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Jebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3

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Photo ofJebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3 Photo ofJebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3 Photo ofJebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3

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Trail stats

Distance
12.54 mi
Elevation gain
4,754 ft
Technical difficulty
Difficult
Elevation loss
4,754 ft
Max elevation
4,574 ft
TrailRank 
73 4.4
Min elevation
753 ft
Trail type
Loop
Time
10 hours 58 minutes
Coordinates
34776
Uploaded
September 5, 2017
Recorded
January 2017
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  •   4.4 5 Reviews

near Athabāt, Raʼs al Khaymah (United Arab Emirates)

Viewed 8548 times, downloaded 219 times

Trail photos

Photo ofJebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3 Photo ofJebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3 Photo ofJebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3

Itinerary description

Jebel Qada'ah sits centrally in the northern UAE and Mussandam mountains, as a prominent sub-peak on the far end of a north-western ridge line of Jebel Qiwi at 4321' / 1317 meters (source: peakery). It has the 2nd highest prominence of the northern UAE peaks of 921'/278m (est.), however with wadi Bih curving around the northern and western sides, and it's tributary Wadi Sal to the south, it has a huge local prominence from the Jebel Jais range (Jebel Harim Massif) to the north, and the southern peaks of around 4000'/1219m (est.) It is the 10th highest UAE peak (on my none-official list).

Basically it's by itself, with awesome views. Great mountain.

Of 3 routes I have used to get to and from the summit of Jebel Qada'ah, this GPS file approaches from the south and takes the eastern route to the main summit and comes down the south-western wadi. The description below is for the 3rd route, the ascent of this gps track, and the 2nd (descent) route is described separately here:

https://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=19573408

The Eastern Route: Rated 'Moderate' (Description - Bottom to Top)

Due to this being a round trip with the starting wadi and ending wadi not being too far apart, it only involves 1 car. Parking can be anywhere between waypoints 'bottom of wadi shortcut' and 'trek - start/end - 03'.

From where the track ends at 'trek - start/end - 03' the route goes straight up, in a straight line for a long time. However it is relatively easy going, with stable ground and no big steps/bolders to get over. It is quite hard to scale up how far you have gone and how far away the top of the gulley is, so I have waypointed 'half way up/down the gulley' as a guide. After this point the route became slightly steeper, but nothing particularly difficult. To the left (west) is a col on the ridge line, maybe a possible route over. To the right eventually the wadi heads up to remote farm houses, probably accessed from the northern wadi bih side via other villages. Not too long after this you will get to the saddle, and the top of the slog. From here you can see down into mussandam, the central wadi bih valley, the tighter gorges and the villages and peaks that surround further down and into the UAE.

From the saddle point turn left/west and start scrambling up. The scramble was grade 1 all the way, and wasn't particually challanging. We stuck to the southern side which developed into a sheer drop which curves around the south, west and northern sides of the summit.

At the top the route curves north taken by the greater ridge line to the summit. Along here what appears like a dry stone memorial, tomb or coffin appears on the ridge. Continue a short while after this to reach the slightly taller of the two main peaks of Jebel Qada'ah.

From the peak, if you wan't to take another route down, as I have done here, continue in the same direction (north) past the Jebel Qada'ah minor, before following the instructions in the other route listed here:

https://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=19573408

This route is the easiest route I have done to summit Jebel Qada'ah, however it is sustained and not an easy stroll, still with around 4000 foot of ascent/descent. From the end of the track (closest possible parking spot to this way up) the route takes around 5 hours, and is 8.5 km in length, just from start to summit. It doesn't have as many stages to it as other routes, or the same variety of features, however the views are stunning, and it is probably the quickest way to get to them.

