For decades, freeskiing media has followed a familiar formula: a small crew of elite athletes, local guides, and professional cinematographers head deep into the mountains to capture the extraordinary. You watch the film, read the editorial, and dream about what it would feel like to stand on those ridges.
Travel Like The Pros Do: Welcome to the Downdays Experience Hub
The Experience Hub on the approach in Mestia, Georgia.
The Downdays Experience Hub is a new era of interaction that flips the script on traditional ski travel. We take a small, selected group of skiers from our community and drop them directly into the environments we usually just report about. This is your chance to step into the boots of a professional skier for a week and embark on the trip of a lifetime.
The view is good from up here.
The Concept: Where Skiing Turns Into Stories
The idea behind the Experience Hub is simple, yet it opens up a completely different world.
Elite Company: You will be riding alongside sponsored athletes and local guides who know the terrain intimately. This isn’t your average weekend warrior’s ski trip.
Pro Media Production: A professional camera crew will be tracking your lines, capturing high-quality media in real terrain. Of course, you get to keep all your clips—making the trip that much more memorable.
True Freeskiing Culture: This isn’t a sanitized resort holiday. It is an immersive dive into the authentic lifestyle and culture of the mountains, in some of Europe’s most desirable ski terrain.
Seamless Execution: You get the athlete experience without the logistics headache. The travel coordination, participant relations, and legal agreements are fully managed by a specialized travel agency from Austria working in a joint venture with Downdays GmbH.
Stoke on the skin track.
Proven in the Caucasus: The Mestia Soft Launch
We don’t just hope this formula works—we proved it during our soft launch in 2026. The Experience Hub Mestia, in the stunning Svaneti region of Georgia, brought together passionate skiers alongside partners like the Georgia National Tourism Agency, the Freeride World Tour, Peak Performance, and Mammut.
The first Experience Hub trip visited Mestia in February 2026.
The result was unforgettable skiing, incredible community connection, and a massive wave of high-quality media production. But the real validation comes from the skiers who stood on those peaks with us:
Best trip I've had in years. Genuine people, great food and awesome skiing in a unique location.
Between big lines in the Caucasus, villages that feel frozen in time and unreal Georgian hospitality, it was way more than just skiing. The crew, the culture, the food, and everything we shared along the way made it a trip I'll never forget.
The 2026/2027 Winter Schedule
Building on the foundation laid in Svaneti, we are expanding the Downdays Experience Hub to more destinations, bigger lines, deeper snow and even smaller crews.
Experience Hub Bakhmaro: Europe’s Best-Kept Powder Secret
For decades, skiers chased the dream of bottomless, effortless snow across the Pacific. But you don’t need to cross the globe to find it anymore. Welcome to Bakhmaro, Georgia—the “Japan of Europe.”
Tucked away in a pristine alpine pocket, Bakhmaro delivers the same staggering snow consistency and legendary deep-powder conditions as Hokkaido, but without the tracks, the lift lines, or the crowds. It is a pure, uncrowded paradise where winter hits hard and leaves behind a blank canvas of deep, cold snow. For one week, this is your playground.
The Elite Upgrade: 2 Cats, 10 Skiers
Traditional snowcat operations pack up to 14 people into a single cabin. That means waiting around, compromised tracks, and competing for the best lines. We don’t do basic.
To give you the true professional athlete experience, we have completely reimagined the setup:
Unmatched Ratio: We are running two dedicated snowcats for just 10 community skiers.
Your Personal Crew: Each snowcat is staffed with its own expert local guide and a professional filmmaker.
Maximized Vert, Zero Waiting: With only 5 riders per cat, the operations are fast, nimble, and dialed-in. You get first tracks on every single run, tailored strictly to the group’s pace and ability.
The Pro Feature: While you are slashing through Europe’s finest powder, your dedicated filmer is capturing every turn from the perfect angle, creating a high-end personal media portfolio from your week in the mountains.
Home Base: Riders Lodge Bakhmaro
The pro-level treatment doesn’t stop when the snowcat parks for the evening. Our home for the week is the Riders Lodge Bakhmaro, the absolute newest and most exclusive lodge in the entire region.
Forget rustic, drafty mountain shelters—Riders Lodge blends premium modern comfort with the deep, welcoming warmth of Georgian hospitality. It’s a stylish, comfortable sanctuary designed specifically for riders to recharge, dry out their gear, enjoy incredible local food, and talk strategy for the next day’s lines with the crew.
Experience Hub Bakhmaro: Trip Details & Logistics
Price: TBA
Dates: 5–12 February 2027
The Experience: Step straight into the life of a professional freerider—unlimited deep powder, premium lodging, and a dedicated production crew filming your every move.
Peace of Mind: As always, while Downdays coordinates the media and community vibe, all travel packages, legal agreements, and logistics are seamlessly managed by our specialized Austrian travel agency partner.
Spaces for this exclusive 10-person crew will fill up fast. If you are ready to experience the deep snow of Bakhmaro the way it was meant to be ridden, let’s lock in your spot.
Experience Hub Mestia x FWT: Deep Powder, Big Lines, and Rich Culture
Following our highly successful 2026 soft launch, we are heading back to the breathtaking peaks of the Caucasus. This is the trip that started it all—an immersive journey into Svaneti, Georgia, a region where towering alpine faces meet ancient villages that feel beautifully frozen in time.
