Atis Plakans, one of Latvia’s best-known climbers, has been living in the Swiss village of Zermatt at the foot of one of the highest and at the same time the most beautiful European mountains, Matterhorn, working as a mountain guide in summer and ski instructor in winter. The experienced expedition leader agreed to talk to LSM.lv about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on everyday life, including the opinion that the feeling of freedom for mountain dwellers is less than for plain people.
The Matterhorn is not only one of the highest mountains in Western Europe, but also one of the last in the Alps, at the top of which man climbed, 155 years ago, the golden age of mountaineering in Europe. Since then, more than half a thousand people have lost their lives on the way to one of the most dangerous peaks in the Alps. Atis Plakans, a Latvian, lives in the village of Zermatt during the global pandemic at the foot of the 4478-meter-high peak in the village of Zermatt, 1608 meters above sea level.
At the beginning of the conversation, to the question about five times this summer at the top of the Matterhorn, the Latvian surprises with a play on words:
“I have not climbed the Matterhorn this year. Yes, I was at the top five times, but I didn’t go there because I was carrying customers. If I climbed the Matterhorn, it would be sporty with a friend or something. ”
Atis Plakans is known to trail runners as the first Latvian to run the Mont Blanc in the famous 170-kilometer “Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc”. At the beginning of the nineties, the Riga-Valmiera running race was beaten twice with the best result for almost 16 hours, while the Folk Song Marathon inspired by Ansis Epner ran in three hours and 26 minutes.
In his career, Atis Plakans has been in the eight thousandths several times, this year the August expedition was canceled and its leadership at the seven-thousandth Lenin’s peak in the Pamir Mountains, where he had been six times before. Also during the pandemic in September and October, a trip to the South American mountains of Peru.
Materhorna smaile
Photo: Ata Plakans photo archive
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80 percent of Latvian customers in Zermatt are Russian-speaking tourists, who, of course, do not visit Switzerland during the pandemic. In the Low Alps, the climbing season is from July to mid-September, when the snow covers the rocks. Ice climbing should wait when the freezing waterfalls – usually the season is from mid-January to February.
As a downhill ski instructor, the season usually begins on the first weekend in December, when the total length of downhill runs reaches 350 kilometers. Shortly before that, it is possible to test the latest skis and industry equipment. At present, the length of the ski slopes reaches 25–27 kilometers, where Atis Plakans skis with his colleagues on a daily basis, improving his skills, saying that he is not free for self-growth as a ski instructor, because he cannot combine student training with skiing – again with careful word play.
Zermatt is the only place in Europe where you can ski all year round, because at a height of four kilometers there is a glacier where you can go skiing. Skiers from the richer countries usually train in New Zealand or Argentina in the summer, but this summer they were forced to stay in one of the valleys in Zermatt in September. At present, the snow is three kilometers high, and the difference in track height reaches one kilometer vertically. Now there is snow two meters deep, and, enjoying the lack of customers, the Latvian laughs that he is trapped in Switzerland and with colleagues, pointing to each other’s mistakes, will be trained at the Olympic level in the spring. Every year in October, all the world’s elite mogul skiers train in Zermatt.
The restrictions imposed on Latvia due to the Covid-19 pandemic are similar to those in Latvia, which is five times larger than Latvia, with a population of 8.5 million. The proportion of morbidity rates is six times higher, with Switzerland in fourth place in Europe. Until recently, pubs and restaurants could be visited in masks and could only be removed while sitting at their table, but now they are closed and food can only be ordered to take away, says Atis Plakans, noting that his ski school predicts a 54 percent drop in customers over the next five months. downhill skiing season. As an official employee of the company, for whom taxes have been paid, Latvians are expected to live the life of a relative unemployed this winter. During the conversation on November 18, the ski instructor expresses the opinion that he would not stay in Switzerland for a minute longer and would return to Latvia if he could earn in his profession.
The formal education of the climber was obtained at Riga Technical University, he is a radio engineer. He worked in the profession for six or seven years at Latvian Radio in the early 1990s. At the time of the August coup, when the Omani occupied the Radio House, Atis Plakans was not in the Dome Square, but six months earlier during the Barricades he and his colleague developed an evacuation plan with ropes through the yard, because the official entrance was only one.
In the spring of this year, due to an emergency, her daughter Laila was stuck with her for two months, who had come to visit her family at the end of February and did not return home, where she was waiting for the duties of a sports doctor at the Latvian Olympic Team (LOV). The special situation gave the climber living in Switzerland the opportunity to stay longer with his granddaughter, which is an invaluable opportunity, because otherwise the day in the village is no different from the next or the previous one. Even now, in the empty village of ski tourists, all the active inhabitants are introduced – in the rare entertainment places, sipping a drink in the evenings, you meet the same people who are seen on the ski hill during the day.
