Above the Tree Line
An introduction to the vertical geography of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus.
The vertical country
Georgia is a small country stood on end. Two mountain systems cross it — the Greater Caucasus along the northern border, the Lesser Caucasus across the south — and between them lies a lowland corridor barely a hundred kilometres wide. Nowhere in the country are you far from something vertical.
The Greater Caucasus is the wall: an 1,100-kilometre chain carrying Georgia's highest ground, glaciated above roughly 3,000 m, and broken by only a handful of passes a road can cross. It holds every peak on this page above 4,000 m, and the country's high point at 5,203 m. The Lesser Caucasus is older, softer and volcanic — plateau country rather than spire country, topping out at 3,301 m on Didi Abuli.
In the Georgian Caucasus the tree line runs somewhere between 2,000 and 2,400 m, depending on which way the slope faces and how hard it has been grazed. Everything on this page sits above it: the peaks that fix the horizon, the passes that let people through them, and the open basins in between.
Mount Kazbek
A dormant volcano above the Georgian Military Highway
Kazbek is the one everybody sees. A dormant stratovolcano rather than a folded rock peak, it stands clear of the ridgeline north of the Cross Pass, and on a good day it is visible from the road long before Stepantsminda.
Elevation 5,054 m. 42.6992° N, 44.5183° E.
The standard line up the south-east side is a glaciated snow and ice route rather than a technical climb — which does not make it casual. It crosses the Gergeti Glacier, it is heavily crevassed, and the weather turns faster than the ground does. Most parties break the ascent at the Bethlemi hut, at around 3,650 m.
For skiers it is a spring objective: ski mountaineering on Kazbek runs from roughly April into early June, while the glacier is still filled in and the days are long enough to move.
Best seen from: the Gergeti Trinity Church above Stepantsminda at 2,170 m — the classic view, and about ninety minutes on foot from the village.
Ushba
The double-peaked spire, and the hardest thing in the range
Two summits on one massif, twenty metres apart in height and split by a deep notch — 4,710 m south, 4,690 m north. Climbers call it the Matterhorn of the Caucasus, and it is widely held to be the most difficult ascent in the range.
Elevation 4,710 m. 43.1249° N, 42.6590° E.
The north summit goes at about French AD+ by its north-east ridge; the routes onto the south summit from the Georgian side are ED. There is no walk-up, no glacier plod and no ski line. Ushba is a mountaineer's mountain, and for everyone else it is scenery of a very high order.
Best seen from: the Hatsvali ski area above Mestia, where it fills the northern skyline; from the Koruldi ridge; and from the Becho valley at Mazeri, directly beneath its south face. It spends much of the year in its own weather — the clear windows come with cold, settled high pressure.
Svaneti's deep-snow wall
East of Ushba the border ridge rises again and stays high. These two carry the deepest and longest-lying snow in Georgia, and between them they define what Upper Svaneti looks like from the valley floor.
Tetnuldi — 4,858 m
43.0311° N, 42.9932° E. Tenth-highest peak in the Caucasus, and a classic glaciated snow climb rather than a technical one, hung with the Adishi Glacier on its northern side.
It is also the only peak on this page with a chairlift on it. The Tetnuldi ski area opened for the 2015–16 season on the mountain's south-western flank and runs to 3,154 m — as close as lift-served skiing gets to a Caucasus four-thousander.
Shkhara — 5,203 m
43.0006° N, 43.1122° E. The highest point in Georgia, standing on the border ridge at the eastern end of the Bezingi Wall — an eleven-kilometre span of five-thousanders whose full traverse has a reputation as the longest and most committing expedition in Europe.
You do not have to climb it to be impressed by it. Ushguli sits at about 2,100 m directly below the south face, and the walk up the valley to the Shkhara glacier snout is one of the great flat-ground viewpoints in the country.
Where they stand
Historic passes
A pass is the only reason any of this is crossable. The Greater Caucasus admits a road in very few places, and where it does, the road has usually been there a very long time — carrying armies, traders and, lately, skiers.
Jvari Pass — 2,379 m
The Cross Pass: high point of the Georgian Military Highway, the 212-kilometre road between Tbilisi and Vladikavkaz, and the gateway between Gudauri on the south side and Kazbegi on the north.
It is kept open through the winter, but open is conditional — heavy snow and avalanche control shut it at short notice, sometimes for a day at a time. Gudauri's gondola crosses the ridge toward Kobi, so skiers can reach the north side even when the road cannot.
