Kaukasus

Six friends with an ambitious goal: they want to be the first to ski the highest mountain in Azerbaijan - but with endless bureaucracy, lots of fresh snow and a mountain guide with no ski equipment, it doesn't seem like an easy task...

Georgia is a magnificent country with an impressive mountain world and super friendly people. A wild country, Kinkali, Tcha Tcha - and a huge playground for mountain lovers and alpinists in summer and winter. These are, first of all, a few short words that summarize our experiences during our two-week trip from Tbilisi to Ushguli...

Using my hands and feet and the few words from the Georgian book that I have learned in the meantime, I try to ask Temuri, the father in our host family, what he does for a living. He tells me that he is employed at the border police station in the region. What does he have to do at the station? With a mischievous smile, he simply says: "Ruski, bang bang!" Aha, as if a Russian would ever cross the Shkhara massif to get to Georgia. However, the border post is important for the village, as 13 of the 15 fathers of the family are employed by the border police and this provides them with a small regular income in a fairly deserted area.

The Georgians call their country "Sakartwelo" the land of the Kartvelians and derive their origins from the mythical progenitor Kartlos, who they believe was one of Noah's great-grandchildren. The Kartvelian tribes are considered to be the original inhabitants of the Caucasus, with their own script and language. Located on the border between Asia and Europe, Georgia is a mosaic of different cultures and religions. Important trade routes such as the Silk Road ran right through the middle of the country and brought Georgia into contact with the cultures of Egypt, Persia and Europe.

The request in the fall came out of the blue: "Do you want to go to Georgia? I was there in the summer, the mountains look promising." Georgia, hmmm. Check the rusty geography in my brain. It should be somewhere in the east, close to Russia. Oh yes, there was a conflict over an autonomous region between Georgia and Russia in 2008. That's it for my knowledge of Georgia. Wrongly so, because the country has an incredible amount to offer, as I will gradually learn during the trip.

For seven years now, 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, for the first time, they traveled outside the Alps 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.