Wadi Rum with Katie Keeley

This Thursday we left the snowy mountains and headed to the desert to the adventurous sandstone venue of Wadi Rum in Jordan.

Katie Keeley shared tales from her visit in February covering exciting trad climbs, hard sport and multi day scrambles. Katie also described her experience of Bedouin culture and the kindness and hospitality they were shown whilst homesharing in the village.

Overlooking the village

The first few climbs Katie and her partners climbed once arriving in Wadi Rum were on the Jebel Rum East Face, immediately overlooking the village. These are a good introduction to the area with amenable grades, bolted rap stations and sound rock. Katie recommends taking time to get used to the climbing style and also not to get too confident about the amount of time it will take you on these shorter multi pitches. Although the abseil line is bolted, the lines are not always obvious on first acquaintance. Hear Katie talk about her own experience of this in the video!

The traverse at the top of Flight of Fancy

As well as pitched climbing, both trad and sport, Katie and her climbing team explored the desert on traditional Bedouin tracks and scrambles. This involved following a very vague ‘pirate treasure map’ and a map drawn in the sand to take them to the second highest point in Jordan - Jebel Rum 1754m. The team bivvied on the summit and spent time enjoying the spectacular desert sunrise.

Whilst camping out in the desert to explore some more climbing, Katie and her climbing partner were invited to join a rowdy school reunion and were treated to a traditional celebration of culture.

“More tea, more stars”

Goat BBQ!

Katie shared her top tips for planning a trip and travelling to Wadi Rum, but these can also be applied to other more adventurous locations where a variety of ‘alpine skills’ are helpful in a broader sense.

Photo credit: Nelson Klein Instagram: @_nelsonklein www.nelsonklein.com

Watch Katie’s full talk here and hear how she got left in a hole in a cliff without a rope or headtorch…!