Climbing recap of 2014

Rock climbing recap of 2014:


I hope that the  year 2015 will be a very  fruitful and prosperous year for Lebanon and especially more climbing routes and harder ascents! 
2014 was indeed a great year full of climbing ,new routes and good times with my brothers.
In the last part of the year 2014,  I bolted many routes in Tanourinne :

Aywa 3 pitch in 1 “Olive grove sector”

Aywa is this amazing 6a+ 30m pitch bolted last year by my bro Jad Khoury. As the normal beauty of the line goes for 35m more, I have decided to add the next pitch . Today it is the best warm up route with 65 m  of 6b.
 Everyone who would like to try it, has to make sure to have two 70m ropes , one for lead climbing the route and another one to abseil all the way down  .

Jad Khoury, Aywa  -  photo : G.Emil.

                         

Will Nazarian , Aywa  -   photo : G.Emil.

                                                      

 Peanut “Olive grove sector”

 Standing on  the left side of the cascade, this zone gets in the shade early for sunny days!

A 35 m line with a mid anchor on 20 m 6a, and a 7a+  boulder  extension! A one of a kind route which is so much fun to climb peanut hold with weird pockets to end up with high left foot and the left hand on a small gaston!

Tony Dagher  on Peanut - Photo : G.Emil.

                                                

Almaza“Olive grove sector”

Almaza was an obvious and natural stunning line i scoped while I was on the rope working peanut . The route starts with an easy slab heading to a slightly overhanging crux section before ending with another technical slab. I moved the rope 10m  to the left  of peanut and started to work on it with my bro Jad Khoury and the result was a beautiful classic 6c+ 40m line

Left:Kenny Daou on Almaza 6c+      Right:Jean Kreiker on Peanut 7a+     Photo : G.Emil.

Today in order to expand the zone and expand its beauty Will and i are working 2 lines left of Almaza.

-KELYOM!   “Dripping water sector”

The sweetest and steepest 7b+ and maybe the hardest I have ever climbed of this grade! with 7 bolts in the steep part, before truning  on the lip, this route is one of the climb that you would like to do every day: big holds, big moves, steep angle completely my style.

-Fish mouth “The Massoud sector” project

Fish mouth is a new line that I bolted. It is featured with orange gold holds on the right side of the cascade , steep start with climbing on crimps ,flakes and small underclings.
 So far, I'm one move short before unlocking the whole sequence and going crazy to red point that route! hopefully soon with stronger  fingers i will slay this beast…

Trying the Proj . photo : Adel Doumit.

Scoping the fish mouth . photo : Jad Khoury

Bolting the 'Ultimate' Route On a rainy Sunday!

While everyone else were stuck in their houses,  Will and I had the best activity any climber would have dreamt of doing.
 We sat at the st-Jacobs sector where it is always dry no matter what are the weather conditions ! While lighting a fire and grilling some meat, Will had already scoped that line! one of the steepest lines in the cave... It was so much  fun to do tag team ground up bolting.

We ended with one of the best lines ever! Steep route featured with awesome tufas, like nothing you could ever imagine.

Will and I bolting the Ultimate .

Interesting ascents :

'Most men are wicked' in Massoud sector,

 YES they are!!  

A wicked route at the massoud sector bolted by my friend Will Nazarian .
No words, pictures or anything else can describe how awesome this route is. A couple months ago I took my first try on it, and since then I was more than psyched to red point the line. By far this is the most  crimpy route on the wall with so many small foot holds to remember…Few weeks ago at the end of a classic day in tannourine I went on it for a try to keep the sequence fresh after a break from it for 2 weeks. Then came down, took a short rest, then back on it again and BOOOMMM I did it .

Most men are wicked 7c+ - photo : Jad Khoury

Beirut love, Massoud sector.

One of my hardest routes in Tannourine that i had  bolted since last year.  A 30 m line, slab start inclined in the middle with small side pulls , gastons  and crimps. The crux is about two boulder sections of which in between you can rest on a good jug. the first boulder part is harder than the second, leading you to a nice pumpy final part of the route.

After  hundreds of  falls on it was hard the stay motivated, so I skipped it for a while till I  worked it again with my friend Edwin Gaufre during his trip to Lebanon .

 A Couple weeks later on a cloudy day in Tannourine with my new Fiveten dragon I crushed this line and felt it was easier than It seemed!

Beirut love 7c+

Trying before the sun strikes! photo : Jad Khoury.

Jordan climbing trip, Wadi Rum:

 Who doesn't dream of travelling to climb in a new place? Basically this is every climber's plan in order to try new routes, new rock type, new form of climbing...

I took the awesome decision to hop on a plane and head to the sandstone heaven of Wadi Rum in south Jordan to spend the end of my year and welcome 2015 with more climbing.

It was the stories, pictures and videos of Wadi Rum that lured me to take the trip.

