Jebel Qada'ah - Routes 2 and 3
Trail photos
Author
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
near Athabāt, Raʼs al Khaymah (United Arab Emirates)
Viewed 8555 times, downloaded 219 times
Trail photos
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.
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
Waypoint
0 ft
Bend in the Route - 05
Bend in the Route - 05
Waypoint
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Bottom of Wadi Shortcut
Bottom of Wadi Shortcut
Summit
Waypoint
0 ft
Top of Wadi Shortcut
Top of Wadi Shortcut
Waypoint
0 ft
Track - Junction - 01
Track - Junction - 01
Waypoint
0 ft
Track - Start/End - 01
Track - Start/End - 01
Waypoint
0 ft
Wadi Step 1
Wadi Step 1
Waypoint
0 ft
Wadi Step 2
Wadi Step 2
Tree
Comments (15)
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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!
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!
Thanks Ben! Will give it a try on Friday with reverse side and let you know.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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”?)
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.
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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 !