Two ways to ski off-piste in Gudauri, and they cost wildly different amounts of money. A private guide for a day, or a place in a week-long camp. Both are good. They are good at completely different things, and picking the wrong one is how people end up disappointed with a trip that was actually fine.
Let me lay both out honestly, including the parts that are not flattering to either format.
The short version
A private or small-group guided day buys you freedom: your dates, your pace, your terrain, one day at a time. A camp buys you progression: seven days of structured coaching, a group that learns together, and a summit at the end.
If your calendar is tight or your group is already formed, take the guide. If you want to come out the other side a genuinely better rider, take the camp.
What a private guided day involves
You hire a guide for the day, typically 9:00 to 16:00, and they build the plan around you. In Gudauri that means lift-accessed off-piste, short skins, or both, depending on conditions and what you want to work on.
Our published rates: a guided ski touring day is $100 per person per day with a 10% discount for groups of up to three people, and a private one-to-one instructor session is 120 GEL per hour. Gear rental runs about 90 GEL a day, the transfer from Tbilisi is $120 per seat, and the lift pass is separate.
What you get for that is total flexibility. You can decide at breakfast to chase powder instead of a summit. You can stop when your legs are done. You can bring a friend who skis at a completely different level and let the guide manage the gap.
What you do not get is a plan that builds across days. One day teaches you something; it does not rebuild your technique.
What the camp involves
Our freeride camp is seven days based in Gudauri with the final days moving into Kazbegi, capped at five riders, finishing with a summit push on Ortsveri at 4,350 m. The 2027 dates are 1–7 February, 15–21 February, 8–14 March and 15–21 March.
The price is $1,300 per person. That covers guide services, guesthouse accommodation, breakfast and dinner, transfers Tbilisi to Gudauri to Kazbegi and back, the full training programme including avalanche rescue practice, and rental of avalanche gear, snowshoes, poles and a backpack.
Not included: flights, insurance that actually covers freeride and mountaineering, lift passes, your personal ski or splitboard setup, lunches, and hut nights.
The structure is the product. Day two is a technique assessment, day three is mandatory avalanche rescue practice, day four is a full touring day to Deda Ena, day five is Bidara and the Aragvi forest, and then the week moves to altitude for Gergeti, the meteorological station and Ortsveri. By day seven you are doing something you could not have done on day one.
Cost, compared honestly
Seven separate guided days at $100 each is $700 before you have paid for a bed, dinner or a transfer. Add six nights of hotel, meals and airport transfers and you are comfortably past the camp price, with no coaching structure and no group.
The camp is cheaper per day because everything is bought as a package and because the group is fixed in advance. The trade-off is that you do not choose your dates beyond the four windows, and you do not choose your companions.
If you are a couple or a group of three, the private guide math gets much better: the day rate spreads across you, and the discount applies. That is the configuration where a guide genuinely competes with the camp on price.
Pace and coaching
A guide adapts to you for one day. A camp coach adapts to you across seven, and remembers what you got wrong yesterday.
That continuity is hard to fake. On day one the guide watches you ski and forms an opinion. On day three they are correcting a specific habit you did not know you had. On day five you are skiing terrain that would have scared you on day one, and you are not scared because someone built the ladder one rung at a time.
If you already ski well and just want access to terrain, you do not need that ladder. If you want to come home different, you do.
Group dynamics
This is the factor nobody puts in the brochure. A camp lives or dies on its group. Five people who get along and roughly match in ability produce a great week. Five strangers at wildly different levels can produce a week of waiting.
We cap the camp at five for exactly this reason, and we ask about your level before confirming a place. A private day has no such risk because you bring your own group, or you are the group.
Which one fits you
Take the private or small-group guided day if:
- You have one or two days in Gudauri inside a longer Georgia trip
- You are already travelling as a group of friends and want your own pace
- You want a taste of off-piste before committing a week
- You are in Georgia for work and have a free Sunday
Take the camp if:
- You have a week and want to come out a better rider
- You want avalanche training done properly, not skimmed
- You are travelling alone and would rather join a small group than ski solo
- You want the Ortsveri summit as the finish line
The hybrid nobody thinks of
Book a guided day first, then decide.
One day with a guide tells you more about your own level than a season of guessing. If you love it and the guide says you are ready for a bigger week, book the camp for next season with actual information instead of optimism. If you hate skinning, you have saved yourself seven days of it and you still got the powder day.
See the ski touring programme for day rates and routes, or read the full cost breakdown if you are building a budget.
Traveler's FAQ
Can I join a camp for fewer than seven days?
Not on the standard programme. The camp is built as a progression, and dropping in for three days breaks the sequence. A guided day is the right product for a short trip.
Do I need my own touring gear for the camp?
You need skis or a splitboard, boots and skins. Avalanche gear, snowshoes, poles and a backpack are included in the camp price. If you are missing something, ask before you book and we will sort out rental.
Is the camp suitable for a strong piste skier who has never been off-piste?
Yes, that is one of the two tracks the camp is designed around. Confident on-piste riding is the entry requirement.
What if the weather wipes out a day?
Guides plan around it. Some days become technique days in the trees, some become lecture and rescue practice. A week gives you room to absorb bad weather in a way a single day does not.
Whichever you choose, book early. February and March fill up, and the good guides are the first thing to go.
