The northern section team had their own tsl snow racquets, very good quality. We had rented XXXXXX from maison du ski. One of our team member's racquets would not fit into his left boot. Yes they had given us a pair with different sizes for each foot. Two team members had to switch racquets and readjust the sizes. Then we realized we had forgotten one of the tents in the car. The logistics team at the bottom of the slopes sent it up with a snowboarder (thanks again). That delayed us quite a bit, the ride up is about 20 minutes. By the time we got underway, it was 11am, we were two hours behind, we were hoping to reach the summit in two hours then hike down to an altitude of 2000 meters where we hoped to camp before sundown.







The hike to the summit was about 6 to 8 kilometers depending on wether or not we had to make detours depending. We did not adopt a direct approach to the top as the slope was too steep and practically vertical at some points, instead we planned to go around the base of the summit to the northern face and ascend from there, still a steep finale. The first 4 km were very easy, and relatively flat. The sun was out and it was ten degrees out. In my thermally isolating clothes it was getting hot but I wouldn’t have to worry about that much longer.







The road was snowed in as of halfway to the summit, which forced us to walk perpendicularly to the slope: my left foot was about 30 cm higher than my right, whatever you do, you do not want to end up walking that way, you always want to walk facing or away from the slope, even if that means walking a longer distance. Eventually I slid down the hill on my ass and walked on the flat part, then climbed back up, facing the slope, I easily managed to make up for lost time due to the comfortable walking. We only reached the top of the mountain by 3:10 pm, more than two hours late.







The final ascent was pretty steep and rather exhausting, the extra weight doesn’t help, nor does the rarifying oxygen. At some point I stopped every 50 or so meters to recover my breath.





On the north face of the mountain, the wind gets extremely strong, and you feel the wind chill. At the top, the wind is so strong you can stand at a 40 degree angle and the wind will hold you up.





A very rapid photoshoot left our hands absolutely freezing. My hands were so cold they hurt. After putting on my gloves it took a good 20 minutes to get them warm again. And changing lenses on the camera was out of the question as you were sure to get dust onto the sensor. The wind had blown the snow clean off the top of the mountain and the ground was completely dry.





On the way down, one of my racquets refused to get back on my foot, one of the parts had loosened and I could no longer get my foot latched onto the racket. No matter, the northern face we were walking down was swept clean by the wind. So I walked down on the rocky parts. However I had gotten fifteen minutes behind the rest of the crew. I could see them a the bottom of the hill, walking on to jabal 2arassia.





I eventually made it down, and was unfortunately back on the snow, stopping for a sunset picture set me back another ten minutes. Walking with my boots on the snow kept delaying me. Luckily it was about 5 pm and the snow had started to harden again. Still it wasn’t hard enough and I was peddling snow. I kept falling behind especially where the snow was powdery and came up to my knees, I used a nylon bag under my ass to slide down any slope I could find, I wore my speleo helmet with the headlamps to avoid banging my head at the bottom of the slopes, still I was falling ever behind. It was now dark and I switched on my headlamps for the others to se me a distance away and reassure themselves. Worse comes to worse, I would catch up to them at camp site.





I diligently followed their tracks in the snow, instead of walking single file, they walked next to each other so as to spread their tracks and make them more easily visible. The moonlight reflecting on the snow was very much sufficient to navigate at night, but I kept my headlamp on for the others to keep track of me. At one point I was so tired of walking on the snow, I stopped to fix my racket: for that I took out the lace holding my ski pants onto my hips, and tied the loose part tightly in position. This allowed me to continue on racket, unfortunately I had to hold my pants up with my hands for the rest of my trip.





I eventually caught up to the group who had finally stopped to wait for me. My rackets got busted again and it was impossible to return the lace into the ski pants. So my teammates carried my hand held equipment, (tripod and camera bag and rackets) and gave me ski batons (which btw reduce fatigue by 30% and help reduce sinking into the snow. After that I picked up pace and felt like I could walk for hours. Finally I could turn off the headlamp and walk by moonlight.





The feeling of serenity was soothing. We walked for another two hours till 9 pm, way after sundown. In the end we had to stop due top fatigue of one of the members of the team, unfortunately we ended up in a plain, the worst place as far as wind goes. We were in sight of jabal 2arassia which would have afforded us shelter from the wind, I could see the juniper trees on the southern face of the mount. It was only fifteen minutes march away. Too bad, windswept plain it was.





Setting up the tents was no joke. We had someone holding every edge at all times to avoid having them blown away by the wind. We dug holes in the snow to light up the camping gas stoves and melt some snow to make pasta...

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 1

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 2

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 3

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 4

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 5

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 6

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 7

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 8

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 9

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 10

High Resolution 2ornet el Saoudah Landscape Photography 11

all photography by phoenix all rights reserved to Phoenix

tags: 2ornet el Saoudah, Cedars of Lebanon, Mount Lebanon, snow, ice, expedition, Lebanese Army, Speleology, Speleoclub du Liban, snow raquettes, wind, phoenix, photography, sunset

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