Summit Date: 2025-07-08
Summit Party: Ryan Cragun and Thom Pittz
As part of a short visit to the Baltic countries, I visited the highest points in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. This is my brief high point report for Gaiziņkalns, the highest point in elevation in Latvia.
I spent the previous day in Riga. A friend and I had a rental car and left fairly early to drive to Gaiziņkalns, which is almost directly east of Riga, about halfway between Riga and the border with Russia. It took us a couple of hours to drive to the trailhead. It was quite remote where we were, with lots of farmland. We did find one gas station, which was good as we forgot to fill up before leaving Riga and got a little worried.
As we drove to the trailhead from the west, we passed a small ski resort. That was pretty fascinating for a hill so small. But, hey, as a skier, I’d try to ski there as well if that is the best hill around. Here’s the trailhead:
From the trailhead, there is a 10 to 15 minute walk up a small hill to the summit. There is a small tower on the summit that you can’t climb. There is also a nice Latvian flag there. We also passed the top of a different (I think) ski lift near the summit. Here’s the hike route:
Here’s a photo of me by the summit tower:
And I did remember to take a panoramic video on this summit. Here it is: