Your safety is our top priority at Catskiing Georgia.
Our guides
Cat skiing safety comes first. All of our guides are professionally certified through the IFMGA and GMGA – so they have the same international qualification and high standards that you’ll be familiar with from your mountain guides back home. They are all trained in emergency first aid, avalanche hazard forecasting and mountain rescue.
We have a cat skiing guide ratio of 1:6 guests, with a lead guide and a tail guide for each group. Guides carry a medical pack and radio, and they are in constant communication with the driver, lodge and one another. Lead guides also carry a satellite phone.
At the start of each day, the guides assess conditions, forecasts and risks to make a plan for the day. They’ll reassess the cat skiing safety factors throughout the day, based on new observations and information.
On the first day, the guides give guests a cat skiing safety briefing and run a practice session to make sure the whole group is familiar with avalanche kit and procedures.
Each morning, before setting off from the lodge, we’ll do a transceiver check on everyone in the group.
Our guests
We want you to have a great experience and enjoy these mountains as much as we do! We want you to be, and to feel, safe. We need your help here and ask you to listen to the guides and follow their instructions.
Make sure you have insurance that fully covers you for the altitude and activities you are doing. Be aware that many policies are country or region-specific, so check Georgia is covered. Your policy should include mountain search and rescue, medical treatment and cancellation.
Protect yourself. Everyone on our trips must have a fully functional transceiver, shovel, probe and avalanche backpack. We also strongly recommend that you wear a helmet.
And please: look out for one another. We’re on this trip together!
In case of emergency
Our guides are able to handle most injuries on-site using the supplies they carry. The closest hospital is in Kutaisi, which is 3 hours by snowcat and car. In an emergency, we can also evacuate injured team members by helicopter.