Skiing Svaneti Day 1

Georgia Skiing in Hatsvali and the end of Mestia valley.
To call Hatsvali empty is a misnaming. I missed the yellow minibus to the top (for employees), so started a beautiful walk to the top. A nice wide road split to Ushguli, and the track degraded to a pair of icy tracks. Luckily a pair of woodcutters was headed up in a jeep (one of only two cars I saw in an hour walk up to the ski area), and I got a ride partway until their old soviet jeep broke down. Once at the resort, I bought a pass for 15 Lari (about $9 US), good on the beginner lift and the Poma quad. Race skis are available for hire as well, but not freeride skis. First chair up was with Nata, a local student studying tourism at the university in Tbilisi. She said this winter has been thin, but crowds about average- very thin. Other than employees, there were maybe 10 people on the mountain, all except for the other Americans, Eric and Kate, were skiing only on the decently groomed track. I passed the avalanche warning sign at the top and started skiing the unpacked warm powder. After a couple rund, met with the president of the ski area, the head of Svaneti mountain guides and had a delicious lunch in their summit restaurant. Very good food (for me it was free too, even better) and atmosphere, with pictures of famous Georgian alpinists gracing the walls and a full bar. Talked about avalung packs, Recco reflectors, the possibility of ski guiding, and ski racing. Skiing is not too big in Mestia- approx 7% of the town skis for 5 Lari per day- but the president is big into skiing, and they are starting construction on lifts at Tetnuldi, with a peak elevation of 3219 meters and total vertical of over 1200 meters. Finished off the day with some runs skiing trees and steep powder, then headed in, talked plans with Eric and Kate, and went back down to Mestia and then up to Roza's. Had a delicious dinner with the men in her family, complete with beer and ch'acha, the homemade bootleg grain alcohol. Lots of toasts to Georgian-American friendship and peace.
Made it out of bed and in the morning picked up filled breads for lunch and met Eric to wait for a ride to the end of town and a rumored glacier. We paid 60 Lari for a ride of about 8-10 kilometers on a mix of gravel, mud, stream beds and snow to the end of Mestia valley. Skinned up and got ready for a  big day, but stability was lacking and we kept hearing big slides and looking to see what line was sliding. We decided to skip the col we planned to ski from, and had a mellow ski back with some steep birches thrown in. Lots of sun and cement, then some more bright lights when we watched some Georgians weld a bulldozer back together. Got a ride back in an old Soviet van driver by the welders; sat amongst metal shavings, oxygen tanks, and gasoline.
Reflecting on our day, Svaneti has a lot of potential for skiing. With a helicopter or high lifts, the skiing will rival the alps. Plenty of steep lines, glaciers, smooth faces and treed glades grace the area. I talked with Daniel, a French-Canadian mountain guide about the merits of a chopper, and learned that he was a ski guide in Guadari. It is too expensive to bring over the nice French choppers they use there, but flying an Mi-8 into Mestia directly involves a bypass of the seperatist territory of Ossetia. So that will have to wait, but tomorrow I meet again with Ralph and the folks from Grand Hotel Ushba to ski and then drive to Mazeri and their nice ski lodge there. I will update about the cross-country skiing in Georgia soon, and til then here are some more pictures.