Routes in Middle East for selected grade

A short offwidth crack requiring some size 5 and 6 BD friends/cams

Mid to large size cams/friends

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.

Trad line. Potentially has one bolt at the top.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Location: Sig Bajeah or Baaga or Ba Ja is a dark slot canyon well known to locals in Little Petra. Without assistance, it may be difficult to locate this area. The rock is consistently the best quality I ever experienced in Jordan.

Three pitches. A really enjoyable route on excellent black sandstone which follows hand cracks interspersed with overhanging features sporting huge patina holds providing a fun excursion. Bolt belays. Descent Walk to the W (towards the valley) on a huge ledge then abseil to the ground.

#1, (16), 35m, Mantle the overhanging conglomerate choss or do the sensible thing and walk around the ledge above the run out corner and overhang to gain pocketed slab. Crux. Move up to ledge and poorly-protected belay. #2, (12), 25m. Traverse left into chossy gully trending right toward belay at wide-trunked jetroufah. #3, 10, 30m. Up and left to crack splitting jagged slab to belay amopngst bottle trees. #4, 30m, Scramble up

Up the cack trending L and then R again. Past the questionable flake to ledge. @2, 10, 15m. Up and L. The corner to the summit

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

Up the corner to belay on Dragon's Blood Tree than out onto face (run-out) to top out and belay on another DB tree.

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.

#bolt_type_glue_in

Short but sweet.

A little sandy on the entrance then nice and easy

A little sandy on the entrance then nice and easy

The obvious crack in the middle of the sector. Big runout.