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Why not go on a warm weather expedition to Ethiopia?

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 angels 26 May 2014
We have just come back from a climbing expedition to Northern Ethiopia, and one of our expedition aims was to raise the awareness amongst the climbing community of the huge rock climbing and bouldering potential in Ethiopia. By raising awareness, we hope adventure rock climbing tourism will increase in Ethiopia, and increasing sustainable tourism in Ethiopia, which helps local communities for life.
One of the ways we hope to do this is by getting as many people as possible to "like" and "Share" our page. Please take a minute to do this by following the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/ethiopiarocks2014

Often when people think of Ethiopia, they think of Band Aid but the reality is that there are plenty of great reasons to visit the country, with rock climbing being just one.

There have been a number of expeditions to Ethiopia in recent years, with:
British teams of Bookham Crag Rats in 2001,
Belgium Tigray Rock Climbing Team at Waseya Cracks in 2004,
Pat Little John and Steve Sustad 2005-8,
American Vertical Ethiopia in 2007,
Americans Mark Richey in 2008,
John Collis in 2008,
Hot Rock tour in 2009,
French team- Horizon Ethiopique in 2011,
French team of Alain Bruzy and M Salle in 2012,
Spanish team of Marco Jubes, Edu Marin, and Toti Vales in 2012,
James Garrett, Peter Vintoniv, and Erik Kelly in 2013,
More recently a lot of climbs have been ascended and information about new areas has been compiled by Aylwyn Bromhead on Rock Climbers, Ethiopia on facebook, and Nico Parkinsons has climbed a number of routes and written a number of entertaining accounts of Ethiopian climbing,
last but not least we have our own team Ethiopia Rocks 2014.
This is not an exhaustive list, but simply put here to give you an idea of the extent of time people have been exploring the rock climbing, and the range of nationalities.

There is a lot of un-explored and un climbed rock still to go at in Ethiopia, and it is well worth a trip. There are also an increasing number of climbs having been put up, should you want to do some second ascents while on expedition instead.
Ethiopia has a massive variety of rock types, climbing styles (trad, limited sports, but lots of potential for new sports, bouldering, lots of alpine style ridges, scrambling etc), with a massive variety of grades. It is also a great country to combine some culture with some climbing/bouldering.

If you want to find out more, have a look at our facebook page for photos of our Ethiopian expedition. We will soon be adding a (basic and free) Ethiopian climbing guide for people to download too, join now and facebook should alert you when it's ready!

https://www.facebook.com/ethiopiarocks2014
redsonja 26 May 2014
In reply to angels:

its great that you have written of your experience of Ethiopia and hopefully make others interested in going. I have been twice, just trekking and sightseeing, but absolutely love the country and people. as you say, people tend to think of live aid and famine, but that's not the Ethiopia I saw. its safe with a massive potential for new climbs. the country is as old as time and really interesting to explore and the people are always smiling and really friendly. im really happy you enjoyed your trip there

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