the nostalgia project: Inshallah Factor, Jordan (2011)

The route

The East Face of Jebel Rum from Rum village.
Inshallah Factor starts in the centre then heads leftwards to the obvious skyline chimney

Inshallah Factor is a fifteen pitch trad route on the 500m East Face of Jebel Rum in Wadi Rum.  The hardest pitch is 6c (or YDS mid-5.11 or perhaps a Brit E4). Approximately half the pitches are YDS 5.10a or harder.

Wadi Rum is a world famous sandstone rock climbing area in the south of Jordan. The area's other-wordly desert landscapes also make it a popular place to shoot movies about Mars or desert planets in a galaxy far, far away.

Jebel Nassarani west face, Wadi Rum

The context

I have been aware of Wadi Rum from my youth through climbing magazine articles and photos, and have always been interested in climbing there, at least theoretically. After I moved to the Middle East it became a much more practical objective, not just because of proximity but also because of increasing familiarity with arab culture.

I visited Wadi Rum twice from the UAE. The first time for just four days with Wolf in April 2009 then a longer trip with Duncan in March 2011. On both occasions we rented cars in Amman and drove the 300km road to Rum. On both occasions we also camped at the curious "Rest House", an establishment that appears to be government owned and may have been the only option in Rum village when the  guidebook was written. More on that subject later.

On the first trip, Wolf and I did a couple of classic itineraries: ascended Jebel Rum, the highest summit in the area, by Hammad's route, an interminable scramble with some short roped pitches, and also climbed Jebel Burdah via Orange Sunshine, on which we got very off-route and tackled pitches that seemed far harder than the guidebook grade. On both formations we got a good introduction to the challenges of the terrain, in particular that what may look monolithic and compact from a distance can be a maze of deep slot canyons and false summits up close.

Descending Jebel Burdah, © Wolf, 2009

In 2011 our aims were more ambitious. I had been reading extensively about La Guerre Sainte, an extraordinary 12 pitch route direct up a vertical face established by a French team in 2000. I flagged it to Duncan in advance as a possible objective but was aware that it might be too hard with multiple 7a+/ 7b (YDS 5.12a and 5.12b) pitches near the top and would require 4WD assistance for access. Another red flag at that time was that it only seemed to have been repeated by "pro" climbers. Inshallah Factor had also came up in conversation and had the benefit of some recommendations from ordinary climbers.

With the latter in mind, our first climb was The Eye of Allah, which branches off the Jebel Rum route that I had done in 2009 to climb to the east summit of the massif, directly above Inshallah Factor, and is the descent route for all the east face routes. This was a tough day, not least as we had arrived very late the previous night. On the steepest part of the descent we got a rope badly stuck on rappel. I ended up making a scary long solo on loose flakey rock to retrieve it.

Looking through the Eye of Allah © Duncan, 2011

Rum village from Jebel Rum © Wolf, 2009

Me above Jebel Rum East Face after climbing Eye of Allah © Duncan, 2011

Several factors then conspired to change our planning somewhat and lower expectations. Duncan got sick - from food poisoning if I recall correctly, no surprise at the less than hygienic Rest House. It was far colder than on my previous visit and - after six years in the balmy UAE - I had little suitable clothing. My dry skin flared up in the low humidity and dirt, developing persistent splits on several fingers. We were also being harassed continuously to view other accommodation options or sign up for desert tours. That kind of thing is not unusual in developing countries but it was disconcerting how aggressive it had become at Rum village compared to two years earlier.

On the positive side, we made friends with a Brit couple, Amy and Nick, who arrived in the campsite a day after us in their pimped-out Toyota Land Cruiser "Brenda" en route to Cape Town. They were not there primarily to climb but were easily persuaded to join up with us. After Duncan had recovered we all hiked to The Beauty, a classic entry-level Wadi Rum route. We top-roped them on the opening pitch then continued to the top without them.

Me on the Beauty first pitch © Duncan, 2011

Duncan before the Beauty's wide pitch

The Beauty's wide pitch

Rappelling from the Beauty, Rum Village beyond

A couple of days later, after an abandoned attempt  (my fault: bad skin, too cold, too hard) on another classic, Lionheart, the four of us set out in Brenda to explore the desert for three days. This was a very attractive idea as almost everyone who visits Wadi Rum is normally dependent on local 4WD drivers and subject to their fees and itinerary constraints.  I even wondered whether travelling unguided might be illegal and suggested we steer clear of guided groups.

