17-Year-Old Victor Guillermin Ascends Lebanon’s Toughest Rock Climb
Between Lebanon’s cities of Laqlouq and Tannourine sits one of the most challenging rock climbing routes in the Middle East, known as the Baatara Gorge. To many, this rocky landscape is referred to as Avaatara because of its similar likeness in appearance to some of the landscapes in the sci-fi blockbuster, Avatar. Home to a picturesque waterfall, anyone climbing the Gorge has to ascend 35 meters then descend to the bottom of the sinkhole, which is a staggering 255 meters drop. Victor Guillermin, a 17-year-old, French competition climber, came to Lebanon and successfully completed the route.
He is considered the second-ever climber to take on the ascent after the late Austrian professional climber, David Lama completed it back in 2015. Guillermin watched a lot of footage of Lama completing the ascent to learn all the sequence of moves he’d need to use to climb the route successfully. When the day of the climb came, Guillermin went for a ‘full tries’ approach meaning that he attempted to climb Avaatara from start to finish in one go. The climb was never easy with its only reprieve being one rest stop below the roof.
Following over a week of trial and error, Guillermin was finally able to complete his ascent; he shared his excitement by saying, “I felt emotional because it’s a special route — it’s David Lama’s route. It was a way for me to pay tribute to David Lama and honor his memory.” Beyond the successful climb, Guillermin made sure to express how with a bit of attention, he believes “Lebanon will become one of the most popular spots in the world for climbing.”
