Ray Timm, Tor Dietrichs, Don Kochka, Mike Olsen. Chris Morgan to summit plateau previous week.
13 roped pitches 5.11,A2 Summit at 10:00 AM. 8 hour descent
Overnight bivouac. Wildlife: Baboons, scorpions, cobra, griffons, ravens.
Just a bit of information about the Jabal Shada area.


Four of us made the first summit ascent of Jabal Shada 8 years ago in February, 2003 and three of us repeated the route again in November 2009.


The route is called Timm/Caddey. Bernie Caddey did all of the initial exploring in this area and found the weakness that made the climb possible. Unfortunately Bernie was unable to summit with us due to his contract expiring the previous year in 2002.


Not counting the 4th class scrambling sections to reach the start of the roped climbing, I would conservatively rate it 5.11a/b A2. Total of 11 roped pitches with intermittent 4th class sections.


Overall, some of the most unique climbing that I've ever done in my life. Every pitch is totally different in character varying from steep face climbing, chimneys, and off width crack. Rock is excellent on all of the pitches except for pitch # 4 which is quite rotten rock with poor protection. Truly an alpine climb. The second summit took us 35 hours from start to finish from where we camped in the abandoned village.


First ascent: Raymond Timm, Mike Olsen, Don Kochka, Tor Dietrichs
And I should mention that we had a significant support team of American pilots and technicians who were stationed in Abha, Saudi Arabia. Don Kochka was responsible for getting them together and ferrying them up the road to our base camp. Without them bringing water and food to the start of the climb it's doubtful that we would have been successful.

Second ascent: Raymond Timm, David Kristjansen, Neville Holmes