Svaneti ski championships. Now with pictures.

   

First off, some pictures.

 Skis from the grand Hotel Ushba

 lots of cocoa

Day 1 Svaneti Championships

        Originally, the only reason I made reservations at Grand Hotel Ushba was for the Svaneti Championship ski races (15km classic, 30km pursuit on the 2^nd day). I awoke on Saturday to rain on the metal roof, and started thinking about klister. I scrape travel wax off the skis we brought for donation, and have a delicious breakfast of Svan yoghurt and scrambled eggs and bread and jam. Kids start filtering in around 10. The power is out (a common occurrence but of little consequence), so start lists are hand-copied. A dozen men sit outside playing with spark plugs from the snowmobile and try to get a chinese generator started, but soon switch tasks to starting a fire and making a huge cauldron of hot cocoa. Skis are hauled to the aptly named “Ushba Stadium”, and a wave of J2-J3 boys goes off for a 5k. A large number of the 700 Becho valley inhabitants walk a few km to watch and cheer the skiers in the rain. The course is very soft and slushy, with a no rest on the entire 2.5km. A struggle to stay moving. I start at 12:45 and finish the 15km workout in an hour. I feel bad passing the field on the first lap, but with a minute or more on everyone it feels nice to relax and ski in the rain. A few older girls decide to race a 10km. They exhibit the top of Svan ski fashion: jeans, skirts, striped cotton sweatshirts, ipod-knockoffs. All are out cheering, drinking hot cocoa, and skiing laps up and down the hill to the village of Tvebish.

     When the last girl finishes, the conversation moves inside. Svans have all day to congregate and converse, and slowly filter inside the restaurant, surrounding the wood stoves in the main room and the kitchen. Every time I enter either room I am offered a seat close to the fire, to refuse tests my minor skills in the Georgian language as kids are scared to show off their pretty-good English skills. Every participant receives a diploma for participating, and I get a Becho Sport Club hat for winning my 15km race. All the adults who helped out get hats as well, and people start filtering home for dinner.

 one of the many dogs of Svaneti

 end of the day

Day 2 Svaneti Championships

      Awake to fresh powder with more snow coming down. Another delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, svan yogurt, and tea. I strip klister off yesterday's skis and show some of the kids how to cork VR60 for the near-freezing temps. Zero skis would be amazing, but in an area where all the skis are donated and kept at the hotel, something so new is a far-off reality. The area does have 1-2 meters of snow by Thanksgiving though, so if a team came to ski for early season altitude training newer skis might be possible. I watch as one of the brothers in the family prepares the ski track using a snowmobile that somehow made its way from Woodford, Vermont to Svaneti. The hotel has a Norwegian track setter, and the skate track is set using a pair of scraped logs strung together by wire. The track gets smoothed by stomping with skis on; earlier in the season the entire 2.5km race loop was packed out by the village children wearing boots.

The race starts late because the snowmobile is out of petrol, but luckily the generator has the right mix so some is siphoned off. A 30km mens pursuit is first, and I take off on some old RCSs we're donating to Becho Sport Club. Wax is iffy at best with fresh snow near freezing over rain crust, but skis seem to be working fine. I finish the first of 12 laps in the lead, and continue a nice tempo workout for the whole race. Turns out the closest competitor stopped for some coffee midway through. A classic Georgian idea in a place where people wish to get paid a salary to sit around and drink and smoke and work a bit.

      Other races proceed with large breaks in between. 10 km for J2 and J3s may be the longest race they've ever done, but everyone finished in style. Skating is a bit difficult on the soft track, and classic skis and only a few months ski experience don't help. But times are respectable at under an hour, and one young girl even finishes the 10km (three started, but two were on small kids skis and literally ran on the skis until falling and heading back to the stadium).

     It is amazing to see all the kindergarten-aged kids playing on skis and the older ones skiing laps, running down to the river on skis, and skating on old fishscale touring skis. Bill Koch league minus the skiing parents and new gear and matching jackets. When off skis, typical fighting and intense arm wrestling seems to be the daily routine, with a few hours of school thrown in. Some of the skis have a healthy dose of animal hair of all sorts mixed in with the wax, so the skis make some rounds of the villages and animal paths that dot the valley. Walking 3km is no issue, so skiing 5 or 10k likely is not either. With a bit of running and the spenst training the kids have been looking at in the Norwegian ski magazine Ute, a promising group of skiers can keep growing. You can help by showing up at the Grand Hotel Ushba for training, hiking, or skiing and bringing some expertise or gear.