David Lama discovers Avaatara in the Baatara Gorge, Lebanon

But Lama’s sudden appearance of the competition scene remained as brief as it was intense, and his focus soon shifted elsewhere, towards hard sports climbs at the crags and long and difficult routes up in the mountains. Today Lama’s ability and versatility is undisputed and much of this truly remarkable transformation is based on those early, highly productive sports climbing days.

It comes as no surprise therefore that when Lama switches back into this sports climbing mode, he is bound to leave a mark. Like last June when, inspired by a photograph, he travelled all the way to the beautiful Baatara Gorge in Lebanon, also referred to as the "Cave of the Three Bridges". The enormous limestone sinkhole close to Beirut proved even more spectacular than Lama had expected: "Three natural arches, a waterfall that falls into a dark hole 100 meters below, the blue and orange limestone and the intense green of the plants immediately made me think of the surreal landscape in the movie "Avatar".

Lama teamed up with Lebanese climber Jad Khoury to explore the gorge and the two immediately got to work. After having discarded the seemingly most obvious lines, they bolted a steep outing to the right of the waterfall, past a "wild line of crimps and slopers that seemed to connect through the entire, near-horizontal roof."

Lama’s success came about after 2 days and the new single pitch sports climb - the first in the gorge - is now called Avaatara, a reference to its surreal surroundings. Graded 9a, this is obviously the hardest sport climb in Lebanon. More importantly though, it is one of the most stunning routes Lama has established so far.