Lots of rock: The gorgeous view from a beach campsite along Khor Ash-Sham. Photo: Marius Rølland | @unrealmarius
THE NORWAY OF ARABIA
“From our campsite at the edge of the Khor Ash-Sham (Ash-Sham Fjord), on yet another deserted white-sand beach, we watched the sun sink low over the Strait of Hormuz. A single thought occupied our minds, and Aniek was the first to put it to words: ‘I don't want to leave tomorrow.’”
Alan Goldbetter, who wrote this passage for AAJ 2024, spent eight days last January with Aniek Lith and Marius Rølland exploring Khor Ash-Sham in the Musandam Peninsula of Oman: “kayaking with dolphins, wading shin-deep through bioluminescent algae, climbing multi-pitch routes on virgin limestone, and giggling the nights away under a shimmering, star-filled sky.” Their two new routes, each 5.10 and more than 1,000 feet long, were the first recorded roped climbs in the fjord. Read Goldbetter’s AAJ 2024 report to learn more.
Evening fun: After a day scrambling a ridge on Khor Ash-Sham fjord’s north side, the team prepares to bivy. Photo: Marius Rølland |@unrealmarius.
CLIMBS IN CANADA’S ARJUNA SPIRES
Daniell Councell moving up easy ground near the start of the Quartz Arête, the first known route up Nakula Spire, whose summit towers high overhead. Photo: Andrew Councell.
Starting the upper buttress on Nakula Spire. Photo: Andrew Councell.
Heli-skiing guide Andrew Councell had ogled the rocky peaks around Bella Coola, British Columbia, for years while flying into the mountains to ski, but the few roads and desperately steep hillsides in the area severely limit summertime access. “Finally,” Councell writes in an AAJ 2024 report, “in a culmination of years of desire to climb these mountains, mixed with a fatalistic shrug toward my bank account, I planned an exploratory trip with my brother Daniel.” A 10-minute helicopter flight landed them at a luxurious base camp by the Arjuna Glacier.
The result was the probable first ascent of two formations in the Mt. Arjuna massif, along with a handful of shorter routes and a rare climb of Arjuna itself. The highlight was the Quartz Arête on the north side of Nakula Spire, a beautiful buttress with mostly moderate climbing and a crux of 5.9. “My hope,” Councell writes, “is that continued development of climbing in the Bella Coola backcountry will encourage fellow adventure seekers to discover this untapped arena.”
PUNCHING A ROUND TRIP TICKET
This month’s Cutting Edge podcast interview with Matt Cornell, Jackson Marvell, and Alan Rousseau, about their alpine-style new route up the north face of Jannu (Kumbhakarna) in Nepal, is understandably one of the show’s most popular episodes in years.
One thing we didn’t get to in the hour-long interview is the origin of the new route’s name, Round Trip Ticket, which has an interesting and telling backstory. In 2007, Valery Babanov and Sergey Kofanov climbed the west pillar of Jannu, a remarkable climb in its own right (also climbed alpine-style). A decade later, Kofanov wrote in an Alpinist magazine Mountain Profile about Jannu: “Perhaps someday, a pair will climb a direct route on the north face in alpine style, but they’ll need to accept the likelihood that they’re buying themselves a one-way ticket.” As you’ll hear in our interview, the three American climbers’ planned itinerary was round-trip all the way.
The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: aaj@americanalpineclub.org.
