The Brotherhood Of the Traveling Stopper...

I'll grab Be's? As long as Spinsser is done with it, I'm also quite interested in what they get up to with it :) 

Edit: not entirely sure who has what right now :D

Joshua Cillierswrote:

I'll grab Be's? As long as Spinsser is done with it, I'm also quite interested in what they get up to with it :) 

Edit: not entirely sure who has what right now :D

Funny, I never imagined I'd be directing traffic on this thread, but there I am.
Joshua, As it happens, it was your sort of post I was kind of waiting for. To see a stopper go back and forth between Africa and the US is a bit expensive and slow, but...
There is one on the Saudi Peninsula, and there you are. Makes a ton of sense to get his from him and have Be send his around in the US.
Maybe Resurrection becomes the international traveler?
At least in this case it will get to you cheapest and fastest, I think, and be the cheapest/fastest way for Spinsser to pass it on.

That's my thoughts.

So who wants the US version?

Tony Bwrote:

Funny, I never imagined I'd be directing traffic on this thread, but there I am.
Joshua, As it happens, it was your sort of post I was kind of waiting for. To see a stopper go back and forth between Africa and the US is a bit expensive and slow, but...
There is one on the Saudi Peninsula, and there you are. Makes a ton of sense to get his from him and have Be send his around in the US.
Maybe Resurrection becomes the international traveler?
At least in this case it will get to you cheapest and fastest, I think, and be the cheapest/fastest way for Spinsser to pass it on.

That's my thoughts.

That's great news,

I really like the idea of an international stopper, I'm grateful that I am part of this.

@Joshua Cilliers: PM your info, if you are in a hurry I can ship it out within a couple of days (if not, I might take it out on the weekend)

I'll pop you a PM Spinsser. The weather here has only just begun to clear up, so feel free to hold onto it if you've got a trip in mind. Otherwise just let me know when you're shipping so I'll know when to expect it. 

Be Young, I can take the US one. There’s no snow yet where I’m at, so I’m gonna try and plan some adventures

Clayton, got your email. I should be able to ship it out today!

Sorry for the delay. I was hoping that I would have pictures to share, but I did not take any in my second trip.

Glossary:

- Neom: The name of a new city that is being developed as a mega project in Saudi (mainly intended to attract tourists and business)

Act II: It's Neom or Never

A new crag just opened up under the Neom initiative (~119 new routes were developed).

Neom invited the climbing community to the inauguration of the new crag, where we had a couple of days of camping, some events and ........ surprisingly some climbing.

The first crag I talked about (Hariq) is limestone and is covered in choss (it took a lot of cleaning to expose the parts that were suitable for climbing). This crag on the other hand is pure sandstone! The climbing was very different and it was personally challenging for me (I generally feel more comfortable edging small features, smearing was not optional).

P.S. you can see the guidebook about the Saudi crags on the Saudi Climbing Federation website

The first day I did a couple of sport routes with my friends. I have looked at the guidebook and noticed there was an easy trad route (which got me excited to place Resurrection).

At the end of the climbing day, I asked a friend to belay me on the easy 5.8 (5b) short 10m route [49 in the guidebook: The Manicure].

My belayer was afraid that I would have to be medically evacuated after break both ankles (for some reason they did not trust my trad experience!).

On to climbing

The first 6m were super easy, and I was confident that I could downclimb them if it all went south. I am proud to report that I found the perfect placement for Resurrection. The crack was also a perfect size for a #0.75 WC friend. I actually back cleaned once to reuse that cam (I am sure I was placing cams more conservatively than I needed to).

After the midway mark, I noticed two possible directions. 1) a reachy move to a potentially slopey hold. 2) JAMMING....

I channeled my inner Pete Whittaker, I eyed the crack with an expert look to gauge exactly what sort of technique in my huge arsenal of crack climbing knowledge I needed to use. I inserted my hand and jammed it in the crack. It fit like a glove!.

I tried to adjust my feet to continue this part of the climb with hand and feet jam, and to my surprise I found out that watching videos online did not make me the crack climbing expert I thought I was! (I know... Shocking!)

