Routes in Wadi Rum for selected grade

Topo: Howard guidebook #12.

Topo: Howard guidebook #19.

Timing: Allow for a long day, more if you get lost, which you probably might, more if you want to take it easy and have a break or two. If you are a super-duper mountain guide then perhaps the guide book time of 3-4 hours is achievable.

Sun / Temperature: In August it was bearable with shady belays, but starting in the dark could help.

Gear: Expect rope drag, Cams up to Camalot 3. Some belay stations are bolted. The abseil from the plateau (Hammads ridge) back down to the traverse is about 50m.

Route

• From the village head towards Jebel Rum and take the steps up to Lawrence’s well. Turn right in the minty area and head up the gully.
• After passing between large boulders, towards the top of the gully on the right hand side there will be a rock ramp heading up but facing down the gully (grade 3/4). Someone has also scratched an arrow into the face at the bottom. (Between 40 mins and 1 hour from the village.)

• Traverse the ledge and scramble up

  1. f5- large diagonal crack in the wall, 50m.
• From the shelf traverse a little bit to the right and then head up the plateau (Hammads ridge),look out for a repel station on your right as you climb.
• On the plateau, head left
• find a straight, long and narrow walled chimney/gully that heads to the great siq floor and descend.
• Go east through the great siq with a rappel and two short problems, 2nd being about f5 6m and unprotectable.

• After the 2nd problem you will be at the base of the eye (3 - 4 hours from the village).

  1. f5- wide crack about 50m.

  2. 50m, f5- starts with a tricky chimney

  3. 40m f4 climb the ramp

  4. traverse across to the base of the eye, f3.

  5. Pitch 5 of the main route, climb the slab (and or crack / chimney), in the guide book it is f3 however there are some very tricky sections, with maybe the hardest move of the route, 40m. You are now in the eye.

Descent.

Reverse route about 6 repels to the base, back up through the siq and back up the chimney to hammads ridge. Two options exist from here.

Descent alt. Alternative abseil descent, down jebel rum east face and route mumkin. Somewhat complicated and easy to make mistakes. - 50m From the eye rap diagonally back to below the start of the final pitch. - 25m, hidden. - 50m, heading more east to big ledge at the side of the big black slab - 50m, down big black slab - 50m, - 15m, traversing climbers right, don't go down the gully. - Easy walk through sand to Mumkin abseils.

For more details see http://kbecan.blogspot.com/2014/02/welcome-to-jordan.html

Topo: Howard guidebook #57.

On the outer east face, not in the canyon but in wadi Um Ishrin, decent walk off following cairns back into canyon.

Up from the canyon to the ridge. Descent is by following the ridge and then down a gully.

Not to be confused with "The Beauty"

Approach: At the west end of Kharazeh canyon. 2 hours from rakabat east, 1.5 if you know where your going. (1 hour from the village?) From the top of Goats gully head north along a plateau. Head up the scree slope. When you reach the bottom of the face you will see an the bolted climb "the glory", scramble/climb up and round left to reach the easy but exposed ramps of the first pitch.

P1: f3, ramps, un-protectable (or pointless to protect). Head up and right to the bottom of P2 and where the climb splits into scarlet o hara.

P2: f5, a tricky move to get over the bulge then a walk to the base of P3

P3: f4, (30-40m) a beautiful sustained low angle corner crack which gets wider at the top. Two #3's can protect the top 1/3 of the crack. Finishing at a large thread.

Descent: Possible to 60m repel to the base of P2. The guide book suggest a 40m repel and walk off to another area (un-checked). Down climb P1.

A tough first pitch and an exposed hard to protect but fairly easy 2nd pitch.

Approach: From the east entrance to Rakabat canyon just after the under/over boulder scramble up the ramp to the first pitch. About 20-40 mins from rakabat east entrance.

Gear: A full rack.

Time: Roughly 4 hours up and down.

• Pitch 1 f5: Head straight up pulling over the bulge to poor holds.
• Pitch 2 f5-: Head up the slab hard to protect. There is a big flake on the right side wall don't use it sounds very hollow. Head to the corner on the left.
• Pitch 3 f4: From the corner cruise up the ramp to the mini summit.

Decent.

Using the tat on the huge blocks head down the other face into the gully. Walk down the gully a bit and find the abseil about midway in it back to the start.

