W10: There and back again. The quest for the Hajar ridge traverse.
Foto del percorso
Autore
Statistiche del percorso
- Distanza
- 6,49 km
- Dislivello positivo
- 958 m
- Difficoltà tecnica
- Medio
- Dislivello negativo
- 941 m
- Altitudine massima
- 2.313 m
- TrailRank
-
44
3
- Altitudine minima
- 1.963 m
- Tipo di percorso
- Solo andata
- Tempo
- 7 ore 17 minuti
- Coordinate
- 1704
- Caricato
- 21 marzo 2017
- Registrato
- marzo 2017
vicino a Wajmah, Ad Dakhiliyah (Sultanate of Oman)
Visualizzato 2466 volte, scaricato 74 volte
Foto del percorso
Descrizione dell'itinerario
This is part 4 of my 5-day hike in westerm Hajar mountains from February 28th to March 04th, 2017.
The preceding part can be found here.
The trail follows trekking route W10 as recommended by the ministry of tourism of the Sultanate of Oman. See their official website.
It starts at the ruined mosque Masjid Maillah or Bayt Maillah (بيت معلة) where I spent the night before. From there, the comfortable, almost horizontal track upon a bedding plane above the main cliffs continues. Still stunning views down to the villages more than 1000m below. According to the map trekking+routs1.pdf, the trail should then join with the route W3 climbing up from Wijmah, and lead back onto the ridge. This section is also described in the book “Adventure Trekking in OMAN” by Anne dale and Jerry Hadwin (out of print) as part of walk 3.
Eventually, I reached the wadi which should lead down to Wijmah. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the connection to the ridge 200 meters above. There is a wall, almost vertical. Some cracks might be negotiable. Without any trace of a path or a waymark, however, I am at a loss. At least in a terrain as difficult as this.
I should mention that I had found no record of anyone having done this trail within the last 10 years. So without the help of anyone with deeper knowledge, this link might be considered as lost.
I decided to return to the water source I found the day before, and spend the night there.
The subsequent part of the hike can be found here.
The preceding part can be found here.
The trail follows trekking route W10 as recommended by the ministry of tourism of the Sultanate of Oman. See their official website.
It starts at the ruined mosque Masjid Maillah or Bayt Maillah (بيت معلة) where I spent the night before. From there, the comfortable, almost horizontal track upon a bedding plane above the main cliffs continues. Still stunning views down to the villages more than 1000m below. According to the map trekking+routs1.pdf, the trail should then join with the route W3 climbing up from Wijmah, and lead back onto the ridge. This section is also described in the book “Adventure Trekking in OMAN” by Anne dale and Jerry Hadwin (out of print) as part of walk 3.
Eventually, I reached the wadi which should lead down to Wijmah. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the connection to the ridge 200 meters above. There is a wall, almost vertical. Some cracks might be negotiable. Without any trace of a path or a waymark, however, I am at a loss. At least in a terrain as difficult as this.
I should mention that I had found no record of anyone having done this trail within the last 10 years. So without the help of anyone with deeper knowledge, this link might be considered as lost.
I decided to return to the water source I found the day before, and spend the night there.
The subsequent part of the hike can be found here.
Waypoint
Fontana
2.246 m
Water source
Monumento
2.147 m
Masjid Maillah
Waypoint
2.024 m
Junction W7-W10
Waypoint
2.041 m
Junction W3-W10
Campeggio
2.116 m
Campsite
Commenti (5)
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W10 is the most challenging one day trek I've done in my life. Not technical, just a bloody long slog. I guess that's why people break it up and camp! It's now fully marked making life so much easier. It was part of the UTMB route, (most of it anyway).
Hi Gunny,
what part of the W10 did you do? All the way from Ar Ruus to Jabal Shams in one day seems pretty impossible to me, even for a runner.
Best wishes,
Erik
Indeed! I did Ar Russ to Shorfeit one day, (17km) And then Shorfeit to Sama resort in one day, (38km, although should have been about 35 ish, I figure I did 3km extra with losing the trail or picking up the wrong one).
As for doing it one go, I wouldn't try it, but the ultra marathon guys just did 50km up there last November in less than 5 1/2 hours! Fairly exceptional blokes of course.
So you mean, you went up to Jabal Shams, and then down the W4 all the way to the resort? That's still pretty amazing.
I wonder where the path climbs up from the northern side to Jabal Shams. I didn't manage to find it on my own, these days. You mean, it is marked now? According to the old book, there must be some climbing passages up there. They weren't so hard, were they? Still, it's 1000 meters up to Jabal Shams from there where I have been.
Yep, wife met me at Sama with the car at the start of W4. That 2nd day was brutal, just shy of 3,000 metres of vertical ascent. Took me 18 hours 14 minutes. It would have been impossible without the route I downloaded from the Hajar hiking web site.
The North East route up to Shams is W1. Probably one of the most technical routes to the summit (apart from free climbing up a sheer face!) I've not done it but I've got the notes from the book written by the two Brits 20 + years ago. I don't think I'll go looking for that one after reading their comments. They were both climbers as well as hikers.
The South Eastern route (W10) is the one that is now marked, along with a few other routes around there such as W4 which comes up from Wadi Satan and joins W10 a few km's before you hit the first chain ladder to get to the summit. There are now two metal ladders installed in order to make it a bit easer following W10 all the way to where it hits W4.