Kaçkar: A New Era for Ski Touring

Kaçkar, nouvelle donne pour le ski de rando

Located in northeastern Turkey near the Georgian border, the Kaçkar mountain range rises above the Black Sea and stretches for hundreds of kilometers.
Peaks above 3,000 meters number in the hundreds, and snowfall is reliably abundant thanks to weather systems fueled by the Black Sea. We had already dedicated two articles to this region in the magazine, but things have changed a bit since then.

Turkey has launched major infrastructure projects across the country, and the Kaçkar range is no exception. Since 2018, a new tunnel allows travelers to cross the mountains via a road that’s kept open and snow-cleared in winter—up to 2,200 meters in elevation! A development that opens up exciting new opportunities for ski touring.

So we went back on site to explore these fresh possibilities.