Can Latvians climb? Yes, we can!

It's becoming a classic... people who come to visit me in Barcelona are put through the test of doing a bit of rock climbing. Like Mahdi, who had never climbed and managed to climb a three-pitch route in Montserrat, our friends Santa, Ivars, and their colleague Lāsma, came all the way from Latvia to spend a few days exploring the city, and accepted the challenge.

We were too many people to climb a multi-pitch route, so we decided to go to a sports climbing area called La Font de l'Ametlló, some 45min from the city.

I hope Ivars doesn't mind me mentioning this: while organising the climbing the day before, the most difficult task was to find a harness for him. Fortunately, I look after things pretty well, and after seeing that none of the two harnesses I have would fit him, I had to dig out my first harness ever. In this post you can see a picture from 1984 where I was wearing it. Obviously I didn't tell Ivars he was going to be hanging from a 28-year old harness i.e. made before he was even born. Still, I had to improvise an extension with a sling to tie it all together at the front with a locking carabiner. Somehow, we were all set.

We got up, the day looked excellent, had a nice breakfast, jumped in the van and after a technical stop on the way to have a coffee in a terrace, we parked. A 15-minute walk later we were at the crag.

There weren't many people so we were free to choose routes. A route called Mitica, with a grade of difficulty of IV+, looked perfect for a first contact. Ivars went up first, struggling a bit at the beginning, but moving more gracefully (to put it nicely) as he was going up. He reached the top a bit tired, but after lowering him down I could see he was surprised to have gone up what looked like a very steep wall.

Santa was next, however for some strange reason she got a cramp on her leg only after having made three or four moves. Sadly, that was it for her. When you first climb is not uncommon to get your calves cramped if you go with your heels up too much, but I didn't even get a chance to give Santa some advice. Now she has another excuse to come back.

Lāsma also wanted to give it a go. A bonus Lāsma had was that being a tall girl, an old pair of my climbing shoes fit her perfectly, and it happens that I got them re-soled a few weeks ago, so they are like new. But, unlike Ivars who went up with some running shoes, wearing climbing shoes doesn't mean you go up as if by magic. After the first few meters having some trouble, Lāsma started to use her feet and legs quite well, and a few minutes later possibly became the first Latvian female to have climbed that route!

Including Lara, we all had climbed the route, so was time to move on. We made a mistake by thinking that Mary Brown, also IV+, would be a nice one to do. Lara led it, but when we lowered her down we realised the rope had a lot of friction next to the belay at the top. I led it too to recover some stuff Lara had left at the top and we had to choose another one.

El petit princep, a bit more difficult with grade V, is a route that looks very difficult because it goes through big holes, almost little caves, and a couple of slightly overhang sections, however the holds are generous and it is a fun route to climb. It was time to confirm that Latvians can definitely climb.

I led this one, and Lara would lead it at the end to recover some stuff I left at the belay at the top. Lāsma preferred not to try this one, but Ivars gave it a go.

When Ivars got to the first overhang I had to hold him, and he asked to be lowered down, however we had a referendum and concluded he had to stop being lazy and go for it.

The only person who didn't believe he was capable of going up, was him.

He then managed the first overhang, inside one of the holes he was able to rest a bit and then managed the second overhang. Ivars made it, and probably still doesn't believe it!

We called it a day, and made another technical stop on the way back to enjoy some drinks and patatas bravas under the sun.

Yup, Latvians can climb.