Here is some river information from Matt & I’s mini expedition to Georgia in August/September 2009. If you are struggling to find them on a map, ask me!

Summary

Shavia Avagvi – 10Km, class II+
Mtiuletis Avagvi – 5 Km, class III (+)
Psharus Avagvi – 2m waterfall
Terek (Tergi) – 35Km, class II – IV
Arghuni – 100m, class IV
Argun – 3km, class II – IV+
Nenskra – 7km, class III-VI
Mestia – 20Km, class II – V (attempted but not successful)
Enguri – 15Km, class III-IV (X) (some further unpaddled information here also)
Tskhenistskali – 50km, class III – V (My favourite!)
Rioni – 30Km, class III – IV

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Shavia Avagvi

Start: Kitokhi
End: Bridge just before confluence with Mtiuletis Avagvi
Length: 10Km
Class: II/II+

Description: The rapids are extremely continuous for the grade. There is a steeper section in around the trees and another road side. About 2/3 the way down the river there is a tree blocking the main channel but you can sneak passed it. In higher flows, around July, I would expect the river to be about ½ a grade harder so II+ /III.

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Mtiuletis Avagvi

Start: As far up the track as you want. The track is on river left after the main bridge that leads to the mountain pass
End: We got out above the river engineering taking place, continuing further would have been deadly!
Length: 5km
Class: III (+)

Description: Colder, steeper and more water than the Shavia. The gradient again is extreme continuous although it did remind me of the Guisane, France. One particular rapid (Bridge End) had a couple of really nice linked moves. Missing the get out at the small bridge with the current bridge works would be deadly. Combined with the Shavia, this makes an idea warm up.

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Psharus Avagvi

Start: Underneath the road bridge, where two tributaries meet, near Barisalto
End: At the bottom of the waterfall.
Length: 10m
Class: IV

Description: A huge speeder biker move into a 2.5m waterfall, the New School Draduation drop of Georgia! Below this waterfall, although we had no time to explore, looked like some great class III and possibly IV. Trees would be the major hazard in this section.

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Terek (Tergi)

Start: Kertrisi
End: Stepantsminda
Length: 35Km
Class: II – IV

Description: Upper: Starting at the village the river is flat and has some mineral deposits entering the river. These channels are yellow in colour! The start of the Truso Gorge is marked by a small metal bridge with the entrance rapid being one of the hardest in the entire gorge. There is a tight move finishing with a 1.5m drop (Highway to Hell). The river is continuous IV for several km, Mini Landslide Rapid which is a great s-bend is another notable feature. Matt was nearly sick on one rapid from sulphur rising ouit the river bed! Giant Landslide rapid (that blocks the old riverside road) marks the end of the gorge. We had to bank scout a few rapids because of the bouldery nature of the river. The river is then class II until a large white painted bridge, where you could get out or carry on.
Middle: The river starts to pick up volume and is easy read and run class III. The river does pass through a vertical sided gorge with a 2m waterfall (Blind Leading the Blind) in the middle of this section, there is zero chance of stopping, inspecting or any other jazz so run middle right off a boof ledge. The river is class II/III until Stepantsminda.
Lower: In summer flows it is extremely important that you get off the upstream side of Stepantsminda. Below here is the Dariali Gorge that at this flow is a huge class VI monster. It has claimed the lives of many Russians and seems worse that the deadly section in ‘A Glorious Way to Die’. In winter low flows, I’m sure there is a line but it’s so continuous and steep it’s certainly a tall order.

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Arghuni

Start: 5km upstream of Shaitili
End: In theory the Russian border, however we were asked not to paddle it by the Border guards and saw no reason to upset them. I just parked ‘n’ hucked a small sections
Length: 100m
Class: IV

Description: In higher flows, more of the section would go and be of good class III/IV character, maybe spring flows. I ran 3 drops out of 5, between 2 & 3 there was a large tree. Our driver was convinced he would be able to remove it but failed, much to my surprise! The 3rd, 4th & 5th required an small abseil in but was great fun, I did it a couple of times and named it Triple Step. The number of trees around here really detracted from doing any more. The locals said that if more people were to come and enjoy their region, they would keep the river free of trees. That’s jolly nice of them!

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Argun

Start: Musto
End: Wherever!
Length: We did 3km! There is more further around a similar grade.
Class: II – IV+

Description: We jumped on this after a heavy night with our home stay and as a thank you for the children they wanted to to watch us kayak. They wouldn’t take any money! Without knowing what was coming, it turned out to be great, small volume, fairly steep and technical river. Jaws is the major rapid that we came across. A extremely tight move ending in a huge flare that lands very close to a siphon.