Everything from the friendly locals to the warm welcome i received from my Jordanian climbers friends, from the beauty of the landscapes in Rum village to the huge sandstone walls and cracks was great and made my vacation more and more memorable.

                                                  

at Slovenian cave wall.  

                                                                                      

Jabal Rum .

Jabal Rum

This trip has pushed me more to love rockclimbing and climbing development. I will indeed come back to Jordan with my brothers from Lebanon to bolt routes and climb in this awesome place.

Barra Canyon.      Photo :Abboud Dabbas

I would like to express my gratitude to every person who has hosted and supported me in Jordan especially my team mates: Marwan Maayata , Hakim Tamimi,Aboud Hijazi , Tropical desert , Climbat amman,  , Uliana Izzat, Aboud Dabbas,Suchi Firas and Emilie Pellerin , Bedouins of wadi rum - Fox Camp Suleiman Abou Yaaqoub.

I had alot of great memories from the trip and will be coming back soon, Inshalla!

Big thanks to my brothers for their support day by day , Rock Climbing Lebanon,Rock Climbing Association for Development ,Five ten  'the brand of the brave' and Tannourine municipality.

For Tannourin topo info visit R-A-D.org .

        

Amshit sector today:

It is really amazing to see the Amchit crag today with 26 sport routes! This diversity of the climbs has made it one of the best crags in the country: from overhanging walls to steep vertical angle and slab climbs. From tufa climbing to crimps, pockets and slopers.

So far there are around 10 routes from 7a to 7c giving the chance for climbers who wants to push them self through the 7th grade to try many styles.

Jad and Steeve 

Jad, Steve, Tony and I started bolting the Dread rock cave crag around 3 years ago. After the climbing season in Harissa tannourine had ended and the snow had fallen, our chances for climbing in the mountainous areas of Lebanon were almost zero, so this was the best solution and the source of motivation to create this new crag. 

Amshit 2010 . Jad and Steeve

Amshit 2012 . Jad,Tony and me.

 Bolting ‘Dead Snake’ the first route in the crag was crazy at that time! We didn’t have any cordless drill, so we decided to carry down a small generator and a normal drill so we can put up the routes. After the success and the fun time we had on the snake, we used the same technique to open 2 more routes (bwesos rodeos and shekko).

    

Bolting bwesos rodeos/Amshit

Snake upper part.

 Time passed and new routes were established and climbed with the support of many friends that helped us to get Amchit as it is today. Two years ago Will Nazarian, Katy Anderson and Jean-Marie Boimond joined us adding more routes with different styles to our beautiful crag.

In this end I would like to thank everyone who has helped us getting Amchit as it is today by donating, bolting and climbing in this superb place. A special thanks goes to Rock Climbing Lebanon who established the crag, R-A-D and other climbers who helped in donating bolts and effort for adding more routes.

Topo of all the routes in amshit sector till today , they will be constantly updated as we add more routes.

Dread rock cave.

Right dread rock.

Left dread rock.

Why a blog is better than a website:

If i spend a lot of time on my website, it means that iam not climbing that much. Instead a blog is a good time killer when resting after climbing. So I found that it’s a good way to share my climbing news and projects as well as accomplishment with a lot of people who share the same passion as mine.

                                                                                               Chawarma  (Tanourin Tahta)

This winter season has been abnormally dry in Lebanon, nevertheless we have been taking the advantage of sunny weather to climb, develop and send climbing projects.

 My hardest route in Amchit crag :

Amchit has been for the past few years the best winter climbing crag in Lebanon with international standards. It has around 25 routes from different levels with a rock quality unmatched on the coast.

Of all the routes established in Amchit ,“baajbek” F7c is the hardest  redpointed sport climbing pitch in the crag at the moment.


   

As soon as I bolted it a year ago, I was instantly hooked and motivated to start working on it .

The route seemed to be one of my hardest projects in the crag as it took me around 15 tries before redpointing it a month ago, which in return deserves the grade of f7c or 5.12d!

Baajbek is a 28m strength endurance route combining steepness, overhang and a bit of slab which makes it appealing for strong climbers.

                                                                                                                           

 Sport Climbing Development:

All year round new routes are being added to Lebanon’s potential, and this development builds up multiple high points for the climbing in Lebanon:

·        - Pushing the limits of the Lebanese climbers by creating more diversity in the climbing routes and crags.

·       -  Putting Lebanon on the international map of rock climbing by uncovering world class standards crags.

·        - Highlighting the advantages of all-year round climbing opportunities in the country.

·        - Showing the positive image of Lebanon which motivates more people to visit and practice rock climbing.

·        - Boosting local communities and eco-tourism in the country.

This first blog post is the start of a new initiative to share my passion for rock climbing, and motivate more people to try climbing as well as pushing my entourage of climbing friends to push their limits and enjoy the climbing as much as I do.

I invite all climbers, in Lebanon and the world to follow me as I write more posts frequently in the future to introduce my climbing masterpieces, to share my climbing accomplishments as well as my climbing movie productions.