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Wadi Rum (Feb. 2016).
We then had a failure or two followed by the climb of the appropriately named Haj in a remote area of Wadi Rum, about an hour’s drive from our camp and within 5 kilometers of the Saudi border. The moderate line (~10 pitch, 5+) was recommended by Khaled and indeed it did not disappoint. The lower half follows a series of steep flakes and cracks, including some narrow chimneys. You then reach a large ledge system and climb the headwall slab above via a long diagonal crack system finally exiting via thin face climbing pitch. Another pitch or two on hollow rock (moderate difficulty) is required to top out on the ridge. The climbing was good but the real highlights of the day were the stunning red desert scenery below and the absolute solitude. The descent from the top of the formation includes some scrambling and a handful of short rappels. We probably got off route briefly and had some memorable down climbing of large sandstone “mushrooms” (think of a snow cornice but – you know – made of sandstone). We got down just in time for Khaled to pick us up.
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The Haj.
I should mention here that with the exception of our last two nights, we had The Milky Way camp all to ourselves. On one of those two nights, a French couple stayed in the camp and we had dinner together. It turned out that the husband works for the French Foreign Service in Ankara – “number 2 Frenchman in Turkey.” We enjoyed hearing their stories of traveling in Turkey and it really stoked our fires for checking out some nice looking Turkish multi-pitch limestone. Our second evening with company included two women (Swiss and Iranian) who worked for the Red Cross in Nairobi. They were tacking on a quick weekend of Wadi Rum sightseeing between a conference in Amman and a work trip to Eritrea…yeah, a little more interesting than cubicle jobs. We talked travel late into the night. We knew that compared to many, we are just beginner wankers when it comes to travel – although our recent Mali trip was sort of an ace. We were transfixed listening to their tales of Western Cape, Indonesia, and Iran. The list keeps growing…
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On our final day, we went for a long drive through the desert with Khaled and his family. We admired the scenery, played some football with Zaid and Hamad, and enjoyed a picnic including more freshly baked Bedouin bread. Later that evening, we said good-bye to our friends took a cab back to Amman for our 2am flight home. We’ll be back.
Monday morning back in Portland – a jetlag induced 3am wake up and a quick milk run to a Plaid Pantry five blocks from home. The usual set of characters hanging out in the parking lot. All I could think was “this shit is sketchy – I’m gonna get mugged”.
Photos
Wild flowers and Wadi Rum as seen from our comfy desert camp (Feb. 2016).
Hiking to Khaled’s family encampment for another wonderful breakfast before climbing…hope there’s another loaf of “Bedouin bread” baking!
Shirley on the 5 minute approach (Feb. 2016).
Beautiful desert flora of Wadi Rum (Feb. 2016).
The beautiful Haj (~10 pitches, 5+) on the south face of Jebel Suweibit Gharbia. Lower half of the route follows the obvious flake system. This was Khaled’s recommendation and it was spectacular (thank you Khaled!).
Pitch 2 (Feb. 2016).
Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 3 of The Haj (Feb. 2016).
Shirley arriving at the pitch 3 belay on The Haj (Feb. 2016).
Leading the short squeeze chimney on pitch 4…don’t worry, you get to bypass the OW visible above (Feb. 2016).
Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 4 (Feb. 2016).
Camels in the desert. Click photo for a quick video to get some idea of the scale of things…
Shirley on the wide opening of pitch 4 (Feb. 2016).
Pitch 5 (Feb. 2016).
Shirley on the midway ledge system of The Haj (Feb. 2016).
Out of this world scenery.
Linking pitches 6 and 7 – a long diagonal crack. Easy climbing but with a spectacular view (Feb. 2016).
Leading pitch 8 – a short but delicate crux (Feb. 2016).
Mars.
Shirley on the finishing ridge of The Haj (Feb. 2016).
A bomber rap anchor?
The Haj descent (Feb. 2016).
Shirley on the complex descent from The Haj (Feb. 2016).
Descent involves a handful of short raps (Feb. 2016).
Khaled picking us up from The Haj (Feb. 2016).
Driving back to our desert encampment (Feb. 2016).
On the drive back to our desert camp (Feb. 2016).
Shirley in the desert. On our final day, we went with Khaled and his family for a long drive in the desert which included a picnic with some freshly baked bread (Feb. 2016).
Our friend Khaled baking his tasty “Bedouin bread”: flour, salt and water meet the wood-fire heated sand (Feb. 2016).
You initially cover the raw surface of the loaf with a few small ambers to allow the surface to form a crust (to keep the sand out). Once there’s a crust on both surfaces, you bury the whole thing in hot ambers and sand for 20ish minutes (Feb. 2016).
Mother & child (Feb. 2016).
Our friend Khaled and his two young sons: Zaid (whom we met 4 years earlier when he was about Hamad’s age) and Hamad. Next time we visit, we suspect that Zaid will be driving us out to climbs since he’s already been helping Khaled with the driving (Feb. 2016).
Go back to Wadi Rum Quickie.