3 Days Cat Skiing And 3 Days Ski Touring

Kutaisi is the closest airport to Bakhmaro, and it’s usually the easiest travel option for our guests. However, you can also fly into Batumi or Tbilisi.

Our driver will collect you from the airport and drive you to Chkhakaura village. Transfer times are 1.75 hours from Kutaisi airport, 2.5 hours from Batumi airport and 6 hours from Tbilisi airport.

From Chkhakaura, there’s only one way to get to Bakhmaro: snow cat! One hour of ploughing through the snow, and you’ll arrive at Terrace Bakhmaro – our cabin home for the week.

After breakfast, our cat skiing and ski touring trip begins in earnest! We will run through safety checks with the group. Following the safety briefing, we will run a 2-hour practice session on avalanche search and rescue to make sure everyone is familiar with their kit and you know what to do in case of an accident. Find out more about our safety, and get in touch if you’d like to know or learn more.

Our guides will do a transceiver check, then we’ll load our skis, snowboards and people into the snowcat, and set off for our first runs!

Mount Buksieti (2400m) is a 20 minute snowcat ride from our lodge. After several runs in this area, and a lunch stop, we move on to Mount Gadrekili (2508m) for some more fresh lines.

Beech Forest is one of our favourite freeride areas in Bakhmaro. The north-facing, tree-covered slopes mean it’s a great spot for cat skiing in almost any conditions. We always head here when the weather closes in, as it has such good visibility and amazing snow.

Shorter pitches, weaving through the trees, we get lap after lap of powder and big grins. Frankly, it’s joyful!

Mount Sakornia (2950m) is the highest peak in the Bakhmaro area. It’s a beautiful peak, visible from the lodge, with the longest run giving us 1000m of vertical descent. It offers a large variety of aspects, pitches and slopes for us to ski. And on a clear day, the views are spectacular – you can’t beat it!

It takes 50-60 minutes to get to the top of Sakornia from our lodge. Kick back, enjoy the views – and maybe break out some tunes on the way up. Once you’re over there, the snowcat trips back up to the top will only take about 15-25 minutes.

Before heading out, we’ll check everyone is familiar and comfortable with their ski touring kit.

Our first ski tour will be to nearby Mount Papara. Expect 800m ascent and 4-5 hours of combined skinning and descent.

We ski down into Bakhmaro, directly from our lodge. Then we transition to skins and ski tour up the south face of Mount Gadrekili (2508m). Now we’ve earned our turns, it’s a long and beautiful descent skiing down the north face, before skinning back to base.
Ascent: 900m
Duration: 4 hours

The final day starts earlier to get the most out of our mountain time. Heading out of the lodge, we’ll head up Sunset Mountain, and get some turns in between the trees at Sajavakho forest. Getting back to the lodge around 3pm means there’s time to pack, shower and eat before the transfer back to Kutaisi. Dinner and an overnight stay in Kutaisi are organized and included (or Batumi or Tbilisi if flying out of one of those airports) so enjoy your time in one of the oldest cities in the world.

And so our Georgian cat skiing and ski touring trip ends. We drive you from the hotel to the airport. Safe travels home!

There is no fixed itinerary, as our guides decide where to ski each day, depending on the weather and snow conditions. This gives you a flavour of a typical trip and an idea of what to expect. We aim to freeride different areas each day when possible – with your safety and enjoyment (in that order) guiding our decision-making. Because the Bakhmaro region is so vast and wild, we can discover and explore completely new areas where no one has skied before.