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 :
Peanut “Olive grove sector”
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 .
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 .
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 .
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| Jad Khoury, Aywa - photo : G.Emil. |
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| 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!
Almaza“Olive grove sector”
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| 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
Today in order to expand the zone and expand its beauty Will and i are working 2 lines left of Almaza.
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| Left:Kenny Daou on Almaza 6c+ Right:Jean Kreiker on Peanut 7a+ Photo : G.Emil. |
-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…
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…
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| Trying the Proj . photo : Adel Doumit. |
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| 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 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.
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| 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 .
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 .
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| 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!
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| Beirut love 7c+ |
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| 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.
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| at Slovenian cave wall. |
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| Jabal Rum . |
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| 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.
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| 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 .
