For seven years, the friends of the Lauf Rauf collective have been meeting up in the mountains to spend a week exploring the terrain and enjoying their time together. This year, they traveled outside the Alps for the first time and sought their fortune in Georgia. Toni Brey, photographer and passionate freerider from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was there again and brought back a lot of beautiful pictures.
The seventh edition of the sports collective, in which photographers, skiers and snowboarders spend a week in the mountains, took place far away from the Alps for the first time this season. The number of participants was surprisingly large - fifteen skiers and snowboarders made the journey. Expectations were high both among those who had been to Georgia before and among the newcomers. The winter of 2011 had started with very little snow in the east, but the first heavy snowstorms set in just a few weeks before departure.
Run Rauf this time in the Caucasus
Now there was plenty of snow in the Caucasus - so much that we first had to clear a path through an avalanche with our shovels on the way to Gudauri. Of course, this didn't diminish our expectations, but it also made us realize once again that we had to be prepared for tense snow conditions. After an hour of shovel training, we finally set off by car towards Gudauri.
On arrival there, we unfortunately had to realize that the weather forecast for the next few days was not particularly promising and we had to scrap our plans. The first few days we were confined to the ski area due to the poor visibility. For the flat slopes in the lower part, the 60 centimetres of fresh snow were simply too much and we were literally drowning. As the weather improved in the following days, the wind picked up and although we now had good visibility and a breathtaking panorama, the risk of avalanches increased dramatically. With a bit of intuition, however, we found enough options to make new tracks on the slopes of Kudebi and Gazelle. After four days, we decided to head to Kazbeki to start the ascent to the Betlehmi hut the following day.
Climbing Kazbek - Georgia's highest mountain
The plan for the 2012 Lauf Rauf project was to climb Kazbek. The 5047-metre-high Kazbek is the highest ski mountain in Georgia and the easternmost five-thousand-metre peak in the Caucasus. The mountain was first climbed in 1868 by Douglas W. Freshfield, Adolphus Warburton Moore and Charles C. Tucker. The Georgians have a very special reverence for Kazbek and the famous Zminda-Sameba church, which is located at the foot of the mountain on an approx. 2200 m high rocky outcrop. Kazbek is even considered a sacred mountain and the origins of its worship go back to Greek mythology. The church and mountain form the most famous postcard motif and connoisseurs describe this place as the most beautiful in Georgia.
The Bethlemi hut is located at an altitude of 3600 m and serves as a base camp for ski tourers climbing Kazbek. The regular ascent to the summit from the former meteorological station is technically not too difficult and leads over moderately steep glaciers to the steep summit flank. The ascent to the hut is more problematic, which is why we conservatively decided to abandon the undertaking. The poor visibility and a slope that was sure to be laden with avalanches, which we had to cross at 2900 meters, left us with no other sensible decision.
After breaking off, we decided to drive back to Gudauri. However, as the cross pass was closed until the evening due to the risk of avalanches, we had the opportunity to make contact with a few Armenian truck drivers who had been stuck here for ten days. The life of Armenian truck drivers seems to be very eventful and exciting - at least that's what you can conclude from the many stories we heard until the evening. We certainly didn't get bored. In the end, however, we decided not to wait any longer and to drive to Bakuriani in the southwest of Georgia. Fantastic powder snow awaited us there. Although it was stormy on the ridge, we found top conditions on the south to west-facing slopes. After two fantastic days, we made our way back to Tbilisi to check out the Georgian nightlife and return home.
All pictures from Georgia in the gallery
More useful information for a ski trip to Georgia
Ski resorts Georgia: Gudauri, Bakuriani, Mestia
Heli-Skiing:Heliksir (The only heli-skiing service in Gudauri)
AccommodationGudauri Hut, Tbilisi Hostel (backpacker)
Bars in Tbilisi: Nepal
Maps:Geoland
Mountain guide: AchiTOURS | Archil Tsintsadze - Faulerstraße 2 - 79098 Freiburg Tel: 0761 / 38 36 850 | e-mail: info@achitours.de
Text and pictures: Toni Brey
More pictures of the trip can be seen here...
