Snow season opens on December 10 in Georgia

Georgia’s iconic winter resorts - Gudauri, Bakuriani, Svaneti and Goderdzi - are inviting guests to enjoy an unforgettable winter adventure this weekend when the snow season officially opens.

Today Georgia’s Mountain Resorts Development Company announced the 2016-2017 winter season will open on December 10 in Gudauri, Bakuriani (Didveli), Svaneti (Hatsvali) and Goderdzi.

Meanwhile, Tetnuldi resort in Svaneti will be ready for guests on December 24, while Kokhta-Mitarbi will open its snow season on December 25.

New ski infrastructure, hotels and entertainment facilities are ready to open this snow season in all of Georgia’s winter resorts.

A total of nine new ski lifts were installed at Bakuriani, Gudauri and Svaneti winter resorts.

Bakuriani

One of Georgia’s main ski areas, Bakuriani and its neighbouring Mitarbi village, welcomed a 100 million GEL (about $43 million/€38 million*) project to develop the area into a four-season alpine resort.

There are plans to build Olympic-standard infrastructure in Bakuriani to make the area suitable for hosting an Olympic Games. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

From December this year winter enthusiasts will be able to return to Mitarbi after a 30 year break. Three new ski lifts were installed at Mitarbi that climb to 2,300m above sea level. The general development plan for Mitarbi also included building an eco village in the area.

Watch a time lapse video of the construction of Mitarbi's three new ski lifts. Video by the Mountain Resorts Development Company:

Meanwhile an Olympic standard biathlon track, a rifle-range, ice hockey rink and a stadium for spectators, as well as several residential and entertainment areas, are earmarked to be built in Bakuriani and nearby villages.

Plans to restore the ski jumps at Bakuriani, regarded as an ex-Soviet Davos, have also been created.

This was part of a larger plan to gradually build Olympic-standard infrastructure in Bakuriani, which set forth a prerequisite for a "very realistic plan” of holding the Olympic Games in Georgia within the next 10 years, said Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

Gudauri

Canadian mountain development firm Ecosign has created a plan for developing Gudauri ski resort.

The development plan included building additional touristic infrastructure in Gudauri that could increase the investment attractiveness of the resort.

Three new ski lifts are being installed in Gudauri. Photo by Kote Kadagidze/Facebook.

In the near future an adventure tourism school will open in Gudauri offering locals the chance to improve their knowledge about the mountain and mountain safety.

The school will provide trainings for those interested in mountain adventure tourism and other alpine high-risk professions.

Goderdzi

Goderdzi resort is located 2,366m above sea level and is a two hour drive from the most popular seaside resort town of Batumi in western Georgia. The Goderdzi mountains are snow-covered by an average 6-7m of snow between November and April.

Goderdzi resort opened in December last year, however the four-season mountain resort still lacks infrastructural development. To overcome this challenge the Government of Georgia has created a general development plan for Goderdzi.

See the video showing the captivating beauty of Goderdzi Pass below:

The plan, which was presented to the public this April, outlined to increase the number of beds available in hotels to accommodate at least 3,500 overnight visitors, while infrastructure at Goderdzi will be developed to host about 7,000 guests simultaneously.

As of today there are seven residential cottages, one hotel and one administrative building in Goderdzi.

The Government of Georgia also started rehabilitating the road leading to the Goderdzi ski resort.

Svaneti

Three new ski lifts and new tracks were created at Tetnuldi, Svaneti's new ski resort, which only opened last year.

About 100 million GEL (about $43 million/€38 million*) will be invested in the development of the resort. Once fully developed, Tetnuldi will offer the longest ski tracks in Transcaucasia at 9.5km and will have the steepest vertical decline of 1.7km.

Tetnludi will be able to host 7,000 visitors at the same time.

A video by Mountain Resorts Development Company showing construction works of ski lifts in Svaneti. 

• See Agenda.ge photo gallery on Bakuriani.