Waypoints

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofBend in the Route - 03

Bend in the Route - 03

Bend in the Route - 03

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofBend in the Route - 04 Photo ofBend in the Route - 04 Photo ofBend in the Route - 04

Bend in the Route - 04

Bend in the Route - 04

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft

Bend in the Route - 05

Bend in the Route - 05

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofBend in the Route - 06

Bend in the Route - 06

Bend in the Route - 06

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft

Bottom of Wadi Shortcut

Bottom of Wadi Shortcut

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofFarms

Farms

Farms

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofHalf way up/down Gulley

Half way up/down Gulley

Half way up/down Gulley

PictographSummit Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofPeak - Minor

Peak - Minor

Peak - Minor

PictographSummit Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofPeak - Major Photo ofPeak - Major Photo ofPeak - Major

Peak - Major

Peak - Major

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofRidge Photo ofRidge

Ridge

Ridge

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofSaddle - Between Peaks

Saddle - Between Peaks

Saddle - Between Peaks

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofSaddle - Between Wadi Sol and Wadi Bih Photo ofSaddle - Between Wadi Sol and Wadi Bih

Saddle - Between Wadi Sol and Wadi Bih

Saddle - Between Wadi Sol and Wadi Bih

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofStairway

Stairway

Stairway

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofStart of Gulley

Start of Gulley

Start of Gulley

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofStart-End of Traverse

Start-End of Traverse

Start-End of Traverse

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofTop of Scree Shoot

Top of Scree Shoot

Top of Scree Shoot

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft

Top of Wadi Shortcut

Top of Wadi Shortcut

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft

Track - Junction - 01

Track - Junction - 01

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft

Track - Start/End - 01

Track - Start/End - 01

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofTrack - Start/End - 03

Track - Start/End - 03

Track - Start/End - 03

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofWadi - Bottom of Scree Slope

Wadi - Bottom of Scree Slope

Wadi - Bottom of Scree Slope

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft

Wadi Step 1

Wadi Step 1

PictographWaypoint Altitude 0 ft

Wadi Step 2

Wadi Step 2

PictographTree Altitude 0 ft
Photo ofWhite Tree

White Tree

White Tree

Comments  (15)

  • Photo of Matthieu Froment
    Matthieu Froment Oct 24, 2018

    Hi Ben,
    I'm planning to do your route on trail running mode.. How long do you think it will take ? 4-5hours is it reasonable aggregate ? Will try to follow the route as much as possible. It sounds stunning!
    Thank you!

  • Photo of Ben Robbins
    Ben Robbins Oct 24, 2018

    Hi Matthieu,

    It is varied, The track at the bottom is easy. There is a gully all they way up which for the most part is moderately sized rocks and will be hard going. The top section is good for running but has a 200m/700' ish section down which is scree/boulders. The traverse on the way down has some loose rocky sections, and scree/boulders until your down to the village. then there is a path down to white tree and back to the track.

    I would probably do it backwards if I were to run it, as it's smoother ascent, with the bolder hopping left for the descent.

    It's tricky to give a time estimation, but if you truely ran the whole thing then maybe 5. Personally, the gully ascent and last up section to the top would not see me running at that angle, with those rocks for 90+ minutes!

  • Photo of Matthieu Froment
    Matthieu Froment Oct 25, 2018

    Thanks Ben! Will give it a try on Friday with reverse side and let you know.

  • Photo of Matthieu Froment
    Matthieu Froment Oct 26, 2018

     

    I have followed this trail  View more

    Very technical and engaged Hike but pleasant with nice weather. It’s very rocky, you can’t run, only walk/hike and it is very steep. You must be in very good physical condition. Moreover, I did the trail on Reverse (clock wise) and it was Okay. I would recommend to do the same.
    It took me 4h45 to do the full round.. as per my Garmin it was indicating only 15K but elevation is accurate.

  • Photo of Ben Robbins
    Ben Robbins Oct 26, 2018

    Well done, fast time. Thanks for the feedback. Not sure where 15k comes from. The route here is 20km. Possible the way points have no elevation data and therefore gave different distance spacing.

