Georgia's high-Caucasus ski resort at 2,200m — paragliding over the Georgian Military Highway, and the deepest snow in the South Caucasus
Gudauri is a mountain ski resort at 2,200m on the Georgian Military Highway (Mtskheta–Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz road), about 120km north of Tbilisi in the Greater Caucasus. It is the most developed ski area in the South Caucasus, with 57km of pisted runs reaching from 1,990m to 3,276m, multiple cable cars, and a snow season that typically runs from December to April. Outside ski season, Gudauri is Georgia's paragliding capital — the ridge above the resort offers sustained thermals along the Caucasus main ridge, and tandem paragliding with views down the Aragvi valley to the plains below is one o…
Gudauri has been the site of a mountain way-station on the Georgian Military Highway since at least the 18th century, when Russian imperial forces built the road to connect Tiflis (Tbilisi) with the North Caucasian military command at Vladikavkaz. The Jvari Pass (2,395m) above Gudauri was historically the critical chokepoint of this entire military and commercial route — controlling it meant controlling the main land connection between Russia and its Transcaucasian territories. Soviet-era ski development began in Gudauri in the 1970s, but the modern resort infrastructure was largely built fro…