Svaneti's big resort opens 23 December and a day on the lifts is 50 lari

The published season is 23 December 2026 to 11 April 2027, which is a long winter by Georgian standards and a consequence of the altitude. Lifts are listed as running 10:00 to 16:30, with the resort noting that hours vary with conditions, weekdays and holidays, so a short winter day gets shorter in bad weather. A main-season adult day pass is 50 lari and a child pass 25. Those are the figures to plan a budget around; multi-day and equipment prices are a separate conversation with the resort.

Five lifts and 13.7 km of marked slopes, from 2,265 m up to 3,160 m, a vertical drop of 895 m. The split is 5.3 km easy, 6.4 km intermediate and 2 km difficult, so this is a mountain built around confident intermediates rather than beginners or experts. The visitor rating on the listing is 3.0 out of 5, described as good, and that is roughly the right expectation: high, scenic terrain with modest infrastructure, not a resort competing on lift capacity or après-ski.

The resort is 19 km from the centre of Mestia, and Mestia itself is a long way from everywhere. The lift pass is cheap; the transport, the accommodation and the days lost to weather are what the trip actually costs. Build in a spare day, do not book a flight out for the afternoon you plan to leave the mountains, and check road and lift status the evening before rather than the morning of. Anyone selling ski trips to Svaneti should be setting that expectation at the time of booking, not on arrival.

Skiers who want height, space and scenery and who do not mind a basic lift system and a limited choice of evening options. Families will find the easy terrain adequate and the child pass cheap. Anyone whose main criterion is convenience will be happier at a resort closer to Tbilisi. For guesthouse owners in Mestia, the published 23 December opening is the date to work backwards from for staffing, stock and heating, and the 11 April close is the one to remember when deciding how long to keep the season running.