A dive in fear! lessons learned from the field!

Olongway, Malawi

"Discovery is the privilege of a child: the child who has no fear of being once again wrong, of looking like an idiot, of not being serious, of not doing things like everyone else" - Alexabder Grothendieck

Growing up we only learn to fear things, it will take you one time of touching the fire to recognize its pain, our memory of pain will never allow us to do it again! that;s not a choice, it is there in our subconscious mind!!! this is how we grow all of our fears in the life!

Leave No Trace لا تترك اثر!

“The notion that [outdoor] recreation has no environmental impacts is no longer tenable.”—Curtis H. Flather and H. Ken Cordell,Wildlife and Recreationists

Great tit tired of seeing our acts :)

People enjoy the outdoors in myriad ways. We explore on foot, 4X4, and mountain bicycles. There are more of us pushing our sports to greater extremes and into more remote parts of the natural world every day. Our experiences are personally satisfying, but they can be costly to the places we visit and the animals we observe. (LNT Desert and Canyon booklet)

يستمتع الناس بالمناطق البرية بالعديد من الطرق، فنحن نستكشف هذه المناطق سيرا على الاقدام، 4X4، او بالدراجات الجبلية. المزيد منا يقومون بتخطي الحدود و الوصول لمناطق لطالما كانت بعيدة المنال. تجربتنا في هذه المناطق عادة ما تتركنا مستمتعين و راضين عن إنجازاتها، ولكن ماذا عن اثر هذه التجربة على ألاماكن التي نزورها؟ و الحياة البرية التي نراها.

The Jordan Trail (Hidan, Mujeb, Kerak, Wadi Rum, Red Sea)

Rum to Aqaba, Aqaba Mountains.

During the last couple of weeks The Jordan Trail team was out on the trail, Mapping, Photographing and keeping notes about the trail, we have done two amazing parts. The first was from Wadi Hidan all the way to Kerak City, crossing Wadi Mujeb which took us 4 days camping out, one night near Shqaiq Area and the other 2 nights down in Wadi Mujeb.

Wadi Al-Hesa

Wadi Hesa : the end side toward The Dead Sea.

Wadi Al-Hesa goes around 25 km from the potash mines near the desert high way, all the way down to reach to Ghor Al-Safi on the Dead Sea. Most of its Water comes from Sad Al-Tanur -Water Dam-, which took its name from the archeological site near by in Khirbet Al-Tanur. The water in most of the parts runs in a gorge that varies in the different areas going from Limestone to Sand Stone, and to sediment walls in other parts. Many water source seeps from its walls, some from hot sources while others are cold. Some of these water sources are even drinkable. (Check the canyon map below).

Wilderness First Aid - Hike Safe!

In outdoors you should always be ready for the unexpected. In an extreme environment with many parameters out of control, accidents may happen. And then you will need to be prepared as a trip leader to provide the help and care for people who become ill or injured far from definitive medical care, and only using the limited resources Available.

The minute the guide accepts a participant to be in his group, he takes all the responsibility for bringing him back safe. In general, few simple acts of first Aid can make a difference between life and death, the lack of understanding these acts can put everyone in the outdoor group in danger.

Why You Should Hire an Adventure Athlete?

I was reading some reviews for the book “Business Lessons from the Edge”, which talks about how extreme athletes use intelligent risk-taking to succeed in business, when the idea of this article came to me.

Why would anyone hire a crazy risk-taker who risk even his own life?

In a previous post I discussed the reasons that make us take a high risk action –as a sport-.

Well what does it take to succeed in business? Risk taking. Preparation. Self-confidence. The same principles that drive extreme athletes to the highest peaks of performance.
.......More..

Age is never a limit

Few years ago, I been to some area near Al-Karak in an exploration trip -as I prefer to call it- to find a new canyon -was new for me and still not well known for mass hiking groups- with one of the local guides in the area. Early in the morning we prepared our gear, Ropes, helmets, etc... since the Canyon supposed to have 3 abseils

Before we head off, he told me we need to wait, his friend is going to join us, few minutes later an old man appeared, all grey hair, without any teeth in his mouth, he was 68 old then, it came to my mind is that the friend we are waiting for!! and the surprise was yes.

