Tetnuldi is not easy to get to. It took over eight hours to drive here from Tbilisi, though you can cut the journey to five hours if you fly to Kutaisi Airport and skip Georgia’s capital. Plus, perception of driving distances in this part of the world is relative anyway. Queueing for the hut’s one toilet (a sound system good enough to power a small stage at a festival but only one toilet…) I got chatting to a Russian couple and asked if they’d travelled a long way to get here. “No, no it was easy,” they replied, “we just drove for six hours.”

“My grandfather was my teacher, and he made a handmade ropeway for us. He actually lost two fingers to make that”

The last part of the drive was stunning if not a little sketchy at times as we passed through steep gorges with sheer drops beside the road, while other sections were super-narrow. And you definitely need a four-wheel drive for the final stretch up to the resort, as we often saw cars wheel-spinning frantically on the snowy track especially in the mornings.

Nata has lived in the nearby town of Mestia all her life. It’s a UNESCO heritage site thanks to its pretty medieval stone towers, which acted as warrior homes and fortresses during the many battles that have plagued this turbulent region over time. Until the beginning of the last century people still lived in these Svan towers, sharing the lower floors with their livestock in winter. But even in modern times, this was a brutal place to live, especially as the one access road was frequently blocked by landslides and avalanches.

I ask Nata how things are more generally when it comes to equality between men and women in Georgia? “There is still a lot of work to do but it’s changing, and in our history, we’ve always had lots of strong women. Tamar the Great, our old ruler [from 1184-1213 in Georgia’s Golden Age] was a woman, and she was so powerful they called her a king not a queen. I definitely got psychological strength from her growing up. And even in Soviet and post-Soviet times the mountain women here were tough, they could do rescues, they worked and lived in the mountains.”

The sheer graft of mountain living in the Svaneti region has seen many residents move away in recent years, as is the pattern globally in remote highland settlements. And you still see more farm animals wandering about than people, but tourism, especially amongst adventure-minded skiers and snowboarders, is bringing a real resurgence to the area.

“That’s why people love this place, it’s quite secret and not so crowded”

“People from Europe really love this place,” says Nata. “Most of them book a guide and come here to freeride. Adventurous skiers and snowboarders, who are mostly a high standard, though we do get some beginner freeriders.

Winter tourism developed as some people came and told their friends who then came here and also told their friends. We didn’t do PR or advertising so it’s developing step by step.”

Nata is keen it doesn’t get too busy though. She says: “The number of people who come here is enough, that’s why people love this place, it’s quite secret and not so crowded. If you suddenly had a boom of people, it could be too much.”

There were certainly no crowds during my time here, and plenty of fresh tracks to be had even on the piste for much of the first day. Once that was done we dived into the deep snow right next to the pistes and under the lifts, whooping our heads off especially through the steep and enjoyably technical pillow-like sections, and dodging between gorse and rhododendron bushes, which bizarrely don’t start growing until 2000m. The resort runs up to 3,160m.

“People from Europe really love this place”

Besides a lift I get talking to two German skiers, who can’t hide their giant powder grins. “Can you imagine this few tracks in the Alps?” one asks, before heading off for another lap. I tell them I can’t.

But it isn’t just the snowboarding, the excellent terrain or the lack of people that makes this place so special. It’s the region’s history and authenticity, but also its food. Bread and cheese are central to many mountain cultures, but the Georgians take it to a whole new level especially in the local Svaneti restaurants. We had Khachapuri, a pizza-style baked bread with oozing cheese, Fetvraal, which is similar with added millet, Chvishdari, cornbread mixed with cheese and eggs, and Tashmijabi, pureed potato and cheese.

All of which tasted amazing and felt like the perfect antithesis of the clean eating craze back home, except somehow, maybe because it was all homemade, it didn’t make me feel rough in the way this much bread and cheese usually would.

Other food highlights included Badrijani Nigvzit, aubergine stuffed with walnut paste, Pkhali, a paste of mixed vegetables and nuts, Khinkali dumplings, like giant dim sum, Ajapsandali, a reworked ratatouille, and Lobio, fava beans cooked in a clay pot. The meals always had great salads too. Vegetarians do surprisingly well here, and even vegans would have an easier time of it than in the Alps. Georgia is said to have the oldest winemaking culture in the world and the organic local wine was very good. The local spirit, called Chacha, less so, though it did its job.

Later in my trip I leave the Svaneti region and visit some of Georgia’s other ski resorts. Snowsports are a big part of the country’s tourism-led development drive. I snowboard at Guduari, the country’s flagship snow centre, its appeal amplified by the fact it can be combined with a trip to Tbilisi, a really cool city to spend time, and I also visit the emerging resort of Goderzi, near the holiday town of Batumi on the Black Sea. They each have their own charm but seem far more modelled on the kind of ski resorts you find in Europe and North America, with nothing approaching the original feel and adventure vibes of Tetnuldi. Here’s hoping it can stay that way.

Do It Yourself

Wizz Air has return flights from London to Kutaisi from £100 return.

Georgian Airways has return flights from London to Tbilisi from £272 return.

Hotel Chubu in Mestia has double rooms from £36.

For more on skiing and snowboarding in Georgia, visit this website.

Alternatively, Mountain Heaven are running package trips to several Georgian ski resorts including Tetnuldi.

Thanks to Henrys Avalanche Talk for providing us with avalanche kit and wisdom.

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