The rebel alliance © Duncan, 2011

This mini-expedition proved very memorable. Conditions were perfect with dust-free skies and wild flowers carpeting the desert. There a few moments of difficult navigation decisions and don't-get-stuck driving in deep sand but nothing of real concern. Our route took us under La Guerre Sainte on the first day but we had already taken it off the ticklist and anyway did not have time for an attempt.

Start of our desert drive, heading south

Passing the east side of Jebel Nassrani
La Guerre Sainte climbs the face right of centre

Desert flowers

We camped for two nights in the remote Barrah Canyon. Duncan and I climbed the tougher-than-expected classic Merlin's Wand. The next day I took a full rest day to heal my skin while Duncan climbed with Amy and Nick. The day after we hiked Jebel Burdah, which gave my hands another day off, then - after a cumulative ~50 km of desert driving in a giant loop - we popped back onto sealed roads and re-established camp at the Rest House

Me on Merlin's Wand, probably complaining about something © Duncan, 2011

Me, Amy, Nick - Barrah Canyon campfire © Duncan, 2011

Barrah Canyon dawn

The ascent

With time running out on our trip and nothing substantial achieved, it was an obvious decision to attempt Inshallah Factor. So we made an early start the next day.

My diary notes are fairly terse: "All day ascent of Inshallah Factor. I led all crack pitches up to the crux (5.10+ ish, some burly stuff), then Duncan made a fine lead of the scary E4 pitch."

I was quite proud of dispatching the cracks in reasonable style. Duncan did indeed make a great lead of the crux pitch, finessing small wired nut placements in the middle of tenuous moves. A similar pitch on most popular north american trad cliffs would probably have been bolted on the first ascent, or at least sprouted a few bolts later.

"Rambled onwards, finding chimneys to be tiring going at the top. Then managed to get back down EoA with no screw-ups."

The top part of Inshallah Factor is a long diagonal traverse on fairly easy terrain, but in a very grand and exposed position. Then the climb disappears into the chimney, which is the most prominent feature of the east face - though the word "chimney" understates its extraordinary scale and speleological nature.  If I recall correctly, you hike a long way back into the mountain in a horizontal passage (maybe 30m or more) then climb a long vertical pitch, then repeat, abandoning much hope of ever seeing daylight again. In the right mood it would probably be fun but I remember being very relieved when we finally surfaced. Researching the descent in advance proved to have been smart (it would be a horrific onsight) and I believe we were down before it got dark or not much later.

Subsequent ascents

I have not been back to Wadi Rum. Later in 2011 I did travel twice to nearby Lebanon - a whole other story - and made a loose plan with a Beirut-based american expat that I climbed with there, John Redwine, to go back to Wadi Rum in 2012 to attempt Guerre Sainte. Sadly John died in a solo climbing accident that winter, searching out ice on the 3000m peaks in northern Lebanon. I did not get to know John very well, but he left a strong impression as a generous-spirited and adventurous person, and writing about him now, almost ten years later, still brings back strong memories.

And another thing ...

Wadi Rum has all the natural attributes to be one of the greatest climbing areas on earth; unfortunately, after my two visits, I found it a hard place to recommend. Two types of frustrating dogma blight the place. One is more understandable, as it is a product of the region: the locals' adherence to strict Sunni Islamic practise. In particular, the absolute invisibility and economic non-participation of women. To a secular western mind that is wrong in all kinds of ways but specifically viewed through the tourism lens, leads to public places (the "Rest House", other eateries and accommodation) being almost literally shit-holes. Sanitation and food hygiene are poor as men there seem too proud to clean up (*). Northern Jordan, where the population is more culturally-heterogeneous and women much more visible, has a very different character.

The other dogma is, regrettably, a British export: an antipathy to bolts in a serious multi-pitch environment that needs them. The first climbers to visit Jordan were 1970s era Brits who indoctrinated the locals that drilled protection was haram.  This is one issue in ascent - a need to step up the boldness and climb within limits - but another in descent where long rappel routes necessarily follow chossy lines of natural flake/ thread anchors where ropes are routinely hard to retrieve. In recent years more pragmatic European and other international climbers have begun establishing routes there and using bolts more freely, but what the place really needs is the funding and will to retro-bolt and/or re-route lines on the old classics.

Extraordinary sand creation found in the desert, unknown artist!

* Apparently Wadi Rum Desert is an exception to this generalisation and offers a good service to climbers. I believe this business appeared after my last visit.