Ski resort Gudauri in Georgia: A lift goes through

Gudauri's world fame began with a terrible video. On shaky shots you see a chairlift racing backwards, skiers and snowboarders are flung through the air. The video went viral in the spring of 2018, millions of people saw it on the Internet. A disaster for the ski resort in Georgia - but in the end also a stroke of luck.

"In one fell swoop, people around the world knew they could ski in Georgia," says George Gotsiridze. "In retrospect, it was good marketing, but only because nobody died." Which was very lucky, if you look at the pictures.

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Gotsiridze, 47, is a geographer, advising the government of the small Caucasus region on developing its ski resorts. Anyone who goes skiing with him in Gudauri must be patient. He is always hugging someone, shaking hands, exchanging pecks. In winter, Gotsiridze and his wife come here from Tbilisi almost every weekend - as do many wealthy captains.

"Of course, many guests canceled their holidays in the weeks following the accident at the lift," says Gotsiridze. "But this winter even 30 percent more guests than in the preseason." The customer review has been automatically translated from German. Since 2011, the number of guests has increased by 578 percent.

Mountain guides from Austria: "The possibilities are insane"

Compared to the huge ski areas of the Alps, the slopes of Gudauris are still empty, especially in the morning. When the lifts start at 10 o'clock, you carve undisturbed over broad slopes. From the skibars then already the basses against each other, paragliders sail over the heads. And with each lift that you ascend, the view becomes more sublime: over sugared mountain forests, white ridges and a sea of ​​clouds to the arch of the Caucasus, drawn far to the horizon.

"In the Alps there are ski resorts everywhere," says Sven Fölser. The Austrian mountain guide has been coming to Gudauri every winter for several weeks since 2012. His clients - mostly experienced skiers and snowboarders from their homeland - book the 44-year-old, so that he shows them the deep snow slopes. "The environment is high alpine as in Switzerland, and the possibilities are amazing", says Fölser. "If you go just a little, you will always discover new routes."

Fölser used to be in the Horrorlift. "Now we laugh about it," he says. "But that was really bad." An expert group has determined how it came to the disaster: First, the power went out, then made an employee when switching to the generator a mistake. Fölser was lucky, he was roped off. "The mountain rescue was great," he says, "that would not have gone faster in Austria."

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Peter Knischow

One year later, the four-seat chairlift has long since been repaired. At the mountain station you slide out onto the summit plateau of Sadzele West at an altitude of 3276 meters - and look over to the broad-shouldered Kasbek.

The third highest mountain of Georgia is 5047 meters high, glacier tongues licking from its cliff. The plateau is a single photo studio. Tourists posing while sitting or lying down. Some jump. In which direction you turn, does not matter. The scenery is always right.

Chatschapuri patties as break bread

At Sadzele West, Gudauri's only black runs begin. Now, as the ski area slowly fills, you drive it better prudent. Because many winter athletes here are more likely beginners. Or they have an unorthodox freestyle. Brakes are not always there.

Most Western Europeans flying to Georgia are less concerned with the leveled slopes than with the wide slopes all around: above the tree line and very tempting, mostly covered with several meters of untouched snow. Already in Soviet times, Germans, Austrians and Swiss arrived to fly with Russian helicopters to the deep snow slopes.

Previously, Gudauri was for a long time only a post office at about 2200 meters altitude, where the coachmen changed their horses. In the mid-eighties, a joint venture with an Austrian investor built the first lifts and the "Marco Polo Hotel", today a four-star block with hundreds of beds and a pool.

In the nineties, Western diplomats and development workers preferred to spend their weekends there. Since then, an architectural growth has been created around this nucleus: along the road towards Russia concrete boxes and old houses, in between steel pylons of the high-voltage power line.

The only uniform ensemble is a chalet village at the foot of the red gondola lift. Three and a half years ago the "New Gudauri Resort" was built. On the ground floor there are ski rentals, restaurants, bars and a casino with taped slices. Behind it, the concrete skeleton of the first five-star hotel is already growing. Most guests prefer to sit in front of the wooden stalls selling mulled wine, beer and khachapuri, the Georgian cheese pancakes.

Lithuanians and Estonians, Ukrainians, Poles and British sit at the tables. But especially many Russians. The border to the north is only an hour away, and behind the nearest ridge in the south begins the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has controlled Russia since the 2008 Caucasus war. The tensions between the countries do not seem to disturb the Russian guests.

In the lift, two Danish girls say that they live in Dubai and regularly come to Georgia for skiing. "We're flying to Tbilisi in three hours," they say. For European professionals working in the Gulf States, the Caucasus is much closer than the Alps - and cheaper.

Too many skiers? "We can simply roll the slopes wider"

With the many new guests, however, the lines have grown in front of the lifts. For the 30th anniversary last winter Gudauri got donated new slopes and lifts. The state invested 81 million lari, the equivalent of around 25 million euros.

In January, the cable car started on the Kobi Pass, in Zehnergondeln you now whistle in a quarter of an hour the 7.5 kilometers up to the pass - and the start of the most beautiful descent of the resort. With a view of the Kasbek, one curves down the wide, gently sloping high valley on the other side, surrounded by steep slopes. A pleasure to find the most. "A freeride slope less," grumbles Sven Fölser.

"Climate change is a big challenge for us," says Aleksander Kikabidze, 40, head of the mountain railways. "Especially on the southern slopes." Next year, the storage lake should be filled so that the new snow lances finally spray artificial snow on the slopes. "Especially at the start of the winter season, we need artificial snow," says Kikabidze. "Otherwise, other ski areas will steal our guests."

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The mountain railways are currently not planning any further expansion of the area. The slopes are sufficient for 15,000 winter sportsmen per day. And if at some point they are not enough, Kikabidze can react quickly. "All the mountains here are volcanoes," he explains - so even slopes. "We can simply roll the slopes wider."

Sven Fölser's customers are not likely to hear that. In front of the glassworks on the summit of the 3006 meter high Kudebi they sink into the red sofas in the snow and take a sip of Georgian craft beer. Melodic electro invades the speakers, pensive as the milky evening sun outlines the crests, folds and hills of the Caucasus and the sky changes from light blue to yellow to pink.

At some point the lifts stop, guests pull woolen blankets to their chin. But it is too nice to leave.