I'm sure the climb is super easy once you have faith in the jams, but I did not know much I should trust it, and when I looked down on the last cam I place, I found out that it was a text book bad placement (undercammed, and one side was more cammed than the other). My belayer was definitely tense, and I was starting to think that I should probably come back tomorrow with better preparation, so I backed up the cam with a nut and lowered (read: practically downclimbed).

"If the pro doesn't fit, you must-a quit" - Johnnie (Mario) Cochran

I ended up leaving a cam and a nut, but I was sure I'd come back tomorrow and send the route.

Day 2:

We came back to the crag, and we started climbing other sport routes. I climbed a route that I enjoyed immensely [number 12: Highway to Pump]. The route had it all: laybacking, chimneying some stemming and it felt incredible. That was honestly the most fun I have had climbing.

I was thinking about the gear I left in the other route [49: The Manicure], and at that point I was planning on climbing the sport route to its left and then traversing to set up a top rope, or maybe aid climbing it to do it on TR until I got comfortable leading it. It turned out that all my planning was pointless. The team who developed the crag were cleaning after the gumbies who left hear and quickdraws on any of the routes, and the gave my back my cam and nut. I decided that I'd have to come back to the crag later (it took 2hrs flight and 3hrs driving with parts of it being off-road in fine sand.. so it might take me some time to repeat my trip)

All in all, I liked hosting Resurrection, and I am looking forward to improving my skills for the next time it passes through Saudi Arabia. I will definitely continue trying to trad climb, there is unlimited potential compared to sport climbing when it comes to making up excuses about why you couldn't send the route you're working on (That suits me perfectly).

Note: We also had lovely guest in the crag inauguration (Emily Harrington and George Bullard).

Sorry for the low-quality TR. I have been busy, and I felt that if I didn't write one now I will keep procrastinating and never do.

Resurrection has been sent to Joshua.

Looking forward to reading about South Africa climbing.

Cowessess Nuka wrote:

I do enjoy watching a good adventure. What is the person with the stopper going to do when the season is up? Send it on to someone doing mixed climbing or keep it until warmer weather?

It's always "in season" somewhere and it is presumed that anyone can ask for the stopper, so yeah, that's an option.

Spinsser Hwrote:

Resurrection has been sent to Joshua.

Looking forward to reading about South Africa climbing.

Got it! Thanks for the sticker, it's on my helmet already :D. Found a very promising and obscure route, hoping to get on it within the next week. 

Could take a stopper, use on New Years day ascent.  

Just a little update, between Covid, Christmas, and Weather, it's been a bit tricky to get everything lined up. However, it should all go down on Monday, with a report shortly thereafter.

Here's a rather shoddy panoramic as a teaser. Our eventual objective is somewhere in those clouds on the left :D 

Joshua Cillierswrote:

Just a little update, between Covid, Christmas, and Weather, it's been a bit tricky to get everything lined up. However, it should all go down on Monday, with a report shortly thereafter.

Here's a rather shoddy panoramic as a teaser. Our eventual objective is somewhere in those clouds on the left :D 

It has been a few years, but that looks somewhat familiar...

Tony Bwrote:

It has been a few years, but that looks somewhat familiar...

Jacob's Ladder! Thought about doing it as a sort of 'backup' route for the trip report, but I'll have a hard time convincing anyone it's an obscure route now :D 

Joshua Cillierswrote:

Jacob's Ladder! Thought about doing it as a sort of 'backup' route for the trip report, but I'll have a hard time convincing anyone it's an obscure route now :D 

I did Jacob's Ladder, Touch and Go, and I forget what else.  I was just recovering from shoulder surgery, so I was not terribly ambitious while there.
I'd think most routes there would be considered obscure to the majority of folks here. The latter of the two I mentioned more so, of course.
So if they are an adventure to you, then that's cool. But the cooler the route, the cooler the write-up.
Looking forward to reading about it & seeing pics.  Table Mountain was gorgeous!

Injury has stymied my climbing recently but I’ll post up my report this week.

Who’s ready for my stopper??

Hit me, Captain Ahab. I'm in!

Alex Chmielwrote:

Hit me, Captain Ahab. I'm in!

Park that sweet van somewhere for a hot second, hit me in the DMs, and I’ll mail her on up!

Captain Ahabwrote:

Park that sweet van somewhere for a hot second, hit me in the DMs, and I’ll mail her on up!

DM sent