A friend of mine has spent a lot of time in the Egyptian Sinai developing routes, I’ve been to Wadi Rum in Jordan a couple of times, and I know that Tony Howard has done a lot of desert exploration. My folks have even just returned from a trip to Yemen armed with photos of decent looking cliffs, so it should come as no surprise that the UAE has a 200 page guidebook. But it does! I’d always thought of the UAE as a bit of an insignificant country somewhere in the Middle East. It turns out that it is over 3 times the size of Wales, and as such, has its fair share of crags. For an off-the-beaten track venue like the UAE the most important aspect of an guidebook is its pictures. Whilst not the best I’ve ever seen in a guide, the scope is clearly there to see. There are very good looking boulders, plenty of sport climnbing venues, adventurous mountain routes and even some good looking deep water soloing! I like the use of satellite images (could be aerial photography I suppose) to show the location of crags and boulders. These are actually far superior to the hand drawn maps in many guidebooks, and probably a whole lot quicker for the author to put together. The topos are both comprehensive and competently done. All in all, a very good looking guide to an out of the way venue. It will probably be used primarily by the ex-pat community, but if you have an adventurous streak and fancy a new destination it looks well worth a trip.
ISBN 13: 9780981180502
No of Pages: 200
Page Size: 210 x 148
Publisher: Red Armada*
Published Date: Jan 2010
Cover: paperback
Illustrations: colour photos
Price: £22.95
Available from Cordee
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