Conditionally trapped in the valley, this summer Atis Plakans traveled no more than ten kilometers from Zermatt as a mountain guide, bringing customers about 20 times in the four thousand. On the mountain hiking or trekking route “Spaghetti Tour”, which got its name from the Italian border, together with a client from Finland, he visited 12 peaks four kilometers above sea level.
A valid question arises, which a resident of a flat and swampy country is looking for in the mountains. Atim Plakan does not have to look far for an answer, and he quotes Imants Zauls, a climber who has been in Everest: “Every cow looks at the eight thousand meter high peaks in the Himalayas. Also, the locals who grew up there do not need to climb the mountain, because it is already right next door and there is no need to do anything else and climb. ” Nepalese are born, trapped in the mountains, and do not have to climb to the tops, Himalayan guests from Latvia have observed in the 1990s.
Therefore, representatives of the most equitable countries are often more active climbers in the mountains, Atis Plakans observed. The local Swiss or Italians were not the first to climb the Matterhorn. This was done in July 1865 by seven men on the expedition of the Englishman Edward Vimper, three of whom were killed.
“There is no freedom in the mountains, because you can only move in one direction along the path along the river. Freedom is in the countries of the plains, for example, in Latvia, where you can go in any direction, ”At the age of 52, an experienced mountain guide becomes philosophical, sharing 20 years of experience and climber’s discoveries.
One road leads to the village, then one trail in the direction of the mountain, along which it is possible to return only afterwards. It is an unenviable choice of direction to go.
The only time you can feel freedom in the mountains is at the top of the mountain, when the view opens up at a 360-degree angle to the horizon, which can not be seen every day, living in an alpine village connected to the outside world by only one road.
Atis Plakans slightly envies the freedom of the people in Latvia, which provides an opportunity to go in any direction every day. In the first half of the day, the Latvian was in a village five kilometers away, which is even smaller and quieter than Zermatt, Atis Plakans says during the conversation. The next larger valley is 23 kilometers or an hour by train.
On the eve of the upcoming downhill skiing season, the Latvian jokingly invites visitors, because the slopes are empty and there are no queues at the lifts. However
in relation to Covid-19 is serious, as it has been predicted that the number of vacant beds in hospitals in Switzerland could be filled within 15 days. He respects everyone who publishes the course of their disease on social networks, because it shows the deniers of the virus that it is a reality.
Atis Plakans follows the events in Latvia, listens to Latvian Radio and even a week and a half ago wrote a world dictation in Latvian. His spiritual food is the magazine “Rīgas Laiks”, which is delivered as a subscription from three sides in a Swiss village surrounded by mountains. The last time he was in Latvia was at the end of July, shortly before the introduction of self-isolation for those entering from Switzerland.
The downhill ski instructor is not the only Latvian who is trapped in the Alps during a global pandemic. The ninth season, the Latvian patriot, who remained in Switzerland, celebrated the 102nd birthday of the country together with 27-year-old cyclist Krišs Rezina, who is a cyclist in Zermatt in summer and a skier in winter. He spent two and a half years in this place, but before that he also worked in Norway and France.
In a conversation with LSM, Krišs Rezins talks about his passion, which is steep bike rides on downhill ski slopes. Last year, Austria won the ninth place in the 24-hour race in the competition of one hundred riders, covering about 22,000 meters of descent 129 times. The average speed was close to 30 km / h, with each trip lasting less than two minutes. The winner made 140 runs, each being on average three seconds faster. Unlike other favorites, the Latvian did not have a support team, so when driving up the elevator in five minutes, he had to replace the worn brake pads himself. During such a change, the Latvian lost two or three runs, while the competitors had a support team and change bikes with new equipment. Krišs Rezins changed the brake pads and the front wheel three times, which affected the result in the mud and in the dark.
The rider from Smiltene was determined to fight this year, but due to the pandemic the race was canceled. Meanwhile, at the local enduro cycling competition in Zermatt this summer, injuries caused by training only two weeks before the planned start were prevented from starting. True, the accident was not as significant as the one in France, when, after a passion for skiing, a broken neck and future movement forecasts were not promising.
Of the three summer months, two were planned to be spent in Latvia this summer, but travel restrictions introduced adjustments and the homeland has not been a year since November last year. The representative of the Rezinu cycling dynasty has never left Latvia in his thoughts and is ready to fight for the highest positions in the next competitions. Atis Plakans, on the other hand, is ready to take on the responsibilities of a support team for this purpose.
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