Zagari Pass — 2,620 m
The link between Upper and Lower Svaneti, carrying the track from Ushguli over to Lentekhi. Snowbound and avalanche-prone for more than half the year, it typically opens only from late May to mid-October.
Nothing crosses it in winter. What that buys is a valley head with no through traffic for six months of the year.
Goderdzi Pass — 2,025 m
Adjara's crossing of the Arsiani ridge, linking Khulo and the Batumi side with Adigeni and Akhaltsikhe to the east.
Unlike Zagari, the western approach is held open all winter — the Goderdzi ski resort sits on the pass and depends on it — though it regularly asks for winter tyres, chains or a 4x4. The eastern section down toward Zarzma is the part that effectively closes.
Higher still, and genuinely shut: the Abano Pass into Tusheti at 2,826 m, the highest drivable road in Georgia, closed from roughly mid-October to mid-June. Passes like these are why snowcats matter here — beyond the last cleared kilometre, being driven up is the only way onto a great deal of this ground in winter.
High plateaus and open basins
Between the peaks and the passes, the Caucasus opens out. These are the wide places — glacial troughs, volcanic tablelands and alpine shelves — where the ground flattens at altitude and the sky gets a great deal larger.
Truso Valley
Twenty-five kilometres of open trough running west from the Military Highway near Kobi, at 2,093 to 2,200 m. Carbonated mineral springs stain the floor orange and red and have built travertine terraces across it — the reason it is a protected natural monument.
Abandoned and half-abandoned villages, the Zakagori fortress and the mineral lake at Abano sit along its length. It runs toward the North Ossetian border: carry your passport, and expect to show it.
Sno Valley and Juta
The other valley off the Kazbegi road, running south-east from Sno up to Juta at 2,200 m — one of the highest permanently settled villages in the country.
Above it stands the Chaukhi massif, 3,842 m at its highest — a wall of rock towers that gets called the Georgian Dolomites, and the region's rock-climbing ground.
Koruldi Basins
An alpine shelf at about 2,740 m directly under Ushba, roughly ten kilometres above Mestia by the track past the cross.
A scatter of small lakes on open ground, with Ushba on one side and Tetnuldi's snowfields on the other. It is the single best place in Svaneti to work out where you actually are.
South of the corridor
Volcanic tableland, and a different kind of height
The Lesser Caucasus works differently. Instead of a glaciated wall it offers a plateau — the Javakheti and Samsari uplands, built from extinct volcanoes and holding two and a half thousand metres of altitude for tens of kilometres at a stretch.
Didi Abuli, an extinct stratovolcano on the Abul-Samsari range, is the high point at 3,301 m and the highest ground in southern Georgia. From the summit it is the lakes that serve as landmarks rather than the peaks — Paravani, Tabatskuri, Abuli, Tsabi.
It is also the oldest inhabited high ground in the country. Cyclopean fortresses — dry-stone rings raised in the Bronze and Iron Ages — sit on the domes above the basins, including the one on Abuli's own slopes.
Bakuriani, on the Trialeti range at the plateau's northern edge, is the part of this country most skiers actually meet.
Before you go up
When are the high passes open?+
Jvari and Goderdzi are winter roads — maintained, but subject to short-notice closure in storms and for avalanche control. Zagari is a summer road only, roughly late May to mid-October. Abano, into Tusheti, is the strictest of the four at about mid-June to mid-October. Check on the day; none of these dates are promises.
Can any of these peaks be skied?+
Kazbek is the established ski-mountaineering objective, usually from April into early June while the glacier is still filled in. Tetnuldi has lift-served skiing on its lower flank to 3,154 m and serious touring above that. Ushba has no ski line at all. Shkhara is a mountaineering expedition rather than a ski trip.
Do I need a permit for Truso Valley?+
Identification, rather than a permit. The valley runs toward the North Ossetian border and there is a checkpoint on the way in — carry your passport, and be prepared for border guards to stop you at Zakagori and turn you back beyond it. It is a straightforward day out otherwise.
When is the viewing actually good?+
Cold, settled high pressure — in practice, midwinter mornings before the valley cloud builds. Late spring is the better compromise if you want to see the peaks and reach the basins on the same trip: long light, full snow cover on the tops, and most of the roads open.
How high is the tree line here?+
Roughly 2,000 to 2,400 m, depending on aspect and grazing pressure. Above it comes subalpine scrub and then open meadow to about 3,000 m, with glaciers and bare rock above that on the Greater Caucasus.
The regions these belong to
Every peak, pass and basin on this page sits in a region with its own weather, roads and villages — and, for a few of them, a chairlift.