UKC

Its a while back now since my first ascents, but I was wondering if anybody has done any of these three routes in Wadi Rum...

Lionheart
Sandstorm
Warriors of the Wasteland

I am interested in what you thought of the climbing, route quality (stars)and grades (British and European/Jordanian). Lionheart I know has been repeated, but the latter two I know of no repeats.

Thanks for any help,
Mark

In reply to M. Edwards:

Did Lionheart six years ago. E3 6a *** in my opinion. Brilliant and varied.
Info on UK grades for routes in Wadi Rum is definitely useful, since the UIAA and French grades don't really tell you how hard the route is!
Fairly sure the routes book at the Rest House had repeats of the other routes in it. Lionheart gets plenty of traffic.

In reply to M. Edwards:

Could never work out why they weren't called:

Lionmark
Markstorm
Warriors of the Wastemark...

Just teasing, obviously.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Cheers for that Robert. I think I gave it E3 5c for that bold pitch mainly, but I can accept 6a. Pleased you enjoyed it,its a fine bit of rock. I have been told the abseils have been upgraded since our hand drilled bolts(via head-torch and in the rain) efforts.
The Bedouin parked their 4x4's up on rocks to shine their headlight to help us out. They took us to their tent to dry us out next to an open fire, and fed us also, all washed down with sweet tea.

In reply to jon:

Not one Mark left in that country Jon

In reply to M. Edwards:

I think (though I may remember wrong) that, like some other routes with abseil descents, it had double drilled peg anchors.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Sounds more dodgy than our Fischer bolt anchors. We designed and made a drill to hand drill deep into the sandstone so we could place deep bolts in soft rock. I am sure they would be much better than any drilled peg option (?).

I would like to know more on what's there now, curious?

In reply to M. Edwards:
I did Lionheart back in 1999. Thought it was absolutely superb. Every pitch a corker and pleasantly sustained. The best climb we did in possibly my favourite climbing venue. Didn't think it more than E2 though, as I'd have had to try hard on either an E3 or 6a pitch. The guidebook noted you were well pleased with finding the route, and I fully saw why!

In reply to TonyM:

Cheers Tony, I have been told it may be E2, although our on-sight ascent with all that entails felt an "E3 adventure". Routes do settle down with time, an I see your ascent was an early one, so maybe more accurate? So for the sake of argument, maybe we could compromise at E2/3 5c? More opinions on this would be welcome.

I was certainly very chuffed to find this route, starting up it was like being a kid in a toy shop. Every pitch as good as the last for quality and line, two things I search for most in a rock climb.

In reply to M. Edwards:
As sure your grading is about right. It's the Remy brothers' routes that seemed a little off-concensus back then (undergraded).

Had a quick peek at my old guidebook to check out how I could have missed these other Edwards' classics! They're somewhat in a different league in difficulty, with the descriptions having sufficient dissuasion from attracting lots of casual interest; Sandstorm - 'English E5 6b"; WotW - pitch 4 F7b.
Reckon they'll be much, much less well-travelled than Lionheart for that reason. They're also vying for attention with all those other excellent hard routes (Raid, Muezzin, anything by Precht-Haupolter, etc,): all promising Adventure with an 'A'...

In reply to M. Edwards: We did a '5c' which felt like a 3+ at Redpoint LOL Saw lots of people getting caught out by the descending darkness on Goldfinger when we were there in September and October.

In reply to TonyM:

Have to say, that Warriors of the Wasteland's roof pitch is something very special. Nice to get to the top of the crag too. Sandstorm on the other hand has two excellent long pitches that although looks great above, with the crack system running all the way to the top, unfortunately terminates at an extremely sandy cave. We tried to get through it but with no success. Still the two pitches of Sandstorm are worth anybodies time, really good crack climbing. Both routes are pure trad, with only the abseils fixed.

In reply to M. Edwards:

Did Lionheart back in either 94 or 95. Extremely good and was happy with the grade at E3 5C. Glad the single bolt abs have been upgraded as these were rather terrifying. Remember unclipping whenever I wasn't the one going first.

ps. Hi Robert. Anybody repeated Southern Star yet?

In reply to Hugh Cottam:

Thanks Hugh, I guess that's another vote for the E3 grade. Please take into account those original bolts were drilled by hand, and in the dark, hence why we only placed one per abseil point. We would have otherwise been there all night drilling, and we also felt under pressure due to the rain starting. I'm pleased you enjoyed the route, if not so much the abseils. Cheers, Mark.

In reply to Hugh Cottam:

Hi Hugh, I did it in Nov.'93, so maybe I am mistaken in thinking thre bolt abseil anchors had been upgraded.


Don't know. Far better than Lionheart of course....!