Expedition to 2ornet el Saoudah - Part 2

Now here it gets tight, there’s 4 of us in a 3 person tent, we used the quickcovers to place on the ground. These are thermal covers which wrapped on one side keep the heat in (in case of hypothermia) and rapped on the other keep the heat out (in case you’re stranded in Saudi Arabia).

So we get to bed, somehow, into our sleeping bags. Once we’re all in, I notice that we are way too cold on the bottom side, and so I ask my good friend who set up the tent which side of the covers is facing the floor, and yes, you guessed it, the heat reflecting side, while the heat absorbing side is facing upwards, so we were effectively sleeping on a heat pump, and the snow below us had melted which although that makes it quite comfortable in the manner of shape of your body, also means you are closely sleeping to the freezing ground in a puddle of melted snow, i.e. freezing water…

So we get up and turn over the thermal blankets, and was that quite the maneuver, for four people in a three people tent, and then get back to sleep, much better, and yet, every ¾ of an hour, I am awoken by the feeling of my underside freezing, hence I developed the shawarma sleeping technique: sleep, wake up when freezing, turn over a bit, sleep, wake up when freezing, turn over a bit etc…
Of course there is still the problem of my fellow camper’s fingers in my ear and elbow on my throat and other elbow in my side but that was nothing…

Next morning we wake up, and it’s rather hazy, there is a low cloud cover, but no fog, which is good… We pack up the tents, go over to the water, which by the way is still not boiling, pack up our gear… I fix my racquet with my belt string for good this time, and we head out. It was a pleasant walk although it was snowing rather heavily… No matter, good temperature, about 4 degrees, good snow, serene walk in the mountains across juniper trees…

Until we arrive to 2000 meters of altitude and the scene of the sir el dennyeh incident three years ago. This was where we had originally intended on setting up camp, there are shepherd houses, abandoned in the winter and goat pens which provide good cover…

Further down the road, at 1700 meters in altitude we encountered the 2arassia cedar grove.

Another 100 meters down and the snow was getting pretty scarce and slushy.

After that point there was no longer any snow, the rest of the trip was made without the rackets which went into the backpacks, after they where cleaned of all the mud: the rest of the trip was trudging through mud in boots, under more or less continuous light showers… It was also pleasant, for those who enjoy the occasional walk through the rain…

Down to 120 meters and a friend of mine can o longer go on, her feet are just aching, I offer to carry her load which she vehemently refuses… The rest of us go on while she takes a break and I wait with her (taking a first number 2 in 2 days, this kind of incubation time is deadly) I take a pictures of flowers, apple trees and insects in between rain showers, until finally we switch backpacks and head on down the road.

That mule had been carrying twice what I had been carrying!!! No wonder she could no longer go on… Down the last 200 meters and we meet up with the mukhtar of b2a3 sefrine, quite the hospitable fellow. Invited us over to lunch, but we politely declined to enter his house as we were covered in copious amounts of mud on the outside and baking in our own sweat on the inside… So he graciously had us some tee brought outside…

Photo shoot everyone, by then our pickups had come over, we sloughed off our gear, hopped in the cars, and off to Tripoli Five minutes after hopping into the cars, all hell broke lose, it was pouring cats and dogs. I’d hate to have walked through that…

Arrival in Tripoli, change socks at the speleoclub’s locale in el mina, and then we had some samkeh harra sandwiches, very good stuff. And that was pretty much the whole trip.

all photography by phoenix all rights reserved to Phoenix

tags: 2ornet el Saoudah, Cedars of Lebanon, Mount Lebanon, snow, ice, expedition, Speleology, Speleoclub du Liban, snow raquettes, wind, phoenix, photography, quickcover, Sir el Dennyeh

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