The longest and the most demanding trekking was planned for the last day of our stay in Mestia as the weather predictions were giving us very high chances of stable conditions needed for this long hike. There are few variants of the first part of a trekking, you can take a path starting next to the church described in this post and follow it until the sign pointing to Koruldi lakes (next to the place where we met horses) or you can start close to Khergiani tower where we finished mentioned above hike. This time we decided to use another variant starting close to police station and Queen Tamar square in Mestia. After a short part through a village, this path leads upstream, then turns sharply to the slopes on the right, becoming very narrow and steep. After a while we reached wide path in the forest and followed it for the next 1.5 hour, all the time uphill, the higher we got the more mud and snow appeared.

Finally, 2h after leaving our apartment, we reached viewpoint on the Tskhakzasari mountain with wooden platform, rising few meters above the ground and with a huge cross next to it. From this place we could enjoy a stunning view on the multiple mountain ranges surrounding us from all the sides :)

As we continued our way on the path it became a bit flatter, but fresh snow, reaching up to our knees on occasion, made this part equally hard, proper shoes and waterproof trousers highly recommended! The path passes a few old wooden sheds which looked abandoned, there are also no mountain shelters in this area.

From the view platform to the Koruldi lakes it took as 2.5h of continuous walking. After a short break near the group of alpine lakes (almost not visible because of the snow covering them) for snacks and photos, we were heading back to Mestia. Lakes are localized at the foot of Mt. Ushba and it is possible to walk further up to next viewpoint (around 3.000 m).

We decided to come back the same path as we used to get here. The whole day was very sunny and our huge mistake was not using sunglasses and sunscreen. We got sunburned … these mountains taught us that lesson the hard way ;)

Track info:

  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Distance: 19 km
  • Elevation gain: 1300m