Kazbegi – Green Pastures and White Snowy Mountains

12. June 2023

 

 

I got up quite early to start the Gergeti-Glacier-Hike. The weather app and the window view looked like I was lucky with the weather. Since the tour was described as very long, I shortened it a bit by taking a car to the church, which saved me some metres in altitude and time.

 

 

I was not the only one with the plan. At the car park, a fairly large group with larger luggage started, and according to the languages they spoke, they were more international.

 

 

 

 

After quite a short time, the trail forked, the group went the lower one, I took the higher one

 

 

The upper trail was just great. It went steadily upwards over meadows on a kind of ridge. I was all alone there, dawdling around, looking here and there and thinking how great the mountain world is. There was only one farmstead to be seen. The rhododendrons were in bloom and so were many other little flowers. Mt. Kazbek, which often disappears behind the clouds around 10:00, remained visible for a long time that day. Every 10 steps revealed extended views and I couldn’t decide which one was the most beautiful and took tens of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I came to a part with other vegetation and small puddle-lakes

 

 

 

At 2,900 m, a pass was reached and gave a view of more inhospitable landscape: one had to cross some snow fields and then came to a hut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hut is funny because it looks exactly like one in the Alps. It was built by a Georgian team and is supplied by helicopter, which also brings building materials. There were other building activities to be seen. You can also eat and drink there, but I brought my own things. From the hut, which is at 3,014 m, it’s another good climb.

 

 

I met 2 polish people, they took a photo of me:

 

 

They were descending and said we should hurry a little because the rain was coming. It was still half an hour to the glacier. I then thought that I was actually already satisfied here, that the way down was very long and that I didn’t really need to see the glacier. But I still had to eat my lunch and found a place with a nice view:

 

 

 

 

Then I went back again. All in all, there were quite a few people on the road, but they didn’t step on each other’s toes. There were far fewer Germans on the road here, as I heard from the languages. One of them said it was because there were no signs. Hahaha. In any case, the people always looked good in the pictures:

 

 

 

 

I took some more landscape photos of details – with shadows even more beautiful.

 

 

 

This time I walked the lower path and in the middle of it the rain started. I had rain gear and an umbrella with me. There was a bit of thunder and I hurried across wet meadows and muddy paths past a huge flock of sheep. At the church it was still raining quite well and I hoped for hitchhiking luck, but had none. Maybe I was too wet. But then I thought that it’s not wrong to walk paths to the end and trotted further down. And then the rain stopped after all. I met a german and a frenchman – the first one. I asked him why there are not more from his country. He guessed it was due to missing signs…. I didn’t take any more pictures, though. It was well over 1,000 m of descent and my legs were pretty tired.

 

There would have been a super 2-day tour here, but there is still so much snow and thawing snow, i.e. lots of water, that a more pleasant tour is not expected until July. Too bad. Instead, on that very mountain day, a message reached me with another great offer in a few days.

 

But first I went back to Tbilisi for a few days.