore some more places in the Georgian mountains.

The weather forecast is slightly better than in January. We will see how much we can achieve this time.

At the beginning of the trip some meetings with authority representatives are scheduled to find out about possible locations, the access and investment opportunities. Then we will organise transportation into these remote places and start our trip.

The new ski area Tetnuldi in Svanetia opened today.

At the slopes of the Tetnuldi (4'858m) the first ski lift and 4 runs are open from now on. So far there isno accommodation close to the lifts. But there are a variety of guest houses and hotels in Mestia around 18 km away.

We plan to visit Mestia and explore the freeride potential of the mountain in the middle of February.

The first exploration trip this winter is over. Thanks Su, Mel, Toby and Alex for your participation.

The trip was a bit ill-fated as we had to face flight delays and cancelations, lost luggage and bad weather. However it was a great trip with great friends, more adventure than expected but finally some untracked powder skiing in the Caucasus.

We will be back in February.

We made it finally up to the hut in the Sanalia Bowl.The slopes have been highly effected by strong winds. We also saw some avalanches, one of them quite big.

At the hut, we exchanged a SIM card and batteries of the weather station, then downloaded the pictures of the automatic cam.

Long after nightfall we have been back, awaited by our friends, a bonfire and hot tea.

Back in Georgia for our 1st winter exploration tour. The start was bit ill-fated. A flight cancelation and lost luggage made the beginning a bit complicated.

However, it is great to explore the mountains with good friend. First stop Batumi and then up to Goderdzi Pass.

As soon as there is the weather allowd we will hike up into the Sanalia Bowl to check the weather station and test the slopes.