From the left of the pillar to a bolted belay. Extension of this is the route Soumises.

A single pitch trad route. From the right of the pillar to a bolted belay (in common with routes Odeur de Rhum / Soumises). Rock quality not very good, not recommended.

1. easy approach pitch

2. corner, anchor is in the cave

3. out of the cave, corner, anchor on the left

4. back to the corner, anchor on the big ledge

5. not sure how this should go, there are slings on the left and on the right, I started right, straight up, and then was going to the left. When you reach a big ledge, you can walk to the right and make an anchor there. There should be a sling in place. I would rate this pitch PG-13

6. see the next pitch,

7. easier terrain but do not underestimate, follow the right corner, there are few awkward moves in upper part, so it's better to belay. We left few slings at the end. You can untie here and go to the top.

Descent: rappel down the route.. or maybe you can rappel down through the Yalla Shabab, but it's not obvious where is the last anchor.

1. from sling at the end of the P7 full rappel, walk few meters to the end of P5

2. from the end of P5 straight down to the ledge

Rappel 3-5: Rappel the P4-P2. We also rappelled the last easy pitch.

An underrated gem, a must do mountain traverse full of character and diverse terrain. The best 5- in rum packaged into an achievable 1 day objective full of big mountain adventure.

Time: Going easy, 5 hours to the summit, 1.5 hours descent, 1.5 hour walk back to the cove. Shade all day can be done in summer.

The TH guide book 1 paragraph description and dotted line topo is remarkably useful. The climb starts at the cove on the west side of north barrah. Take the gully which goes up to the left with some squeeze sections to the hanging valley. Stay on the left of the hanging valley and go almost all the way to the end. Take the ramp back up the left side to reach a water worn groove with a jammed toaster sized block.

1. f4 Scramble over the jammed block passing some obvious cracks on the right.

2. f5- Take the slab back up right pull over the fun overhang (golden wonder crisps?) to a bolted station.

3. f4 easy slab on to the exposed dome to another bolted station.

4. f3 easy traverse back into the big gully.

5. f5- (eyeball from the left the big chimney, the groove and the thin cracks.) climb straight up the crack, to the left of the pedestal, brittle rock.

6. f5- climb up right on top of the pedestal, traverse right to the chimney. Super cool easier than it looks with good protection (f4-) to a single bolt above a large hollow flake. (Potentially dangerous)

Descent Follow the skinny siq, through the white powder sands and arching walls to a number of entertaining technical squeeze sections (f4). After these it opens up into a plateau. The TH guide book mentions 2 abseils however we didn't find these (assume these are in the main siq). From the plateau leaving the main siq and trending to the left we followed cairns and scrambled down the rest of the way to sands on the east side.

To the left of the sport routes is a huge, right-facing corner that forms the left margin of the face (Runner Up). Down and left about 100 feet from this huge corner are two, short, nice looking varnished corners. This route climbs the right-hand corner. Climb the right corner, which has a prominent wide crack on the right side. This corner had partially been climbed previously by local Bedouin guide Omar, who lowered off a cam because there was no anchor. The FRA party continued to the top of the corner and installed an anchor. Rappel with one rope from a fixed anchor (drilled baby angle and thread).

Long, but cool 10 pitches of climbing.

You can reach the summit.

P1 easy p2 traverse p3 5 2 overhang moves (A thread could be good) could be connected with p2 p4 chimney p5 nothing continue up could be connected with p4 p6 Crux move left crack p7 face then a chimney p8 stay to the left to reach 2 pitons shity pro p9 nothing continue right p10 short climb up 3 Parallel cracks

Descent the canyon next to Falcon corner abseils, or Sabbah route scramble.

North east face, identified by the rightward curving crack line, left of the big black slab.

5 slings in situ

West face of 1260 dome / Jebel Astar, further south down the valley than Desert rats in the shade. The "Obvious" crack line that climbs up through a cave at the top. 3 Pitches to get through the cave. From here you can walk off down the south ridge. Pleasantly soft rock everywhere. Alternatively the TH guide book says the rest is a scramble to the summit descending via relax max? Unverified if this is the actual route in the TH guide book but it seems fairly close.

wide, look east on the way out to Jebel Sweibet , smooth corner carved out of small stone