UKC

If I was to move to Dubai, does anyone know if there is any climbing to go at?

In reply to jugforathug:

Nothing in Dubai apart from a couple of indoor walls.

Drive out of town for 1-2 hours and there's absolutely loads - sport, trad, dolomite scale mountaineering, and even some fabulous DWS up the Musandam coast - though many of the best areas are now sadly in 'no go areas' along the UAE / Oman border. Long gone are the days when you could criss cross the border looking for new cliffs to develop, and find remote spots to camp in.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

Cheers for reply!
Sounds good apart from the "no go" area. Excuse the ignorance, but what's the score with that? Is there much of a climber community over in Dubai..cant see the walls look any good from what I've researched... am I mistaken?

For me though, the most Important is outside climbing... am I going to be able to get any done..?

In reply to jugforathug:

The 'No Go' areas are actually just over the Omani border in the upper reaches of Wadi Bih. Access is now prohibited to all except UAE and Omani nationals and there are active Army / Border posts at both ends that were set up in an effort to limit smuggling (of both contraband and people - Musandam is just a short hop over the water from Iran). Furthermore there is now a patrolled fence running virtually the whole length of the border from south to north. Some fine cliffs just over the border are still accessible, ( Wonderwall) but it does involve having the right visa in your passport.

The closest climbing to Dubai is near Hatta ( Hatta Crag is about 15km from the town of that name) and is in Omani territory - however the main Dubai Hatta highway is passes through this 'neck of land' and the border and customs posts do not have to be passed. Get there soon, as the crag on the north side of a hill that is gradually being quarried away from the south! It's no longer the peaceful and unspoiled place it used to be!

Even so, there are still plenty of good areas, particularly north of Ras Al Khaimah. Wadi Ghalilah has cliffs of dolomitic scale as well as 'roadside' crags ( there is no road, just a rough track)

There is a fairly lively scene -- they have a facebook page Real UAE Rock Climbers https://www.facebook.com/groups/UAE.Rock.Climbers/ You need to request to join -- there are other UAE FB pages, however they are run by people with 'commercial agendas who've done little to endear themselves to the genuine climbers.

Most of the people I knew have now left the region ( I left 14 years ago), however the guardianship of the stones is in good hands. Seek out Pete at Global Climbing (import export business) and you'll be pointed in the right direction.

Once upon a time I could have been temped to return, but I now prefer to remember the free and easy days of the late 90's when we could pop backwards and forwards across the border at will, camp where you felt like it, and be rewarded with new routes any time you wished -- though that bit is still true if you are adventurous enough.

PS take kevlar shorts, t'shirts and a helmet! The rock is incredibly rough and not altogether sound - though much is not as bad as it first appears!

In reply to jugforathug:
To give you a flavour of the sort of thing Alan is talking about, I've got a couple of online photo albums from a trip out to see a friend who was working in Dubai.
Here's the French Pillar of Jebel Misht over the border in Oman. picasaweb.google.com/113630666457111298229/FrenchPillarJabalMishtOman.
Loads of other big mountain routes to explore nearby.
And then up the road N from Dubai, past RAK, and still in UAE, here's an example from Wadi Ghalilah.
picasaweb.google.com/113630666457111298229/GoldenTriangleInWadiGhalilahUAE

So lots you can do in your weekends outside of the summer heat!

In reply to TonyM:


The majority of the earlier trad routes at Wonderwall and Hatta crag were put up in the summer months, as the humidity was lower the further you were from the coast. I know -- I seconded most of them and never got locked up for my own protection! Aim to get to those crags after 1pm and they will drop in to shade, and there's generally a breeze. Cliffs in the RAK area suffer from terrific humidity in the summer as they are all within about 15km of the coast.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

Nice one, rhanks! Gives me something to go at!

In reply to jugforathug:

Quite a lot of crags in the north http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/map/?x=56.098&y=25.822&z=10&t...