Barrah Massif, Morning Sun Street

Jordan, Wadi Rum
Author: Ondřej Beneš. Climb Year: 2019. Publication Year: 2019.

AFTER ASKING Arnaud Petit, a great French climber with experience in Wadi Rum, for various ideas, we arrived in Jordan in January 2019 and drove around to check out the walls that Arnaud had suggested, together with local guide Salim Zalabya. After an evening’s debate, we decided on an unclimbed wall accessible from the canyon Rad al Beidah, parallel to the main Barrah canyon. Many questions had arisen upon seeing the wall, regarding its length, steepness, and rock quality, but the line was clear immediately: a black stripe bisecting the impressive east face from top to bottom. We formed two teams—Christian Fascendini and Matěj Svojtka, and myself and Ondřej Tůma—and immediately started to work.

The whole wall looks like waves rippling across the surface of a lake, and for pitch after pitch overhangs followed slabs. The sandstone in Wadi Rum is generally soft, however on our wall the rock was good and no holds broke during the climbing. We established one and a half to two pitches a day, placing bolts from natural stances or hooks. On rest days, it was great to watch the enthusiastic faces of the guys, lit up by their headlamps, as they returned from their daytime shift.

After five days of work and nine pitches climbed, we reached the top of the steepest section and ran out of bolts. Luckily, Israeli climber Elad Omer saved us with a few bolts he had stashed in the village. While Matěj retrieved the bolt cache, Christian, Ondřej, and I began to redpoint the hard pitches. The stress and fear of unstable skyhooks and unknown terrain were replaced by the joy of dancing up these pitches. Compared with other local routes, it was unbelievable how sustained the hard climbing was—our route held nine difficult pitches in a row.

On our last day, January 14, I jumared up the unfinished ninth pitch with Ondřej Tůma while Christian and Matěj redpointed the eighth pitch behind us. Above the ninth pitch the angle of the wall relaxes and we made an easier five-pitch run to the top, finishing at sunset after establishing the first route on this beautiful wall of the Barrah massif. We named the route Morning Sun Street (550m, 15 pitches, 7c+) because it only gets sun in the morning and because of the straight black line running up the center of the wall.

– Ondřej Beneš, Czech Republic



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