  • Photo of Path Finder
    Path Finder Dec 4, 2019

     

    I have followed this trail  View more

    It was a nice trail, we camped after 8 km, and continued in the second day.
    we hiked for 2 hours in the dark to reach our car, but it was okay because we finished the scree before it was dark.
    4 liter of water is enough, but also it's depending on temperature.

  • Photo of Kozyriev Oleksandr
    Kozyriev Oleksandr Dec 21, 2019

     

    I have followed this trail  View more

    Nice trail with beautiful views, did it counter clock wise as originally posted. Ascend to Peak Major took about 4 hours. Descend from Peak Minor, on the other hand, was quite difficult and took same 4 hours.

  • MitchGM Jan 31, 2020

     

    I have followed this trail  View more

    Did this hike today. Took us 11 hours on the dot. Scenery was fantastic. Did following our Garmin Etrex 20x.
    Technical difficulty - moderate - a few times we needed to get into interesting positions to hoist ourselves up.
    Despite this we thought that 90% was a strenuous scramble especially uphill. Downhill was pretty brutal on the knees. It was probably us but we took a few wrong turns following the GPS trail - easily sorted out. We found it very physically demanding. In all we had a cracking day.

  • Photo of Angharad Edwards
    Angharad Edwards Oct 14, 2020

    Those who have done this hike - are there any “stand out” camp spots? Planning on breaking this up in to two over an evening/morning overnighter. Thanks in advance!

  • Photo of Ben Robbins
    Ben Robbins Oct 14, 2020

    Because of the temperatures most of the time, I would suggest camping on the saddle between sol and bih, or the farm at 'bend in the route 3' (probably the best [flat and great views]), as both are at elevation and get a little wind. However there are possible camping spots along the entire top section between the two peaks, as well as at 'ridge' potentially also.

  • Photo of Robert Sheal
    Robert Sheal Oct 31, 2020

    Great hike Ben - the circuit had a bit of everything & fantastic scenery. Agree with the other posts that you need to be in great shape and ready for a demanding and engaging route. I went clockwise, camped between the peaks and came fairly close to running out of water at the end! Thanks for sharing

  • Photo of 'Rainbow Hiker' Patrick Vijay D'Silva
    'Rainbow Hiker' Patrick Vijay D'Silva Nov 5, 2022

    Hi Ben,

    Today we reverse hiked part of your trail till the 2 house farm village and from there we took the newly laid trail towards East that leads eventually to SPAR pass/ Hebs villages/Wadi Zabat etc.
    This new trail is very well made.
    Later we descended towards Wadi Qadaah by your ascent route.

    https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/wadi-qadaah-to-jebel-qadaah-base-ghail-village-118301907

    We plan to hike your trail during bit more cooler days.

    Thank you very much for recording, sharing this trail with all details.

  • Lukasz Kwiatkowski May 7, 2023

    Is it marked “difficult” due to being demanding in terms of stamina or it is extremely technical and very exposed?
    How would you compare it with stairway to heaven Ben? (Is it more “risky”?)

  • Photo of Ben Robbins
    Ben Robbins May 7, 2023

    Technical. All routes are graded on Technical only. Stamina is inferred from length and hight gain information. Compared to stairway to heaven it is similar, but there is far less exposure. Just scrambling.

  • Photo of 'Rainbow Hiker' Patrick Vijay D'Silva
    'Rainbow Hiker' Patrick Vijay D'Silva Nov 20, 2023

     

    I have followed this trail  View more

    Hi Ben,
    At last found time to hike this trail by following your trail (ascent till Qadaah summit ) and we descended back to the Ghail village by the recently laid trail and we made a smaller loop of 12 Kms.

    https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/jebel-qadaah-ghail-village-route-153635848

    The traverse section from the village to the base of Qadaah was actually rough at places and in some places there was minimum scrambling.

    All other sections were familiar as we had hiked those sections previously for other hikes of Qadaah.

    Thank you for your excellent documentation, details and pictures.
    Your post made our hike easier.

    See you soon on a mountain !

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