Rock Climbing in Gita

The tie-in knot.

We brought 1 suitcase that was stuffed almost solely with rock climbing gear and we were itching to use it.  Later we'd be itching in a different way.  I found a climbing guide online with a hand-drawn map and we headed North, then East.  We left at maybe 8:30am.  We were in the vicinity of the climbing area around 9:30am.  At the small town of Yirka, we thought we'd be climbing within half an hour.  But we couldn’t find the turnoff we wanted.  Now we're driving through tiny streets, up and down hills.  Finally we ask someone where we are.  The village of Julias.  

We backtrack and ask someone else.  He says he doesn't speak much English, but go a few hundred meters down the road and we'll see a house and find an English speaking boy named Elliot.  We find the house and I walk toward the house and start saying, "Hello? Shalom? Elliot?"  A man at least 15 years older than me comes out and says he's Elliot.  Ok, not really a boy…more like a middle-aged man.  His accent was from Australia or NZ and he looks at the map and tells me a way to get to where we want to go.  He also gives me a different route to get there, and another route and another route...  A little confused, we get back in the car and start driving.  We go up a huge hill and I find a cliff.  Samara stayed in the car and read while I spent about 20 min running around the hilltop looking over the cliff edge for climbing gear (which means there are routes to climb) but I can't find any.  We only found some rocks to boulder around on and this cool view.

We go back down the hill, through a mostly Arab village, and we see cliffs all around.  We're really close!  Again I get out of the car and start looking around.  An hour of exploring and all I found is this little guy:

I think he's a Greek tortoise, they're prevalent throughout the Mediterranean.  And also I found this guy:

We refer to him as the hermit.  I helped him for 5 minutes to hold a fin-piece in place while he bolted it.  He was building a wind turbine.  He has solar panels and a water retention pond.  I think he was living off-grid.  He told me fairly good directions to get to the climbing area.

We backtracked again, and went down a dirt road, which our bad directions called "jeep trail."  The dirt road got crappier and bumpier.  Our guide said cross the dry streambed.  Samara didn't think our economy/compact rental car could make it.  I did.  

She was right.  

All kinds of scraping and we decided we were probably gonna get our car stuck with no one around us to help.  30 minutes of hiking and we were finally at the climbing wall.  9:30 we were in the right town, about 4pm when we actually found the cliff face.  Warning Sign:

Video description of the climbing area:

Flaking out the rope for the first time in half a year, checking for knots, twists, damage...  Cool view behind me.  I'm standing at the crag called Gita East and behind me are the cliffs of Gita West, where we would climb another day.

Rope spectacles

We only got a couple short routes in that day, but we were happy to get out into the hills and get some air under our feet.

It got cold pretty fast that day.  By cold, we mean 70 degrees F with a little wind.

After the first day we found out that every plant in this area is spiny, poky, or sticks to you and makes you itch.  Burrs everywhere - in the rope, in Samara's hair, on our clothes.  A few bug bites...

About a week later, we returned for more.  Here's Samara hiking in for the start of climbing day 2.  The view behind Samara is of the river-carved valley with olive trees all over.  There's little evidence of a river now, just a dry streambed.  But there were signs warning us of the dangers of flash flooding.  Apparently when the flash floods hit, the water will rise several feet in minutes and its strong enough to move gigantic boulders.

Samara finishing another route.

I would have kept climbing higher but I ran out of cliff.

Climbers joke that most climbing pictures are butt-shots.  Normally thats because the picture was shot from below, by the belayer.  Well, here's another one.

Video of the panoramic view:

I'm rappelling back to the ground.

Another fun route.

Samara rappelling after she finished the route.

Climbing day 3 at Gita West was a hot one.  Easily over 90.  Our aluminum carabiners were almost painfully hot to touch if they were in direct sunlight.  When we took off our climbing shoes and put on our sandals that were sitting in the sun, they'd burn our feet.  Not a long hike, but it was steep and adding a big backpack of climbing gear, food & water, plus the rope = glute and calf exhaustion.

Samara belaying me while she's soaking up some sun.

After I climb up and get lowered back down, Samara climbs up, cleans/grabs all our gear, and rappels back to the ground.

Cool effect from the sun above Samara's head.

This one was a rope-stretcher (long route).

I'm rapping down while cleaning the gear.

Lunch time!

I'm employing the leg-plate method.

Almost to the top of another route.

We got in 3 good days of outdoor climbing plus one day at the indoor climbing gym.  So, we feel like it was worthwhile bringing all that climbing gear with us halfway around the world.  Not much use for it at the kibbutz, but theres lots of rock climbing in the hills near Jerusalem, and after a 5 week break we'll be pretty anxious to get out and climb again.