On Sudan’s eastern border with Eritrea lies an impressive collection of granite walls and domes called the Taka Mountains. Inspired by past reports from Tony Howard (AAJ 1999) and David Jonglez (AAJ 2003), and other vague rumors of climbing, my wife, Brittany Griffith, and I traveled to the area in December. We landed in Khartoum, then made the eight-hour drive to Kassala, population 450,000, which abuts the Taka Mountains. Since camping in an urban area was out of the question, we stayed in a guesthouse. The midday heat reached 100°F.

We spent two days hiking around the mountains and scoping options in the scorching heat. Baboons howled among the boulders, and vultures circled high above as we approached the walls. With the heat, north-facing walls were the most realistic option. Most of the crack systems were discontinuous, leaving large expanses of unprotectable face climbing, and we had only brought an emergency bolt kit, presenting an interesting challenge.

Eventually we found a line with promising cracks on the 900’ north face on the farthest north formation. Our first attempt ended 600’ up when Brittany wisely chose to turn back below a 90’ section of unprotected face climbing on fragile flakes and edges. We returned the next day, reclimbed the initial pitches, and I led the blank face, stopping to place a bolt from a tenuous, slabby stance. After that it was smooth sailing up straightforward cracks to the summit. We rapped off single-nut anchors as the Muslim call to prayer echoed from below. We named our route the Rüppell Face (900’, 5.11c) in reference to the vultures and an obvious play on Nanga Parbat’s Rupal Face. We also climbed two other fantastic 500’ to 600’ routes to different summits, but discovered bolts on one route and a haggard sling on the other. It’s hard to know who may have climbed them first.

Jonathan Thesenga, USA