To be honest, I personally finished only maybe two thirds of treks listed on this page. So in order to collect enough information (and keep it up to date) I had to approach various people I found online - trekkers, photographers and bloggers. Luckily, all of them were very helpful, did let me use their photos or provided valuable info. And others were first to contact me and offered to cover for me various trails. Here is the list of them. May they live long and prosper!
Fergal Hingerty - Irish walker who overcame serious back illness when he was bound to the wheelchair and has been walking ever since. He is the first person even to climb
the highest peak in every county of England, Wales and Ireland.
More about him can be found here.
But that's not why I have him on a No.1 spot of contributors. Fergal also visited Georgia several times and let me publish
diaries of his hiking adventures
. Seven installments.
So he also holds a record for "most helpful contributor". If you want to dethrone him and get this prestigious award, you would have to try really hard :).
Davit Berishvili - my good friend and now also a business partner. I first contacted him during planning of Tobavarchkhili trek and he was very helpful since then - last time, he provided me with the description of the remote trail to the Okrostskali lakes. He has great web about Georgia with many "off the beaten path places" -> www.georgiantour.com/
Julia & Olgierd - this couple of Polish hikers wrote a complete description of the trek From Kistani to Akhielli through Kalotana pass, provided me with their gpx log and many photos. Truly ideal cooperation!
Chloé Tremblay & Pipo Bienek - another hiking couple that turned into very productive contributors. They wrote the trail description for the trek in the Akhalchala reserve and for the climb of Dido Abuli.
James Stearn - scouted and wrote wonderful trek from Tusheti to kakheti lowlands as well as the hike to the Guli glacier. He walked around Georgia quite a lot - you can see photos from his trips at his website.
Viktorka Hlaváčková - Czech hiker, adventurer and enthusiast for ultralight packing. Over years, she crossed Carpathians, Turkey and last time I heard about her, she was working as a "cowgirl" at Iceland. In 2018, she crossed the Caucasus mountains from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, alone. I collected her stories and memories she published on her fb site and turned them into a series of blog posts. This girl truly has some balls!
Ondrej Kameniar - Slovak ecologist specialized at forests. In 2019, he visited Georgia as a part of his research and decided to explore some of the most remote, untouched forests he could find. His most interesting expedition was into the untouched, almost inaccessible heart of Egrisi mountains. Again, I collected his noted and turned them into a blogpost.
Miloš Hejný - Czech hiker and musician. In 2018, he extensively trekked around Svaneti and provided me with lots of info which I could turn into trail descriptions of the route between Chuberi and Etseri.
Taylor Beckwith-Ferguson - a travel blogger and adventurer who spends his winters managing a ski school in Gudauri. For my website, he wrote the description of the trek to the Black Rock Lake.
Vahur Lokk - this Estonian hiker crossed from Lower Svaneti to Racha. And alone - that's really not recommended. Luckily, he survived and wrote a very interesting diary about his adventure.
Zuzka & Michal - the couple of young Czech botanists who finished Svaneti - Racha trek and also wrote about it. And, as anyone familiar with the route should know, also in this case it wasn't a very pleasant experience.
Thomas Dekiere - Dutch photographer always willing to help, provided several great photos, info about several treks and other advise. Check his website http://thdk.be/ for great photos of (not only) Georgia.
Josef Formanek - Czech trekker who walked with his friends from Mazeri to Chvelpi and gladly shared with me his photos and knowledge of the route.
Slavomír Horák - expert on Central Asia and Caucasus, helped me with Omalo-Diklo trail. He has a great, informationally very rich web about Tusheti - https://tusheti9.webnode.cz/
Martin Boettcher - took many beautiful photos during his trip and let me use them. The gallery with all his photos can be foundat the address http://martinboettcher.de/index.php?/albums/georgia/
Adam D. - finished demanding trek from Shatili to Juta, shared his photos and info with me. His photos from the trek can be found here
Pablo Naumkin - provided great photo of Ushba which I use quite often for various headers... because it's really good.
Břetislav Fiala - trekked all the way from Maami to Zhabeshi and provided beautiful photo of Adishi glacier.
Jochem B. - provided nice photos of Ananuri fortress and Friendship memorial. Has a web focused on travelling in post-communistic countries http://www.comtourist.com
Willem van den Bilt - checked my article about trek to the Ushba glacier for mistakes and grammar errors, also provided nice photo of the Ushba glacier.
Tanveer Singh - clever Indian photographer who let me use his photo of Chaukhi massif. His web can be found here -> http://tanveer.smugmug.com/
Marcin Chalupka - Polish photographer who let me use his photo of Koruldi lakes and Chalaadi glacier. His web with many more cool photos can be found here -> http://www.marcinchalupka.pl/
Max Richter - created my favourite photo of Tobavarchkhili lake and let me post it here. His Instagram account can be found at https://www.instagram.com/max.richter/
Daniel Clauss - in 2016, Daniel revised and rewrote description of Mestia - Ushguli trek to make it more accurate and up-to-date