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Nenskra

Start: Kermo Marghi
End: As you drive up the valley it’s the 1st road bridge you come to (~1km up stream)
Length: 6km
Class: III into stout IV

Description: Upper: The river starts with good volume and is pretty wide. It’s good Alpine class III and should be paddled as such. There are numerous channels, holes waves and a few lines to make. We followed the main channel in every case and that worked out great. The river gets continually harder, the class IV section really starts when you can see the Saw Mill. ‘Millers Revenge’ is the first rapid in the gorge and it where the river leaves the road. We bank scouted to clearly see the line, in that time most of the village came out to watch and take photos! The river is continues at this grade for a while and has some big hydraulic features!
Lower: Below the bridge there is no stopping until the Enguri, which in it own right is a huge huge section of class IV & V. The Nenskra in this final km is a massive undertaking with shear sided walls. The very last move is blocked and impassable. The rapids to this point are hard (V) and runnable but without a clear exit I decided not to run any further than the bridge.

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Mestia

We struggled for a couple of days to find a section around Mestia (we couldn’t find the name of the river either) that wasn’t filled with trees. There are some amazing sections around here. A huge bedrock ramp right in town for example, but trees block nearly everything. We had a fairly ill fated attempted at a section and it resulted in a 40m climb out of a steep sided gorge. The river has a fairly similar pattern. Big volume class III into a bedrock class V section blocked by wood flowing into open class III etc. In lower flows I may have been more confident to make the moves around the huge trees but not in the flows we had!

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Enguri

Start: As high was possible
End: Borgreshi
Length: 15km
Class: III-IV

Description: River starts straight forward & starts to narrow up into a great boulder garden gorge. We had to jump out of our boats to inspect a small section where boulders made it hard to see around corners. The moves are pleasant and enjoyable. The limestone canyons are beautiful with great whitewater. The main hazards on this section were fallen trees, a couple of tight lines around them and a portage over one. I loved this section brilliant quality, great remoteness feel to it!

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Middle section from Borgeshi to Legahi. I was told this section was rafted in Soviet times with success and no deaths (?!) so it must be possible. It was extremely un-practical for us to run this section for a number of reasons. It’s probably a couple of days or one huge day on the water without bank support as the road goes around this section up to Mestia. We also didn’t have the fuel to drive back to Mestia and back to Borgeshi again! I have a feeling the section is steep! I would come prepared to run this section next time with extra fuel, overnight kit and some research before hand.

The Lower section from Legahi to the reservoir is extremely impressive. It’s about 60km of class V(+) and VI. It’s big water during the summer months. I’m sure it goes in low water in the winter but will still be a massive undertaking. The river has some huge lines, deep canyons, house sized boulders and some more fallen trees! This section is a big project for someone! Maybe I’ll get around to it.

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Tskhenistskali

Start: Where the Ushguli road meets the river.
End: 10km downstream from Lentenkhi
Length: 50km
Class: II – V(+)

Description: Upper: class II/IV. The starts fast, continuous but relatively low volume like all Georgian gravel bed rivers. In this section there are 2 harder rapids. One is after the only still pool on any river in Georgia and the second under a high road bridge. It’s around here you realise how much power the water has, and a taste of things to come. The river still has a little way before the start of the main canyon, marked by a red metal road bridge.
Middle: class IV & V. This is the start of the 22km long canyon stretch this is completely relentless. There are some big holes, big lines and steep rapids. The big corners and huge boulders make boat scouting incredibly difficult. I was also taking extra caution because there are numerous trees around. This required a fair bit of bank scouting, which of course eats into your time. The bank scouting was a bit of a pain but with a good system with a good team you’ll make light work of it. It’s worth doing, one rapid that we portaged had a huge re-enforced concrete slab in it. It’s impressive to see. Trees block rapids, but they float there that concrete had been put there by the power of the water. It made the line very tight indeed. We also portaged again about 2 or 3 kms outside of Lentenkhi. You can see that one from the road. It’s very steep & powerful. This gorge has some amazing rapids, big boofs over giant boulders and is a proper mental game! I loved it!
Lower: class III. The river picks up another 3 tributaries and now has a big volume feel to it, which is great and a nice chill out from the gorge.

This river was our main achievement of the trip and most rewarding.

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Rioni

We meet up with a raft group to enjoy some social paddling. On the drive up I didn’t pay attention to where we were going so have no idea the get on used or really the distance covered. We paddled 2 sections over 2 days with the clients that feed us in exchange for photos. They were really nice people. The water was in epic flow after a huge storm. It had washed away a bridge and caused a landslide. As a result the water was black and difficult to read. It was about class III and IV. One harder rapid had a couple of big holes in. The river had dropped 2m in some places between morning and evening!
The second day was the Tushi Gorge, a beautiful limestone gorge with nice class III rapids. I was led to believe that the high water had washed most of the good rapids away and should be class IV.

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Use at own risk, I’m not taking responsibility for the accuracy of these notes and are here as a guide for your own adventures!