Source: https://www.nytimes.com
By Gabriel Leigh
This country has beautiful mountains, dependable snow, hearty food and welcoming people. Now they just need to decide how to build a tourism industry.
The slopes in Gudauri, Georgia, not far from the Russian border in the Caucusus Mountains.CreditOla Lewitschnik
The slopes in Gudauri, Georgia, not far from the Russian border in the Caucusus Mountains.CreditCreditOla Lewitschnik
I was descending a Georgian mountain pass in a rented Renault Duster when, rounding a curve with six-foot snow drifts to either side, a dark and narrow tunnel came into view. Looking down the mountain, I could see the other end of it — and an apparently endless convoy of eighteen-wheelers making their way up, entering in the opposite direction. I couldn’t imagine how we’d fit alongside each other, but I pressed on, only to find myself in a black hole. The headlights illuminated nothing. I rolled down the window — one of those useless things you do when beginning to panic — and realized that we were in a cloud of black truck exhaust so thick it was blinding.
I’d come to Georgia to ski — attracted by images of the towering Caucasus Mountains and reports of affordable skiing without the crowds. Those who knew Georgia tended to describe it warmly: exotic and undiscovered, with great food, situated at a crossroads full of history, and changing — its young population striving to show off a post-Soviet identity to the world.
Shacks selling food and drinks on the mountain at the Gudauri Ski Resort.CreditOla Lewitschnik
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