Calendar

WE’VE LEFT THE UAE…. 

By mid 2016 we had all left the UAE, and noone has taken over, so there won’t be anything new here in the foreseeable future – although one of us might be back one day, who knows….

Here’s the last announcement from end 2014:

Apologies for the long silence. Taking 40-plus people through Snake Canyon in 2013, destroyed John’s will to (a) live, and (b) ever organise anything for expats ever again. Since then there’ve been lots of private trips to fun places but John has now recovered sufficiently to post some trips on this site again. He doesn’t want to to do open-invite Snake Canyon trips any more, but Thomas is plannig the usual trip mid March.

January 1-3, 2015:

The ultimate ascent of Jebel Shams.

Most of us have wombled up Jebel Shams before but there’s the option of the ultimate ascent, both in terms of height gain, length and (hopefully) fun. It begins in the abandoned village of old Wadi Ghul and follows an old donkey path up to the cliffside village of Al Khitaym. (If you’ve done the Balcony Walk, this is the village where it starts) We’ll do the balcony walk then the via ferrata back up to the summit plateau and then camp for the night. The next day we’ll head up to the summit and camp shortly below. On the third day we’ll womble back to the cars and head home. This is only for people with mountain experience and via ferrata kit! There’s an option to join us on the second part of the climb but you still need to be fit. For this reason, this is an invite-only trip. If you think you’re up to it, get in touch.

Weekend January 23-24, 2015:

Jebel Kumzar, part three.

Kumzar’s one of the best places in this region. It’s only able to be visited by boat, the 4000 residents of this tiny, friendly and close-knit village speak a unique language nobody else understands and there’s a peak at the back which is the highest on the tip of the Musandam Peninsula. And after our trip last February trying to navigate using Google Earth, now we even know the way. And hopefully we’ll get better weather than the torrential storm that thwarted our second attempt a year ago. It’s simple and is capable of being done by anyone who’s reasonably fit but there is a strict limit of 12 people because that’s the capacity of the boat. This is a popular trip so only sign up if you’re committed to being there (and paying for your share of the boat — about Dh200 — if something prevents you from doing so)

 

Weekend Mid March 2015

Snake Gorge, Oman. Read past trip reports in under”recent activity”.
To keep numbers down this year, details will be givien only to people respondong to the invie e-mail which will be sent to the mailinglist early 2015.

 

May 29 to June 6, 2015: 

Mount Bazardüzü and Mount Shahdagh, Azerbaijan

The highest peak and the highest freestanding mountain in Azerbaijan are both just over 4000m and are straightforward ascents. The idea is to go to the ancient mountain village of Xinaliq then trek into a base camp. We’ll climb Shahdagh (4243m) as an acclimatisation trip and then do the slightly higher and longer Bazardüzü (4466m) after that. Neither mountain is particularly technical but this is early season and should be mostly cramponing. This is an invitation-only trip since it’s not a trip for beginners. It’s remote and we are the mountain rescue if something goes wrong. If you’re up for a bit of cool climbing, get in touch.

Other trips:

Later in the year we’ll do the usual Hatta Pools trip and see what the most recent floods have done to it. Yalla! let’s get into the hills!