Austrian climber David Lama chose Lebanon as the location for his latest adventure and fixed his sights on setting a route in the untouched Baatara Gorge.
It was a bold move for the 25-year-old climber and he successfully set the new route Avaatara, which is a 5.14d climb.
“If you get to travel roads that have already been discovered, you’re basically just following,” Lama said, citing the reason why he chose to visit Lebanon. “But if you go somewhere no one has ever been you’re basically in the lead and that’s something I really like.”
“Lebanon is definitely a special place, it’s somehow a little bit exotic, a place that you don’t actually plan to go to as a climber, as it’s not really on the climbing map, and that’s one factor that drove me to come here.”
The Baatara gorge sinkhole is a waterfall in Tannourine, Lebanon, which drops 255 metres into the Baatara Pothole, a cave of Jurassic limestone located on the Lebanon Mountain Trail.
Lama is the first person to ever scale the sinkhole.