He had his own backpack and harness which he made himself. With all the walking, climbing up and going down he only needed two breaks, one for a cigarette and the other for making tea.

I wont talk about safety in the picture, we tried to convince him, but he wasn't interested in it. :)

Why we risk it? the reasons for taking high risk actions.

An interesting article on fox news under the name “New research shows what motivates people to do high-risk activities” was the motivation for me to write this post. The study that was conduct to investigate what pushes people to do Adventure Sports which involve a high risk factor, risking losing their own life. I quoted most of the article but added my comments to it. 

Photo By": Wolfgang Streicher - Canyonwolf (Saut d'Accomat, Guadeloupe)

The list of adventure sports is growing longer and longer, and the risk factor is even going higher. It is believed that all these adventure lovers and thrill-seekers are just sensation-seekers with the tendency to pursue sensory pleasure and excitement. It's the trait of people who go after novelty, complexity, and intense sensations, who love experience for its own sake, and who may take risks in the pursuit of such experience. Sensation seekers are "easily bored without high levels of stimulation," explains Sam Gosling, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin. "They love bright lights and hustle and bustle and like to take risks and seek thrills." 

This new study that was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, has found that risk takers are not all of the same ilk. Some participate in high-risk activities as a way of controlling their emotions and their lives.

Can't it be prevented? -Canyons of Jordan-

It took me too long to publish this post even it was ready since 16/5. but the main reason behind it was that the responses I got on the previous "Can't it be prevented?" posts were mainly from people from outside Jordan, I do appreciate all the responses since it is for the benefit of all, but I was hopping for more local involvement from the local canioneers of Jordan, it is bitty though but I will keep posting for the benefit of all.

In the previous two posts of the series (Cant it be prevented?) we had an introduction to canyoneering and its hazards in the first post, and then we discussed the need of a code of conduct that set a base of understanding for the minimum level of accepted standards for both canyoneering operators and their guests.

Can't it be prevented? -Why we need a code of conduct-

In the last post "Can't it be prevented? -Introduction to canyoning and its hazards-", I talked about some of the accidents happened in the last 2 years in Jordan canyons as an example of these accidents happening all around!

Wadi AlWaleh- Hidan

Maybe most of these accidents I mentioned occurred with individual Travelers who are not supervised or not joining groups, but some happened with people who promote themselves as professional guides!

I agree with a comment I received on that post, accidents is the word used to excuse the lack of professionalism, a professional is one trained to leave no chance for accidents.

Even with the extreme nature of the canyon, a professional should be able to read the signs of the nature and be proactive to it, but in the same case he should be able to deal with any case to minimize its impact.

In our case in Jordan, the biggest problem occurs due to random access to hazards area by none trained and none professional people.

Many calls were made to have a control on accessing these places by sort of land owners or so. But without the existence of a set of standards there won't be a way to differentiate between the good and the bad.

Wadi Al-Waleh (Hidan) [10-5-2013]

Last Friday (May 10, 2013) I was invited to join Jo Hike team in their trip to Wadi Al-Waleh (or as some refer to it as Wadi Al-Hidan).

(The Long Siqe of the Canyon on June 2010)

The Canyon situated on Madaba Area. Runs from Dhiban area all the way down to connect  with the Mujeb Canyon and then down to the Dead sea in a deep gorge surrounded by a rigid black basalt rocks.

Personally it is one of the favorite places for me in Jordan, with many memories in every corner, I even lost count for the times I been there.

Can't it be prevented? -Introduction to canyoning and its hazards-

Photo by: Jennifer Eaton Gokmen 

Canyoning is the mother of all recreational sports, because in many cases you will end up using a variety of other recreational sports, hiking, trekking, scrambling, climbing, technical swimming and even diving, and the most important part is the technical rope use.

A lot of technicality needed to provide a special, but safe experience.

The rush of adrenaline, a mix of thrill and pushing ourselves to the limit, even reaching to new limits we never knew that we were able to reach is what makes the canyoning experience a great Adventure, and with the addiction to the adrenaline rush, the need will be always for a bigger dose, though every time a canyoneer will look for a bigger challenge in which -same as all other recreational sports- he will challenge himself before challenging anything else.