First, some pictures of the skiing in Svaneti. Get pumped. Or email benski123@gmail.com for info, beta, contacts, ...
Ushba, more skiing
I tell Roza that I am leaving early, and she takes it well. I get a ride from Vito, the manager at Hotel Hatsvali. Just back from working in hospitality in Holland, he speaks English and has some business smarts. We talk skiing, politics, and business management. Hotel Hatsvali used to be President Saakashvili's home, but has since turned into a rather unsuccessful hotel. Last season, minibuses went to Hatsvali every hour, and the restaurant at Hotel Hatsvali was full with excess seating on the floor. But this season has been very bad for business. Now that Saakasvili is not in power, advertising and flights have gone down, and few skiers, Georgian or otherwise, are visiting the slopes. It is amazing they are even open midweek.
Around noon on Thursday the lifts finally open. I expect to see Kate and Eric hop out of the yellow minibus that transports employees to Hatsvali, but apparently they were denied a ride. Georgians have a relaxed way of life and seem to work only when necessary; maybe the employees wanted to get paid for hanging out in the lift shack. Anyways, Richard and the other employees at Grand Hotel Ushba showed up in their Chamonix bus, and Kate and Eric popped out too. A few inches of snow had fallen on top of the groomed crust, so we had beautiful skiing on and off piste all day. Grabbed some beers at Vito's, then headed out for a few more laps while the nets for Saturday and Sunday's Svaneti Cross-Country Ski Championships were offloaded in Mazeri.
Eric and Kate had first dinner at Nino's guesthouse, while I went shopping in town and searched for cute dogs to take pictures of. The dogs in Mestia are amazing creatures, ranging from small mutts to massive shepherds and huskies. Along with cows, pigs, horses, and chickens, they form the majority of Mestia's street population.
We arrive around 8pm at Grand Hotel Ushba, and have a wonderful meal of beef stew, Svan pancakes, and Georgian wine. Pass out with plans to wake around 7:40 for a big ski tour. We discuss our options of relatively slide-free day tours, and end up choosing a ridge of Ushba at around 3400 meters. Start skinning from the porch, then bootpack through Mazeri village and up the path and road towards the summer farm. A few hundred meters in, the road becomes snow-filled, and we start one of the best skins I've ever done. Full sun, views of the Svaneti and Greater Caucasus ranges with peaks up to 4700 meters, and a gradual track that I would be scared to drive up but which skins very efficiently. We stop several times for food and water, each time turning around in a daze. We are surrounded by mountains and peaks, with beautiful views and potential lines and first descents in every direction. We take a test run of a thousand or more vertical feet; in the process I lose I ski (failed to clean mud out of my tech fittings) and slide down on one ski to where the ski has luckily stopped at a gully intersection. Others are getting tired, so I set the skin track and we gain the final snow-covered ridge of Ushba's south summit. We discuss lines, and ski the central ridge for a while. Far skiers right would have gone but was exposed to lots of slide paths, with debris in the middle. Steeper, but deposits directly onto the road back to the valley floor.
Our turns are georgous and perfect angle until treeline. The downside to avoiding the cliff bands in the center and slide paths far right is a bunch of birches, slide debris, rocks, and streams. We release wet slides and strip the ground of snow, then suffer bootpacking and side-slipping through hundreds of meters of steeps and thick shrubs. At dusk, we make it to the road, too tired to do anything but snowplow. An awesome crust ski back through potato fields and pastures provides a great finish to the day. Dinner of the best cabbage I've ever had, some Svan potatoes, and pork topped off with applesauce and tea.
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