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Having a shorter than normal season on Hokkaido, Nerys & I were on the lookout for a snow sure European destination for a late January 2016 trip.
When we were representing Kiroro Resort at the Helsinki and London Ski Shows last October our neighbouring stand was Ski Georgia.
No not the land of peaches & peanuts, but the land of wine, mountains and arguably Europe's best snow.
The pictures and prices looked inviting, so whilst I was on Hokkaido I followed the ski reports daily to see if a late January trip was doable.
I'd previously travelled east to find snow when Central Europe had been hurting
TR: Western Balkans Part I - Popova Shapka, Macedonia (January 2011)
TR: Western Balkans Part II - Brezovica, Kosovo; Savin Kuk & Kolasin, Montenegro (February 2011)
and with consistent snowfall since Christmas and snow forecast for the first part of our proposed holiday, flights & accommodation were booked on Wednesday night (20th January) for a Friday morning departure to Gudauri Ski Resort.
Here are a few links to web sites, trip reports and videos which helped with our decision to head to Gudauri Ski Resort.
Ski Georgia
Gudauri Ski Resort
Gudauri Snow Forecast
Heliksir, Heliski Caucasus
The 10 Dishes That Will Make You Fall in Love With Georgian Food
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/i...ry-dishes.html
Trip Reports
March 2013 Trip Report
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...atsvali-Mestia
Skiing in Georgia
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...hlight=georgia
Gudauri, 10.3.2015
http://blog.inmontanis.info/?p=3151&lang=en
Videos
Friends of Georgia
https://vimeo.com/42280050
Georgia Caucasus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyrur5zjt7Y
Ski and Snowboard Georgia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Md6B8V3ULw
FRIDAY 22 JANUARY 2016
Travel day.
We left Cardiff Bus Station, Wales at 5am for the 5 hr journey to Gatwick Airport, London.
Due to the last minute booking, the cheapest flight we could get was Turkish Airlines Gatwick to Tbilisi (capital of Georgia) via Istanbul leaving at mid-day.
However this did give us a very generous luggage allowance of 40kg.
With a 7 1/2 hr travel time (including a 1h 20 min stop at Istanbul) and 4hrs of time zones, we got into Tbilisi at 23.30
We had contemplated spending the first two nights in Tbilisi, travelling up to Gudauri on Sunday afternoon to avoid the weekend crowds but decided to head straight to resort instead.
We'd booked 9 nights bed & breakfast at the Alpina Hotel through booking.com and organised for a driver to meet us at the airport.
http://www.hotelalpina.ge/en/
As we cleared immigration, the immigration officer handed us a bottle of Georgian wine each and wished us a great holiday. Now that's what I call a welcome.
After changing £500 into Georgian Lari (Gel) at an exchange rate of 3.6 Gel to the £, we loaded the car and set off.
The route takes you right through the heart of Tbilisi, which is an impressive mix of ancient and modern architecture tastefully illuminated at night.
The car journey to resort took 3 hrs and it was snowing as we arrived at Hotel Alpina.
----------
SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 2016
We woke at 9am and headed down to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast that was included in our stay. Breakfast runs from 8-10 am.
Coffee, tea.
Hot & cold cereal.
Cheese, cold meats, bread
2 hot choices changing daily - fried eggs, omlette, sausages, fries
Cake
Booking.com had shown that Hotel Alpina was ski-in, ski-out. This is incorrect. It's just ski-in, and only for adventurous intermediates and above. The 'track' home was ungroomed for most of our stay.
* It's since been changed to just ski-in *
A free shuttle takes you down to the chairlift or gondola at 8.00, 8.30 and 10.30
Outside of those times you can get a taxi for 10 lari each way.
Around 10-15cm had fallen overnight and it was snowing steadily with low visibility and only the three lifts on the lower mountain running - the Pirveli & Soliko quad chairs and the Gudaura gondola.
Plenty of terrain to keep us happy and by day's end we were skiing boot top to knee deep light powder.
We had lunch at Vitamin at the top of the Soliko quad and ordered way too much for not a lot of money. The portion sizes are big.
Georgian cheese mix, mushroom soup, schnitzel, fries, green tea, glass of wine, 3 bottles of water for 56 lari.
Skied back to Alpina off-piste and had a light dinner of nuts (10 lari), olives (15 lari) and gin & tonics (10 lari per drink) in the lounge bar.
----------
SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2016
It hasn't stopped snowing since we arrived in the early hours of yesterday morning.
At least 40cm overnight and epic conditions over the entire lower mountain, with Nerys enjoying her deepest day on skis.
The upper mountain is closed until the storm passes through, which looks to be on Wednesday.
The snowplow crew hadn't made it up to the hotel, so we had to ski down to the lifts.
And at day's end we had to make the path down the one ungroomed run on the mountain to get home.
But in between it was magic.
The Village
And I didn't think I would find Hokkaido powder outside of Hokkaido, but I was very much mistaken. And very happy to be proven wrong.
Midnight Plane to Georgia
We had lunch at the restaurant at the bottom of the soliko quad chair - two burgers, glass of wine, green tea for 41 lari and dinner with Alex and Michele from Paris at Glintwein at the base of the gondola.
