There actually are two roads up into Svaneti. Via Zugdidi, the road is always open (barring rockfalls or avalanches, usually cleared up asap). And north from Kutaisi via Lentekhi, capital of Lower Svaneti. This way is open usually from late May through late October. Outside of this, due to its pass height of about 2800m, it is closed by deep snow.
I can count on two hands the number of times I have been on this second road, over the years from 2004 to now. A couple of times driving my own cars, a few times being driven by others, and once nearly the whole thing on foot, as part of a prayer pilgrimage in July 2020.
My last trip there was just a few days ago. Late snow in early spring had delayed the clearing of the road by a plow. Friends who took it about 10 days before me sent me a photo from the Zagaro Pass, with the cleared snow wall several times higher than a person. My drive had the same section still higher than me, despite constant temperatures above freezing, letting it melt all that time.
I was going to Gori, and the time and distance are about the same, so why not? It’s a rare opportunity compared with my hundreds of trips via Zugdidi. The views are completely different, and at least as spectacular as the “normal” way, if not more so. Mounts Ushba and Tetnuldi show themselves (if you’re lucky) from Becho onwards. Then you see Shkhara, Georgia’s highest mountain, above Ushguli, and for a long way past it too. And the vistas are huge.
(There must be a halfway point at which the travel times on either road to Tbilisi are the same, giving a choice. I don’t know where it is, likely somewhere below us in Etseri. If Zugdidi’s shopping is not one’s aim, the other way beckons).
My maximum average speed to Mestia reached 50 km/h. This then slowed to 29, as I stopped before Ushguli and many times after it for photos and video clips, but kept the car running.
The road to Ushguli is now entirely cemented, except for a single section of one or two km near it. This good road continues down the other side, soon becoming tarred, even. But there are many more breaks in this, giving way to bumpy dirt or gravel sections ranging from about 10m to a few km in length.
Nonetheless, any car with reasonable clearance will do fine. Because the cement and asphalt are newer than on our road up from Zugdidi, they are also in better condition. My hat off to the government and road workers!
In the heights, there was still a lot of snow melting on the mountains and hills, taking on fantastic textures in the process. Numerous waterfalls, some temporary, a few permanent, graced the slopes with added beauty. Down from Zagaro Pass, the snows gave way to more and more green and wildflowers, except on the mountaintops, which stay snowed always. There was little traffic, but it’s starting to increase as the warm-weather tourism and trekking seasons get under way. For Ushguli, this summer road is a boon, giving much faster access to Kutaisi and all points east, right to Tbilisi, than the Zugdidi way.
I don’t know if it would even be possible to keep this road open during winter. It would need regular snow-clearing to prevent buildup, and I don’t think it’s ever been done, even in Soviet times. But for all the alternative beauty and added speed it offers during the summer, I highly recommend it.
Blog by Tony Hanmer
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
