For the past five years, our team has been chipping away at the monumental task of creating a 3,000-kilometer trail network across the Caucasus. It’s been slow work finding old trails, building new trails, and creating the resources necessary to help hikers have a safe and enjoyable experience. But it’s been work richly rewarded in […]
Here at TCT HQ, we dream of a day when a perfectly groomed trail network spans the Caucasus, trodden by intrepid hikers from across the region and the globe, bringing to light the beauty of these wild and ancient places, and helping revitalise mountain communities and conservation efforts at the same time. That day, of […]
Ah, the old adage: “A good map is hard to find.” (No? Just us?) It’s particularly true in the Caucasus, where we’ve mainly resorted to satellite imagery and combing through old scans of Soviet military maps to figure out potential new routes. So we count ourselves very lucky to have smart friends like the people at […]
Like everyone, we’ve been working to adapt and reprioritize lately. With unprecedented global travel restrictions in place and most of our annual fundraisers cancelled, we’ve developed new– but still ambitious– summer plans. In short: the COVID-19 pandemic has made it impossible to run our international summer programs this year, but we’re not going to let […]
Are you curious about the data that feeds your navigation apps? Want to contribute to an open-source mapping project improving the data on remote regions for the public good? Have way too much time to fill on your couch right now? Come join the TCT team on Saturday, May 16 for an introduction to virtual […]
Well, now that it’s the start of May, it’s clear that the COVID-19 pandemic will require us to dramatically change our plans for the summer. But even though the current situation has made our programs involving international travel and exchange impossible, we aren’t going to let that stop us from working to create real-life connections […]
Thick sunlight is dripping through the tree canopy, illuminating mossy branches of ancient hornbeam trees. We cross one gurgling stream, winding its way through a carpet of green, then another, and the forest itself seems to glow in the moist rising heat after a rain shower. It’s early November — and still green, still glowing […]
Hello from the TCTeam! Wherever you are, we hope you’re doing okay. The world is changing quickly and in the Caucasus, like most places, it’s a tumultuous time. We’re thinking of our communities– here in Georgia and Armenia as well as globally– and sending our hearts to those most affected by the current public health […]
For the past four years, we’ve run volunteer trail building camps in Georgia and Armenia. And each summer, a diverse group of passionate, hardworking, fun individuals has descended on the growing hiking hubs of the Caucasus. They’ve worked on hundreds of kilometers of trail. They’ve learned how to swing Pulaskis, whacked through overgrown fields with […]
This is a guest post by Val Ismaili, who in 2017 completed an 800km thru-hike of Armenia and returned in 2019 with another ambitious goal: to establish brand new rock-climbing routes among the stunning cliffs of Dilijan National Park. In 2017, I travelled to the Caucasus for the first time. It was a four-month-long trip […]
