UKC

After four months in rock starved Qatar, my wife and I are planning a trip to Oman over Christmas. Although I have the Toby FK guide book for UAE and Oman, I have initially thought that we would base ourselves in Muscat and explore that region.

I'd really like to get out to the more remote areas like Haddash and Khubrah Canyon, and would also be up for some DWS. I would, however, be hiring a 4x4 and have very little experience of driving on difficult terrain.

Asking for advice really. I'm looking for sport climbing this trip and routes up to 7a, but with lower grade stuff too. Would like to meet up with informed locals to climb or just get some useful information.

Any suggestions about places to go, cars to hire, guides to buy, places to stay are appreciated. If you think climbing purposes would be better served based in a diffrent area of the country I'd be interested in your opinions too.

Thank you in advance.

In reply to Motown:
Hi, having done this trip oursleves a number of times when we lived in Qatar I'd reccomend checking out http://www.omanclimbing.com as they have quite a few of the topos for sport and DWS in Oman. Also check out the UAE rock climbing forums for new routing and topos as they're the ones developing new routes and they're a friendly bunch. We always used to fly into Dubai (fly dubai) and then take a regular hire car and drive into Oman. Kubarah canyon is definitley dooable in a regular car. We just parked at the entrance to the canyon and camped there (having a gps was invaluable). My husband climbs 7a and there was enough to keep him occupied. We also went up to Musandam which is well worth a trip. Have fun.
Jennie

In reply to Motown: Oh so jealous, just been out to Qatar, not the most interesting place but stopped off with my father in Oman again on the way back. Lovely, good luck with the climbing and have a great trip.

Toby

In reply to Motown:

We have been to both kubrah as well as wadi daykah. Both are eminently doable with what omanis term a saloon car, i.e. without 4wd. We liked both, where completely alone in daykah and met a few other teams in kubrah. You can do both as day trips from muscat, however camping is advisable. Agree on the kubrah camp site, in daykah there are nice spots at the upper entrance to the valley with a 30' walk to the main sectors.

Dont forget the snorkel equipment, there's lots of nice spots just east of muscat.

Have a nice trip!

Thomas

In reply to Jennie: Really helpful stuff Jennie. Thanks. Did you use a fairly established hire car company or smaller outfit?

In reply to Motown:

Oh I'm so so so so jealous!

Haddash would definitely be a struggle in a normal car. You can camp underneath the crag. You have to walk through the village to get there, so long trousers and long sleeves are a good idea until you've got round the corner to the crag. The local pomegranate-growing man will then come and tell you all about his water channels.

Wadi Maih (or Mayh) is easy to get to from Muscat, especially now there's the road over the white mountain. Take your trad rack if you're going there. You can camp in the wadi where it widens out.

Have fun!

In reply to Motown:
Motown - I think we just went for cheap and cheerful for the car hire. You just have to make sure that the cars covered for insurance in Oman if you're taking it from the UAE. Also watch out if you're doing a border crossing on a public holiday as there can be large cues.

dont forget to check out the deep water soloing not too far from muscat. You can get a kid to drive you to the climbs on a speed boat for pretty cheap.

the guides are on the oman climbing site.