Burdah Arch, Wadi Rum Jordan

[ststephen]

Our second major hike in the Wadi Rum was the climb to Burdah Arch. This arch is about 1000 ft up one of those bread-loaf shaped sandstone mountains you see all over the Wadi Rum. The first shot in the slideshow is of the arch from a different side than where the route starts and the lighting was poor. But you get a sense for how high up it is. I think that first view of it gave us all a little pause!

The route snakes back and forth over various sandstone formations. There are cairns but our guide did not always follow them. He claimed that sometimes the cairns took you on a more difficult or exposed route and we weren't going to argue with him. The climbing is all easy as far as climbing goes, but there are some sustained class 4 sections as well as a couple of short exposed sections of easy class 5. At the very last wall, especially when descending it, I kind of wished we could have had a rope to belay. High penalty points there. But it is all very easy and our guide was good at making sure all of us moved slowly and deliberately exactly as we needed to.

It didn't take that much time, really. I think about 1.5 hours up and 1 down? But it was thrilling and the views up there were great. After the scramble up the arch we had time for some more explorations. We walked a short but sweet canyon which must have drained a water from a large area because there were actually trees! We also visited another arch that required only a brief walk up and then another very short slot canyon (Khazali Canyon) that had some petroglyphs dating between a few centuries before and after 0 AD.

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[blueeyes]

:2thumbs:

[oldno7]

So you take your family on hikes in Southern Utah, then add some guide company from Jordan's stock photos, and claim you went to Jordan.:twisted::mrgreen:

looks great so far..

[ibenick]

Epic! :hail2thechief:

[Philippe]

Hello,

Excellent pictures of this interesting hike, thank you for sharing ! :clap:

I could recognize several spots on the ascent to the arch, but I also remember a big root / kind of trunk in a crack that was very helpful to climb a class 5 spot (maybe it is not there any more and they did some moqui steps ?). Like you, I was not confortable with the very last obstacle before the arch as the slickrock was sandy and slippery, and it is not the right place to fall ! In your selection, there is not the classic picture of people standing on the middle of the arch, is it still allowed to walk on the arch ?

Philippe

[ststephen]

Kurt - there's a couple of things that make it a bit different than Utah. Connoisseurs of different sandstones will find theirs different to any we have. Parts are crumbly like the Moenkopi but also with erosion that makes it look all "drippy", that's the red layer that's the older sandstone. Then there is a younger pale colored layer that forms domes. It is similar to what you get in Capital Reef. Then the wide open expanses of sand is different than what you find most of UT. That plus the camels roaming around! All of this sandstone overlies some really old granite that pops up in a couple of places (in my next TR). I had fun explaining what an unconformity is to our guide Radi and how many 100's of millions of years lapsed between a single spot on the trail.

Phillipe - We chickened out and "sat" on the arch instead. I have a shot of Aaron doing that, but the lighting is bad and I didn't include it. Here's what I have plus a couple of other shots.

[Philippe]

Phillipe - We chickened out and "sat" on the arch instead. I have a shot of Aaron doing that, but the lighting is bad and I didn't include it. Here's what I have plus a couple of other shots.

Thanks you for the pics, I love the last one !

Here is a scan that I just did from a snapshot of me on the arch that took my friend in 1995 (it is written on the back of the picture, I thought it was not so far ago), just to share a souvenir with you (sorry for the terrible quality of this picture).

Philippe

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[ststephen]

We should have climbed in later in the day, your lighting is better! Cool shot!

[gnwatts]

Beautiful. It looks like a scene from "Lawrence of Arabia". It might be more beautiful than Utah.

[ibenick]

It might be more beautiful than Utah.

Blasphemy!!

[gnwatts]

I said "might".

[ststephen]

Nah, Utah is overall more beautiful. But Jordan is well worth a visit, especially when you include the single coolest thing: Petra (patience: a TR is coming) Plus there are a several technical canyons there that were not "in season" in the Christmas time. And, you do realize that the reason it looks like Lawrence of Arabia is because most of the film was filmed in the Wadi Rum!

[accadacca]

That is so cool. :2thumbs: :popcorn:

[Brian in SLC]

Neat!

On the list. Petra would be great to see.

Did you see many rock climbers in Wadi Rum? Have a friend who's been there several times. Rock quality is supposed to be similar to Moab, but, maybe a touch softer?

Great!

[Philippe]

Did you see many rock climbers in Wadi Rum? Have a friend who's been there several times. Rock quality is supposed to be similar to Moab, but, maybe a touch softer? !

Years ago, I used to be a cliff climber in France and I had some friends who climbed an entire week in the Wadi Rum. Back in France, they told me that it is better to climb not too difficult routes for your skills as the few bolts and the Friends that you can use are not very trustable because in some places the rock is not solid and it is not adviced to fall. You have also to check cautionously your rope from time to time as some very soft sand can come inside the rope (between the exterior and the nylon heart) and it can damage the rope until it becomes not trustable if you fall (one of their rope was nearly cut).

Philippe
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