This year has been racing along.
In January Philippe Ribière, Dan Bates, Miguel Willis and I spent weeks in a remote wadi canyon high in the eastern Hajar mountains of Oman developing some world class boulders. It was a tremendous experience to embed ourselves in such a wild landscape. To have Dan and Phil, two guys who have travelled far and wide climbing, consider the canyon a world treasure is testament to the place. One of my favourite parts was getting to know the local people who still tend to the ages old date palms, using the techniques of their great forefathers. “How old is this village?” I asked one of the boys. “Million million years” he responded. Epic. Miguel, extremely talented director of photography, captured the adventure on film and I have been enjoying the creative outlet of editing the film.
Then, in June TRAKS called up and let me in on a crazy idea. “Want to build a huge rope swing, the UAE’s first?” Braving the summer heat, pushing beyond 40ºC, combining my climbing expertise and the professional rope access skills of the TRAKS team, we equipped a monster. We equipped the anchors 120m high, strung across a winding canyon road in Ras Al Khaimah, and then added 50m jump lines. I had the honours of first jump for the local dignitaries – proving that this is a viable adventure activity for the Emirates. 3…2…1…Would you?!
As always. Thank you for the support from TRAKS PRO and PETZL to help me make these exciting projects reality.
Check out the videos: