Decided to go to the Republic of Georgia for Spring Break and get in some nice cheap skiing. During Soviet times, the area had some cross country skiing, but now the only tracks are in Mazeri, about 10 hours from Tbilisi by bus. Since I was in the area for backcountry skiing already, I decided to try out the tracks and race a 15k classic and a 30k pursuit.
A snowmobile somehow made its way from Woodford, VT to Georgia, and with the help of two logs strung together with wire, makes excellent skating tracks. There's also a track setter that was imported from Norway. The snowmobile wasn't working until last week, so right now there's only a 2.5k loop for skating, but it is very well prepared by the children of Becho valley stomping around.
The races went relatively well despite iffy conditions and fresh snow above freezing. My first win in a while was nice, but I also felt bad passing kids who have only been skiing for a few months to a few years. Amazing what a Norwegian hotel manager can do with a few pairs of donated skis and some petrol. Richard says that there is 2m of snow in November; maybe a training camp?
More on the backcountry options and alpine coming soon.
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