My first peek at a peak.

After much anticipation, we were finally at Gudauri when their new fifth lift was open and taking riders. Boy I wish I had taken my snowboard with me to Gudauri for the school ski trip. Either that, or I wish I had a clue when it comes to telemark skiing in steep and deep powder. I'm getting better, but probably not fast enough to really handle it this season.

There are parts of the rest of the mountain that have soft snow, but most of it is kinda crusty with some bare patches. Not up here on lift 5. Gorgeous views, good snow -- even on the groomed piece -- and thin crowds all make this part well worth it. You really feel on top of the world up here, at 3307m it's 300m above the previous max height in Gudauri, which before still looked pretty high up from the base. You're nearly a full kilometer above the base of the mountain. It's pretty awesome.dhjsklkghjlkghjl (Sorry, had to wipe the drool of my keyboard.)

I should mention: the summit on the right side of the above photo is Mt. Kazbegi at 5033m (16512 ft).



In other news, the school ski trip was pretty fun. Any time I can blow off two days of work to go skiing is a good time. Plus most of the kids were well behaved and made life easy for the chaperons. We stayed at the fancy "Sport Hotel" which is at the very base of the lift. While it is super convenient and there are other activities for folks who don't want to ski, there's no way I would pay to go to this place without a HUGE discount like we got this week. There are nicer rooms in Gudauri and the bar isn't so awesome to justify the costs.

Either way, a pretty awesome skiing week. Saturday (see previous post), then Wednesday, Thursday for me (add Tuesday for Meg) and we're going up again on Sunday. Why? Because we can and who needs a reason better than that?