For the 2027 edition, we are replicating the exact high-octane formula that left our previous crew speechless, while adding an ultimate, high-altitude upgrade for those ready to push their boundaries even further.
The Experience: Live Like a Freeride Pro
The Experience Hub Mestia is designed to give you a genuine taste of the professional athlete lifestyle. This isn’t your standard guided tour; it is a full-immersion freeride project.
Big Lines & Deep Powder: Ride the massive, rugged terrain of the Caucasus Mountains alongside elite local guides and seasoned professionals.
The FWT Connection: Immerse yourself in the true culture of competitive freeskiing. Our trip runs in close collaboration with the Freeride World Tour, bringing you right into the heart of the modern freeride movement.
Pro Media Production: A dedicated media crew will be on-site with professional cameras to capture your lines. Just like a sponsored athlete, your week of riding will be documented to create high-quality content.
Unreal Georgian Hospitality: Beyond the snow, you will experience the legendary food, rich culture, and warm community that makes Svaneti a truly unforgettable destination.
Ultimate Upgrade: Optional Heli-Skiing Day
While the lift-accessed and touring terrain in Mestia is already world-class, we are raising the stakes for 2027. This year, participants have the exclusive option to add a Heli-Skiing Day to their itinerary.
Lift off straight into the untouched wilderness of the high Caucasus. With the helicopter at our disposal, we will access remote, pristine peaks and massive powder faces that are entirely unreachable by any other means. It is the definitive pro-athlete experience, giving you the chance to film video segments on untracked, cinematic big-mountain lines.
Experience Hub Mestia: Trip Details & Logistics
Price: TBA
Dates: End of February 2027
Destination: Mestia, Georgia
The Setup: Premium guiding, professional media creation, and rich cultural immersion, backed by partners like Peak Performance and Mammut.
Seamless Travel Management: While Downdays orchestrates media production, community engagement, and brand partnerships, all travel planning, bookings, and contractual arrangements are expertly handled by our trusted Austrian travel agency partner.
The original Experience Hub destination offers a classic Georgian freeride experience, spiced up with the excitement of the Freeride World Tour. Don’t delay—send us your application.
Experience Hub Norway: The Ultimate Ski & Sail Freeride Expedition
Our first full season of the Experience Hub concludes with the holy grail of Arctic big-mountain riding, where towering alpine peaks plunge straight into the dark waters of the North Atlantic.
Riding fresh, cold powder above the Norwegian fjords is one of the most surreal experiences a skier can have. To do this destination justice, we’ve chosen to combine a live-aboard vessel with a premium land-based lodge. This deliberate split ensures we never have to compress the skiing, giving our crew the ultimate, unhurried big-mountain adventure.
Phase 1: 4 Days of Untouched Ski & Sail
The journey begins on the water. For the first four days, a private vessel serves as our moving basecamp, allowing us to access isolated wilderness zones that are completely unreachable by road.
Off the Beaten Track: We will navigate deep into the fjords, dropping anchor beneath hidden valleys and untouched bowls.
Fjord-to-Peak Ascent: Each morning, we step off the boat and skin directly up pristine, crowd-free faces with a dedicated local guide and a professional Downdays filmmaker tracking every move.
Ocean-Side Descents: Finish your lines right at the water’s edge, watching the boat wait for you in the fjord below.
Phase 2: 5 Days in the Lyngen Alps & Premium Lodging
After four days of maritime exploration, we dock the boat and head deep into the legendary Lyngen Alps for the remaining five days of the expedition.
The Notorious Lyngen AK Faces: This zone is world-famous for its massive, spine-like alpine features that closely mimic the steep, dramatic faces of Alaska. Weather permitting, this is our chance to step up and film on some of the most iconic freeride terrain in Europe.
Premium Land Base: After days of living at sea, the crew moves into premium land-based lodging. This gives everyone a spacious, high-end sanctuary to dry out gear, feast on local Nordic cuisine, review media clips with our production team, and comfortably wait out any passing arctic storms without missing a beat.
Experience Hub Norway: Trip Details & Logistics
Price: TBA
Dates: Early April 2027 (TBA)
The Mission: 9 days split between a private expedition boat (4 days) and a premium mountain lodge (5 days) to maximize skiing on Norway’s most dramatic faces.
The Pro Setup: Small crew size, expert local guiding, and full-production media creation to document your entire sub-arctic journey.
Seamless Travel Execution: While Downdays coordinates the media creation, community dynamics and brand integrations, all travel logistics, bookings and legal agreements are managed seamlessly by our specialized Austrian travel agency partner.
Spaces for this extended arctic freeride project are highly coveted and strictly limited. If you are ready to experience the fjords and the famous Lyngen faces like a true professional, get in touch to secure your spot on the roster.
Looking further ahead, our compass is set on expanding the Experience Hub concept into global powder meccas, including provisional future objectives in Japan, British Columbia, and Alaska.
Ready to be part of the Experience?
Prices, full package details, specific athlete attendance, and official brand partnerships for each trip will be announced in the coming weeks, but you don’t have to wait to take action. If you want to secure your spot early or get answers about the trips before anyone else, drop us an email today at experience@downdays.eu to get front-row access and be first in line when official bookings open.