dlish

Some of you know that i attempted the 'stairway to heaven' trek about a year and a half ago and we didnt make it after losing the path ( you can find that trek here http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...en-update.html). Then a week or so later i injured my ankle and have never been back there since. but the fire had always been brewing deep down and i always wanted to do this. its the pinnacle of climbing here in the UAE, and i couldnt not do it.

This past weekend we attempted the climb for the second time. this time i climbed with a different smaller group. Friends who were more accomlished in the climbing sense and had done the trek a few times.

we slept in Ras Al Khaimah ( RAK) overnight and started the trek at 5.00am at 220m above sea level. after walking an hour an a half through a wadi ( a gorge in english) we got to the end of it at 450m above sea level and hooked a left..went up the scree field to 800m above sea level and climbed the rest of the way to 1200m up a cliff face.

i cant begin to explain the sheer terror of looking down an exposed cliff face will give you. whoever said that i have balls is full of shit. i may do all these crazy things, but this is by far the most terrifying. imagine yourself on a cliff face with nothing but you and some rocky stairs and 400m shear drop of cliff face. The stairs were built by bedouin shephards a few hundred years ago. i wonder which engineer passed their set of stairs.

These set of stairs along the cliff face are basically rocks stacked on top of each other where there was no access up the cliff face. the stairs reach another ledge, and from there we'd do some more climbing before another set of stairs popped up.

the trek took 17 hours in total. 5hrs to the top of the cliff face..then another 12 hours to walk around the face of the cliff to go down the other side which is less scarier supposedly but adds 3 times the time to the climb. yes, we started at 5am with headlamps, and we got back to the car at 10pm with headlamps.

i guess ill let the pics explain it. but i now understand why my friends have promised their wives never to go again. i had to keep this trek a secret, and didnt tell she-lish until after i got back.

would i do it again?....i dont know really...no, not unless i get goaded into going.

anyways here are the pics...



the first set of stairs




looking back at our way down on the opposite side of the mountain




this is the cliff face that we climbed


no harnesses of course




can you see the 'staircase'? look closely!



here's a better view


anyone notice the stairs sitting on thin air????


this is me being scared shitless














dont knock the highlighter green shirt..its a saftey mechanism in case we got lost and the helicopter came looking for us


on thin air









and this is us at the top! 5 hrs later


this is what we climbed


taking a rest at the top


we climbed another 400m from the village where the top of the cliff is to 1600m. this is the view from there


view from the top, you can see the ocean from here


a dried waterfall canyon



coming down a dried waterfall canyon


on the way down we took significantly less pics. we were tired and just wanted to get back asap!

coming down a scree slope is much harder than people think.

us negotiating our way down


we got back in the wadi at 7pm ( as the darkness fell on us) and we stumbled back to the car 3 hrs later for a 10pm finish. 17hrs is a hell of a long time to go trekking.

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The_Jazz

Jesus Christ, my balls climbed up into my abdomen just looking at the pictures! I don't know that I could convince myself to do this under normal circumstances.

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Hektore

Hats off to you man, no way do I still have the stones to do anything like that.

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EventHorizon

nice dude! you've got some stainless steel ones for climbin up that. is the next step base jumping off the top? i bet you wont do it... I BET YOU WONT!

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dogzilla

Nice views, but I would have probably turned around at the first set of stairs. There's no way I would climb out on thin ledges on a cliff face. Me and heights don't get along.

Looks like a fun hike though.

uncle phil

going up may have been the stairway to heaven but coming down looked like the highway to hell...

congrats, d'lish...

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StanT

Nice.

If you're ever in Colorado, you might like the Long's Peak Keyhole route. It also falls into the "had to do it once, promised the spouse I'd never do it again" category.

dlish

my set were the size of peas as i was going up. you cant really imagine what it like, and by the time you go up there, its too late.

i dont have steel ones. seriously, ill be man enough to say that as we got the the toughest bit towards the end i was extremely nervous that my hands started shaking.



the thing is, the first set of stairs is 3 hours into the climb. its so much easier to keep going than come back down looking at the height you just climbed.

my thoughts at the time was..well, if i turn around now it's going to be even scarier coming down. if i persevere for a little bit more i'll get there and it would be a lot less scary coming down...little did i know it was going to take another 12 hours to get back! i was hoping for a 5pm finish, maybe 6.



my thoughts exactly uncle phil! it was more taxing on the legs coming down and tougher physically coming down because we were coming down so slowly. going up was relatively easy on the body, and had this not been an exposed face it would be a really popular climb.



i do plan onmaking out to CO one day. i have some friends there, and id love to spend some time in the mountains. ill have to check out that route..sounds quite interesting.

now.... ive got to set myself the next challenge...still deciding on what its going to be.

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Fremen

Dude, my butt clinches driving the steep road to the town dump, there is no way in hell I'd attempt something like that.

Kudos for following through with your goal, dlish.
Also, beautiful pics, man.

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telekinetic

Fuck everything about that, seriously. You're the man for making it through that, I'd be whimpering like a little girl at the first stairs. I love the random goat at the top, though.

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dlish

thanks freman.. pics could have been better if i could hold a steady hand


hey werent you like boys scout or something back in your day? if anyone can do it, it'd be you..and maybe plan9, cos hes a crazy-mother. crazier than me.

yeah the goat wouldnt leave us alone. it wanted our food. i guess there isnt much up there that you can eat on a clifftop.

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Ourcrazymodern?

...I like goats, & you know how I feel about you. Thanks, Mr!

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telekinetic

Yes. Despite being terrified of heights, I've done plenty of rock climbing and repelling and every time it's scared the willies out of me. Not sure I could manage to get over the "no harnesses/no ropes" aspect.

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Zeraph

Is that a kid?! Doing the hike with you? Or a young woman? No offense meant if she's an adult, I mean she is wearing a pink school backpack.

Giant Hamburger

Those are excellent images of a fantastic trek.
I am jealous.

I commend you for bringing a child and a goat, just in case.
One can never be too prepared!

dlish

a kid? no that goat is a little older than you think :P

if you're talking about the woman in the pics, she too is a little older than you think, and quite accomlished. she's conquired more than just a few of the worlds heighest peaks.

StanT, i had a look at some videos of Longs Peak keyhole trek. looks and sounds quite similar to this in many respects. will keep it in the back of my mind when i do decide to pay a visit

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