The climb that honoured a friend’s memory

Around 20 years ago, when I met my late old friend Musabbah, he told me about the ‘Saab Al Khashab’ trail that he used to search for wild honey in the mountains. Despite many trips to the area, I was unable to find it.
About 5 months ago, I decided to go on an expedition with a couple of friends, equipped with our climbing gear, to try and locate this hidden trail. Prior to our journey, I reached out to my good friend Khamis, who was familiar with the area, for some guidance on the trail.
On our first trip, accompanied by Rami and Hamoud, two fellow adventurers, as well as Françoise, Rami's wife who was responsible for logistics, we drove to Maabit, a small village in the mountains above Tanuf and began our hike with all the necessary climbing gear to reach a wide ledge where the hidden trail was said to be.
We started our descent by securing our first anchor and completing our first drop of around 40 metres, followed by two additional drops of 20 metres each.
 We agreed that Hamoud would remain at the bottom of the first abseil, Rami would wait after the second and I would descend to reach the ledge we intended to reach that day.

Upon reaching the wide ledge, we decided to climb back up and return another time to continue our exploration.
On February 3, Rami contacted me to propose continuing our search. We agreed to go on February 6, accompanied by Nadhira and Thomas (a young French man and the son of Rami's colleague).
 We planned to meet at my place and drive together to Maabit in Rami's car.
The day before, I contacted my friend Khamis for more information about the trail and he provided valuable insights to help us locate it.
We set out at 6 am and arrived at our destination at 8:30 am. The weather was perfect for this time of year, about 10 degrees cooler than our previous visit.

Equipped with our climbing gear, we began our hike, following the trails used by goats. 
It took us around 30 minutes to reach our first 40-metre drop, where we had previously placed an anchor.
After setting up our rope, I was the first to abseil, followed by Thomas, Rami and finally Nadhira. We successfully descended the other two drops from our previous trip and proceeded to hike along the ridge of the 250-metre cliff.
The view of the canyon bed was simultaneously stunning and intimidating. At times, the trail was narrow, requiring us to proceed with caution to avoid a 200-metre drop.
After navigating the ridge for a couple of hundred metres, we encountered a fault in the mountain filled with stones to aid in climbing, which proved to be the most challenging part of our journey.

Following this ascent, my friends decided to stop, but I continued to climb down to the ground 200 metres below. It was a fulfilling moment to complete Musabbah's legendary trail, where I constructed a small cairn to mark my passage.
Climbing up proved to be easier than climbing down and I rejoined my fellow climbers in about 15 minutes. We retraced our steps back to the start of our ascent, using the ropes we had left behind and made our way back to the car.
After a 2.5-hour journey, we reached our vehicle, where we enjoyed some snacks before heading back to Muscat.
On our way home, I called Khamis to express my gratitude for his invaluable information and to inform him that our expedition had been a success. I was delighted to have completed this trail as a tribute to my old friend Musabbah!