UKC

There's a reasonable chance that I'll be relocating to Vilnius in June. A cursory search suggests that there is no climbing in Lithuania. Is this so?

In reply to the.last.thesaurus:

It is indeed. I lived in Vilnius 6 years ago. Where's nothing to climb except urban climbing or trees. But even urban is not as cool as Berlin or random abandoned Russian towns. For a long weekend you could go to Tatra Mountains.

Vilnius has "Montis" climbing gym. It used to have only so-so bouldering routes before. Maybe it improved

In reply to nutme:


I'll be needing to visit Vilnius for work periodically from now on, so I'll check this out when I'm next there. Otherwise, yes, Lithuania seems sadly flat from what I've seen so far.

In reply to the.last.thesaurus:

You could try the ferry to Helsinki, apparently there is some bouldering and lead climbing in the area.

In reply to kipper12:
Lithuania is quite a way from Finland.

OP: there is one crag at least, sort of on the border, so it might be just in Latvia but easier to get to for most Lithuanian climbers, or vice versa. Not been there but seen photos, and told about it by Lats visiting Finland to climb (i used to live in Finland).

In reply to kipper12:

I don't think there is a ferry link from Lithuania to Finland but I think there is to Sweden. Sweden seems to have endless climbing possibilities.

In reply to TobyA:

Problem with Finland / Sweden is that just drive from Vilnius to Klaipeda ferry terminal takes 4+ hours. Generally it takes whole day of travel if you are lucky with times. Klaipeda by the way has very few passenger ferries. It's mostly cargo port. Ventspils in Latvia is much better for passengers.

We used to take a train to Sevastopol and hike & climb around. But since annexation where are no transit throw Ukraine. Not sure how long would it take to travel via Russia.

In reply to nutme:

Yeah. I had forgotten how far inland Vilnius is. I've not been, but I have been to Tallinn many times and Riga a couple of times so perhaps was just automatically assuming all the Baltic capitals are on the sea!

In reply to the.last.thesaurus:

There are some bits of climbing, such as Montis in Vilnius and The Rock in Kaunas. Bouldering here too: vimeo.com/91358088 . Might be worth getting in touch with those guys.

Lithuania is fairly flat. Rock is sparse as well, Puntukas ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puntukas ) being the largest in the country. Chipped as well! You'd be better off going to Southern Poland/Czech Republic/Slovakia/Romania if you really wanted to get some climbing/mountains. Not for a day trip, obviously...

On the other hand, it would be ashame to miss out the Curonian Spit and wonderful forests all around the country. Lakes around Zarasai and Moletai are quite nice as well.

I grew up in Lithuania, but Scotland is my home now. That's where I picked up most of my mountain activities.

PM me if you need some assistance. I have been home only for around 3 weeks in total over last 5 (nearly) years, so I am sure lots of things have changed.