The Gudauri race courses passed FIS certification and in 1989 the ski area hosted the European Women's Championships. The local ski school works hard training Georgian Olympic hopefuls of the next generation. The ski area also witnessed the emergence and dynamic development of the Georgian Snowboarding Federation, a newcomer to watch out for. The surrounding peaks, ranging between nine and fifteen thousand feet, offer hundreds of great descents. The same as, say, jazz, sex, or sunsets - inadequately.
Words fail, pictures are static, memories get recorded as feelings.
Maybe it's a moment of cosmic silence after the rotor noise goes away, leaving you and the others among those timeless snow-covered peaks. Maybe it's the first look down the untracked slopes below, and the understanding that there's much more beyond. As I ski into Asia, I have not only eliminated the border that contains, controls, and separates the two continents, but have also knocked down the borders in my own mind. This is really where the border lies. It is not the locked gate, not where the guard stands, not even the lines drawn on the map I hold in my hand.