Echoes In The Desert

Climbing in Jordan’s Wadi Rum brings connection with the traditions of the Bedouin and reminders of the more ancient peoples that once roamed this region.

- Paul Niel

I COULD HEAR THE DESPERATION.

“Oh no! ” said Antoine, as he hung spectacularly, 15m above me. His right hand, rolled into a first, was jammed into a five centimetre-deep crack, together with his right foot. His full body weight dangled from those precarious holds, while with his left hand he was urgently trying to loosen a cam from the crack.

“I just moved it a few centimetres higher and now it’s stuck,” he tried to apologise.

A camelot , or cam for short , is a spring-loaded safety device that climbers squeeze into small cracks to protect against a fall. We only had a limited number with us and it was important we got this one free. It was also the only safety that currently protected Antoine from falling back down to our anchor and possibly down the entire route. From my own, more secure perch, I could see the desert floor several hundred metres below us.

“I guess there is not much we can do to help,” my wife Esther, sharing the anchor with me, said drily.

I could see the tension in her face but we both trusted in Antoine’s abilities. We had been climbing with him for more than two years. One of France’s most proficient alpinists, he has won the Piolet D'Or, mountaineering’s highest award and climbed remote peaks in Patagonia and Greenland. It had been his idea to join him on this trip, an exploration of the scrambling and climbing routes in Jordan’s famous Wadi Rum, a dramatic system of valleys in the Southern Desert of Jordan.

The minutes passed with the faint noise of French cursing continuing until we heard a loud, “Ah yes, got it out”. With a few dynamic moves he continued up the crack over the last remaining metres of wall and just a few moments later we joined him at the top.