Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains

Eric Themal skis the Republic of Georgia

We know how it is. You’re on the Freeride World Tour, chewing your way through your sport’s biggest crags and bluffs, testing out the newest equipment for your sponsors, popping off the koo-kooiest airs around the world—it can get a little repetitive after a while, no? Sometimes you need to get off the daily grind, dial it back and go almost off the map—somewhere quiet, somewhere unknown. Big-mountain boarder Eric Themel knows just the place: the Republic of Georgia, where a high white strip of peaks deep in the Caucasus Range separates West from East, Europe from Asia, and pretenders from powderhounds.