Skiing in Gudauri, Scrubbing in Tbilisi

Tommy looking good on the off-piste serviced by
the Sadzele lift.

While sitting in the airport in Almaty for our return flight to Dubai, I double checked with Tom to ensure that he had applied for his Indian Visa on arrival. He had checked the website and was sure that he could arrive in Delhi and pick up the visa without prior approval. Unfortunately, the website is a little confusing and you need to have applied four days before arrival.  We had a problem.

We had a 10 hour turnaround in Dubai so we applied for his Indian visa on arrival hoping that it would be approved before we had to change plans. In short, if we didn't fly that night, our ski days in Gulmarg would be cut from three to two due to the middle of the day timings for arrivals and departures of flights from the Indian Airforce Base in Srinagar.

While considering our options. I checked the avalanche conditions in Gulmarg.  Luke Smithwick, who I know from the Gangstan climbing trip, is the head of the ski patrol in Gulmarg and posts excellent avalanche forecasts.  They had just had a number of significant avalanche events and were waiting for consolidation of unstable layers in the snow pack. As means of underlining our need to change plans, I checked the news and there was a gun battle between the Indian Army and militants in a town on the outskirts of Srinagar. It seemed that the universe was trying to tell me something











We considered our options. Surfing in Sri Lanka was easy but we were packed and psyched for skiing so we looked at Georgia for a few days skiing. Within two hours had cancelled all the Indian flights (within minimal penalties) and booked cheap flights, accommodation and a transfer to Gudauri. The next morning we were on the three hour Fly Dubai flight to Tbilisi before the two hour drive to Gudauri.  Our room at New Gudauri ApartHotel was clean, functional and well positioned next to the new Gondola. 

Mushroom soup and truffles with amixed platter
of Georgian tapas behind (smoked eggplant and
different Georgian arancini ballls

I hadn't stayed at Gudauri before but to be honest, the food on the hill is ok for lunch but is a little unspectacular when it comes to dinner. Tommy, as with his brothers, is a big James Bond fan and there is no where more James Bond than Rooms Hotel Kazbegi. The external design is like the South American desert lair from Quantum of Solace and the interior is a mixture of private club and ski field.  You half expect to see Ernst Stavro Blofeld sitting in an Arne Jacobsen chair stroking a white cat!
















We organised a car to drive us down to Kazbegi and wait for us for the return to Gudauri. True to form the Georgian Military Highway was shut due to a vehicle accident and we needed to wait for 45 minutes before it was opened.  The opening resulted in something akin to a Le Mans start with drivers racing for their cars and 6 improvised lanes on the outskirts of Gudauri converging into one before the drag race up the hill. We should have been in an Aston Martin not a battered BMW with a shattered windscreen.

The Le Mans start.  All the cars are trying to squeeze into a single lane

Gudauri is a much larger ski area than Shymbulak with plenty of wide groomers but what I really like about the place is the easy access to the out of bounds areas.  On our first day the Sadzele Lift, which is the key to easily unlocking out of bounds terrain, was closed.  It opened on our second day and Tommy and I were up the front in the queue to access the un-tracked snow. First we concentrated on the on the in-bounds until that was heavily tracked and then we headed out.  The snow was heavy but it had not been tracked and then gone through a melt freeze cycle.  It was this cycle that made the other in-bounds off-piste areas difficult to ski in the mornings.

Tommy ripping it!

It was good to see Tommy progress onto some steeper terrain and deeper snow compared to Shybulak.  He dropped some bad habits generated from sliding around on groomers as the heavy snow forced him to drive his skis through the turns. On our last day we hiked up a nearby peak for a nice run in limited visibility. The weather then closed out completely and we resigned ourselves to an early lunch and a big plate of Georgian dumplings before packing our bags and driving to Tbilisi.

Our last run after a nice hike

We had 10 hours in Tbilisi before we needed to head to airport for our 4 am departure. I booked a cheap room in the Old Town at Tiflis Palace next to the domed sulphur baths. Really it was more for bag storage and a quick nap. The sulfphur baths have been a feature of Tbilisi since Roman times but were constructed in their current Persian style after the Persian invasion.  Tom seemed to think the baths were a good idea without fully understanding the Oriental bath experience! 












Underneath the ground level domes is a warren of private baths. Some are elaborate like the Orbeliani baths which has a facade like a Samarkand mosque while some are simpler and off the main trail such as Bakhmaro baths that we were recommended.  A private bath at Bakhmaro cost 120 lari and it had the hot sulphur bath, cold dip bath, a large sauna with hot rocks the size of bowling balls and two stone massage beds.  

The done of a bath in the fore ground with the remains of 

We had the offer of a traditional Georgian massage, Tom was not enthusiastic but I always believe that when in Rome!  The massage is done on the stone massage beds, not the most comfortable thing in the world and involves being soaped and scrubbed with something akin to a brillo pad by a large hairy Georgian man before be pummelled.  To be honest, it was pretty good.  Once I was done our Georgian friend, lets call him Mr Soapy, summoned Tom. Tommy was like a deer in the headlights.  Too polite to say no but not very happy about the prospect of a massage/scrub. He went through the same ordeal but I cant vouch as to if he enjoyed it or not.

I wouldn't like to sleep on it!

Once Mr Soapy was complete, he told us to alternate between the sauna and the cold dip bath which felt really good.  By then we just had time for a cup of tea before our bath session was over and we headed out onto the streets of Tbilisi feeling very refreshed.

The freezing dip pool on the left and the larger "L" shaped sulphur bath and showers on the right

Tom and I had some pressure, both internal and external, from daughters, girlfriends, wives and mothers for gifts from Georgia. These ranged from shot glasses to hall runners.Maybe it was the sulphur but we were unable to be decisive and, apart from the shot glass, left empty handed (that said I found a great hall runner which I purchased and had shipped after my return to Dubai).

Some slack country which runs back to Gudauri village

Dinner was more successful and we ended our Georgian experience with a good meal and a bottle of Georgian red at Rooms Hotel Tbilisi before a couple of drinks with the beautiful people of the City in the Hotel bar. We toasted to our good fortune and I was thinking that I must get back to Georgia with the family next year.