In November of 2018 as part of my work as Director of Ops for the Saudi Climbing Federation, I had the opportunity to oversee the development project for Saudi Arabia’s first outdoor sport climbing areas. This included scouting potential locations, hiring a team of developers, getting the appropriate equipment, and documenting the outcomes.
The Team
When we had the chance to hire a team, I reached out to a number of potential developers from the US, Canada, the UK, Europe. I had spoken to the lead developer over technical, environmental, and logistical considerations over a number of occasions. We needed a team of 4, and they invited Alexandru (Alex) Ruscior, and Italian mountain guides Carlo Giuliberti (the team’s rope gun) and Piergiorgio Lotitio to the team.
The Equipment
The team had picked most of the equipment. One important part left was the type of bolts to be used. There were two options: Expansion bolts or Glue-in bolts. Expansion bolts are at least 2x faster to install, but could be unscrewed by people (anchor theft had been a problem in other areas of Saudi in the past), and might need retightening in the future. They were also unsuitable for soft rock, since they work by pushing on the inside of the hole, and would break soft rock. Glue-in bolts take longer to install, and need a full 24 hours before they can be tested (since the glue has to dry). However once installed, they can’t be uninstalled without breaking the rock.
The team’s argument was that both of the prospective areas were hard rock, and therefore using expansion bolts would allow for a greater number of routes to be developed, would be cheaper, and easier to install. My view was that whatever bolts were installed, they were going to set the pace for any future development, and would have to be built to last without maintenance or fear of loosening/corroding/tampering for years to come; I had read enough reports of areas developed with expansion bolts, only for some part of the system (bolt, hanger, or rock) to begin failing 5 - 10 years down the line. Leftovers glue-ins could also be used in other projects across Saudi, which is primarily composed of soft sandstone. We eventually went with glue-ins.
The Area
Initially the goal was to develop one area near Riyadh, and another near Jeddah. However after scouting a number of locations around Riyadh, I found the areas to be too loose, too remote, too small, or a combination of all three. I read reports about potential areas near Jeddah, and flew out there with a friend to check them out. We drove Jeddah to Taif along the northern road crossing Mecca and through Alhada and towards Taif. Nothing was big enough.
At the end of the day we drove to Al Shafa, a popular nature area southwest of Taif, where David Black, one of the early climbing explorers in Saudi, reported a climbing area among expats in the 90’s and early 00’s. I had been in communication with him for a few months, and he flew out to Saudi to help scout locations. There, next to Jabal Al Qaraniyat, we rediscovered Olympic Crag. Steep, hard rock (granite), and enough for at least 100 routes (see picture below).
The second area was Al Sharaf Park in Tanomah, a two hour drive north of Aseer. The area had been lightly developed in the 90’s by a team of American expats living across Saudi. However, the old bolts had been rusted and were no longer safe to climb on. Nevertheless, the potential was promising. It turned out the rock was sandstone with granite streams, rather than fully granite, and we were glad to have to have chosen the glue-ins.
The Development
The team spent 5 weeks in Saudi, in which they developed 74 glue-in routes excluding extensions ranging from 4th class to 8b in difficulty. A number of routes are yet to be free climbed.
The Documentation
An important part of fostering an environment conducive for the development of the sport was providing easy access to information. The team created a mini guidebook PDF of the areas, including all routes and environmental/access concerns, which can be found here. But as anyone whoever used a PDF knows, they are bad for filtering/search and are too rigid for easy access. We thought about creating a routes app or listing them on a custom-made webpage, but my view was that simple was better. I added all routes to Mountainproject. I also built a map of all climbing areas in Saudi.
The Naming
I had the chance to name a number of the routes in Al Shafa. Many of the names are inspired by popular 90’s Spacetoon cartoons (character names, show names, etc). You can look through the names on the Mountainproject link above and try to match the name/show.