When we were representing Kiroro Resort at the Helsinki and London Ski Shows last October our neighbouring stand was Ski Georgia.
No not the land of peaches & peanuts, but the land of wine, mountains and arguably Europe's best snow.
The pictures and prices looked inviting, so whilst I was on Hokkaido I followed the ski reports daily to see if a late January trip was doable.
I'd previously travelled east to find snow when Central Europe had been hurting
TR: Western Balkans Part I - Popova Shapka, Macedonia (January 2011)
TR: Western Balkans Part II - Brezovica, Kosovo; Savin Kuk & Kolasin, Montenegro (February 2011)
and with consistent snowfall since Christmas and snow forecast for the first part of our proposed holiday, flights & accommodation were booked on Wednesday night (20th January) for a Friday morning departure to Gudauri Ski Resort.
Here are a few links to web sites, trip reports and videos which helped with our decision to head to Gudauri Ski Resort.
Ski Georgia
Gudauri Ski Resort
Gudauri Snow Forecast
Heliksir, Heliski Caucasus
The 10 Dishes That Will Make You Fall in Love With Georgian Food
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/i...ry-dishes.html
Trip Reports
March 2013 Trip Report
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...atsvali-Mestia
Skiing in Georgia
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...hlight=georgia
Gudauri, 10.3.2015
http://blog.inmontanis.info/?p=3151&lang=en
Videos
Friends of Georgia
https://vimeo.com/42280050
Georgia Caucasus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyrur5zjt7Y
Ski and Snowboard Georgia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Md6B8V3ULw
FRIDAY 22 JANUARY 2016
Travel day.
We left Cardiff Bus Station, Wales at 5am for the 5 hr journey to Gatwick Airport, London.
Due to the last minute booking, the cheapest flight we could get was Turkish Airlines Gatwick to Tbilisi (capital of Georgia) via Istanbul leaving at mid-day.
However this did give us a very generous luggage allowance of 40kg.
With a 7 1/2 hr travel time (including a 1h 20 min stop at Istanbul) and 4hrs of time zones, we got into Tbilisi at 23.30
We had contemplated spending the first two nights in Tbilisi, travelling up to Gudauri on Sunday afternoon to avoid the weekend crowds but decided to head straight to resort instead.
We'd booked 9 nights bed & breakfast at the Alpina Hotel through booking.com and organised for a driver to meet us at the airport.
http://www.hotelalpina.ge/en/
As we cleared immigration, the immigration officer handed us a bottle of Georgian wine each and wished us a great holiday. Now that's what I call a welcome.
After changing £500 into Georgian Lari (Gel) at an exchange rate of 3.6 Gel to the £, we loaded the car and set off.
The route takes you right through the heart of Tbilisi, which is an impressive mix of ancient and modern architecture tastefully illuminated at night.
The car journey to resort took 3 hrs and it was snowing as we arrived at Hotel Alpina.
----------
SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 2016
We woke at 9am and headed down to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast that was included in our stay. Breakfast runs from 8-10 am.
Coffee, tea.
Hot & cold cereal.
Cheese, cold meats, bread
2 hot choices changing daily - fried eggs, omlette, sausages, fries
Cake
Booking.com had shown that Hotel Alpina was ski-in, ski-out. This is incorrect. It's just ski-in, and only for adventurous intermediates and above. The 'track' home was ungroomed for most of our stay.
* It's since been changed to just ski-in *
A free shuttle takes you down to the chairlift or gondola at 8.00, 8.30 and 10.30
Outside of those times you can get a taxi for 10 lari each way.
Around 10-15cm had fallen overnight and it was snowing steadily with low visibility and only the three lifts on the lower mountain running - the Pirveli & Soliko quad chairs and the Gudaura gondola.
Plenty of terrain to keep us happy and by day's end we were skiing boot top to knee deep light powder.
We had lunch at Vitamin at the top of the Soliko quad and ordered way too much for not a lot of money. The portion sizes are big.
Georgian cheese mix, mushroom soup, schnitzel, fries, green tea, glass of wine, 3 bottles of water for 56 lari.
Skied back to Alpina off-piste and had a light dinner of nuts (10 lari), olives (15 lari) and gin & tonics (10 lari per drink) in the lounge bar.
----------
SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2016
It hasn't stopped snowing since we arrived in the early hours of yesterday morning.
At least 40cm overnight and epic conditions over the entire lower mountain, with Nerys enjoying her deepest day on skis.
The upper mountain is closed until the storm passes through, which looks to be on Wednesday.
The snowplow crew hadn't made it up to the hotel, so we had to ski down to the lifts.
And at day's end we had to make the path down the one ungroomed run on the mountain to get home.
But in between it was magic.
The Village
And I didn't think I would find Hokkaido powder outside of Hokkaido, but I was very much mistaken. And very happy to be proven wrong.
Midnight Plane to Georgia
We had lunch at the restaurant at the bottom of the soliko quad chair - two burgers, glass of wine, green tea for 41 lari and dinner with Alex and Michele from Paris at Glintwein at the base of the gondola.
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