Adventurous project in the Caucasus: Damian Ott climbs the mountain in Georgia

“I’m here to work,” the St. Gallen wrestler explains over a very shaky phone line. «My employer, S.Müller Holzbau AG, has been commissioned to build seven mountain huts in the Caucasus at 2,500 to 3,000 meters above sea level. I wanted to be there.” The client is the Georgian Ministry of Infrastructure. The huts will be accessible via new hiking trails and are intended to stimulate tourism.

Cold start to the adventure

Even the journey to the remote mountain area was adventurous. The carpenter and his colleagues were on the road for 24 hours. After the stopover in Istanbul we continued to the Georgian capital Tbilisi, from there by bus for two hours to the mountains and finally by SUV over a bumpy road to a small, remote mountain village.

Damian Ott and his colleagues stay there in a rudimentary guest house. This literally required some acclimatization during the first few days. “When we arrived the house was not heated. It got very cold that night and we all went to sleep with our coats on. Until a few days later, in the middle of the night, they installed an oven. It’s quite comfortable now.”

Specialties that take some getting used to

For the rest, Ott has only words of praise for his Georgian hosts. If the group goes to play a game after dinner, a plate of roasted meat or a bowl of pasta is served as a midnight snack without anyone asking. “We certainly won’t starve here,” the Swiss says, laughing.

To heat something up on the construction site, the team got to work inventively. “We built a fireplace with some scaffolding elements and then heated the food we brought with us on a hot stone,” says Ott.

Some Georgian specialties take some getting used to. For example, a salty, hard sheep’s cheese, which they serve here for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. That’s not our thing at all.” And the team also prefers to hold back when it comes to the strong schnapps, which is part of every social gathering in Georgia.

Commuting – by helicopter

Despite the hard work and harsh conditions, the wrestler has fun in the Caucasus. A highlight is the daily commute – at least when the weather is nice. The crew can then fly by helicopter to the construction site at 2,600 meters. However, when the hut is foggy, the man from eastern Switzerland and his colleagues have to walk for 45 minutes, carrying food and gasoline for the power generator up the mountain. Damian Ott’s Georgia adventure comes to an end on Friday. Then Ott finally has a ‘real’ holiday in Spain. A little less adventurous, but probably a lot more relaxed.