Jebel Hafeet UAE

[tango]

Hello, well here's my first report in the UAE/Oman.."didn't know we had crossed the border"oops!! .The 3 of us started at 0900hours after a 2 hour drive to get here!!they is a massive car park way up the mountain..so we got all our gear ready which wasn't that much really just water & shoes. We had some funny looks from the locals! as mountaineering in the UAE isn't considered fun by most!!! . So we set off across the car park, first obstacle a locked gate!! so up & over before anyone saw us & quickly around the first corner..the first hour was very straight forward just followed the vehicle track up to a telephone mast!!,.What we doing was bagging every high point until we had exhausted all the high ground.. because we had no map of the area...very hard to obtain!!! they are abit like rocking horse sh*t!!..only the military have them really. So we would get to some high see another piece & off we would trot..we were confident that we had reached the highest point by looking at photos on Google earth & the surrounding area to see the lay of the ground...A very simple cairn marks the top..

The ground we covered was very unforgiving under foot,near on ripping our shoes to shreds.. .Hot & dusty as you would expect.. but the views were to die for...just sand dunes a 1000 metres below us as far as the eye can see..not alot going on the mountain i saw 2 other living things apart me & my mates.. a beetle & a lizard "blue" in colour..no bushes or trees..so abit like walking on Mars i should imagine!!! , The day was a welcome relief after spending most weekends in Dubai.. .....after the walk we shot down into Al Ain,for a Kentucky Fried Chicken & Coke..very nice..thank you for reading..

Jebel Hafeet summit

[ChrisW]

Nice - looks hotter then hell though, how much water did you 3 guys have to drag up there

[tango]

Howdy Chris. we had enough!!! it wasn't that hot only 24oc, i carried about a litre & my flask full of coffee.. We all came back with good sun tan lines!!

[ChrisW]

I'm all for a bit of globe trotting but try to avoid hot climates, love to visit them for short spells but I'm a lot like the guy in the white shirt on the pics... blonde hair (what bit there is) and lobster skin after 15 minutes in the sun

[Red Peak]

What, no crampons or ice-axes?! In February?! ...

[Merry-walker]

Great stuff there Tango. You say it wasn't too hot?? Looked fab...

[tango]

Thanks ladies & gents for your comments... i dont think the Emiraties would know what a pair of crampons were if they hit them in the head!!! . & Chris you should have seen Gav blonde hair lad afterwards comical perfect tan lines to extent that even the locals were pointing at him!! but still fun had by all...

[PauloUK77]

I have wanted to head to that part of the world for a while,I very nearly booked to head to the Musandam Peninsula a few years ago.A proportion of the UAE/Oman border is not defined because of shifting sand.
Oman has some good walking in the high lands south west of Muscat and even have a via ferrata route in Snake Canyon.

[pollyh33]

Wow Tango!!!! what an alien landscape from what we're used to seeing on this site. Where are all the bogs and tussocks? I dont fancy taking a slip on that terrain, you would probably lose several layers of skin, especially if you're just wearing skimpy walking shorts and no top!!!!

[tango]

Hi Pollyh33 i wore a top for most of the day otherwise you would burn up just a wee bit warm then! ,& yep you are right about the ground very sharpe underfoot!! You dont want to falling over too often!! could end in tears No bogs up there either "shame"...i do miss sinking up to my knees in poo

[gammy leg walker]

Nice report ther tango,and well done on tracking down some peaks that far from home,Just one thing dont you miss walking and climbing in the freezing cold and driving rain,or 30/40 mph winds with no visability

[malky_c]

Was up here today, but it doesn't really warrant a report as we didn't walk anywhere! There is a hotel not too far from the summit, so being rather on the hot side, we sat around there and had a couple of beers instead. An interesting lump of rock in some ways, but pretty barren. The whole thing looks like one massive quarry! I have to confess I actually quite like being up to my ankles in bog

Hotel:


Some desert:


More rocks and desert:

[morag1]

Hi Tango thanks for posting - its great to see photos from another country, especially one i dont think i will ever get the chance to visit myself.

As everyone says, it looks really hot there although 24 degrees isnt too bad.

Hope you enjoy many more walks out there and hope you keep showing us the photos

[morag1]

Hi malky, yes it does look a bit like a giant quarry

never mind, i'm sure the beer and the sunshine compensates for a lot

[neilmci]

Last time I was up there I have to admit I took the easy way up!!. Dodge charger all the way to the top (car park). Could not help but laugh at the poor porche embedded in the barrier about half way tho!!