'Frontier Pass' Samburu Rock Trip Report
Once known as the Northern Frontier the wild area between Isiolo and the borders of Ethiopia, Somalia is a vast area with various tribal communities within it. A British Parliamentarian once described it as ‘a desert twice the size of England’. Its also been a tense area since Independence from the British in 1963. The region which took up nearly half the size of the then colony largely wanted to be within Somalia at independence rather than Kenya and tensions of always remained here with tricky relations to capital Nairobi remaining still. Although many years have passed since the colonial era the region still feels like a true wilderness with many tribes living as they always have and with vast areas of bush rich in wildlife and a huge number of walls, crags, mountains and towers to climb. However appealing the crags and mountains may seem this is a tough place just to be in let alone climbing. Fierce heat, dense bush that can shred skin and clothing, loose rock and a host of snakes, scorpions and other wildlife that have serious consequences if crossed.
Jo and I teamed with Will and Bianca for a trip up to Saranto Camp. Ive been coming to the area for many years. Last year though Jo and I came up with friend John Lekloi a young lad local to the area who had thoughts on building a camp between the two towers the ‘Cat and Mouse’ near Olokwe. On this visit the camp was in place and a great effort by John in getting it up and running. A rustic camp with tent pitches, well matched to the area. A much needed shaded seating area complete with breathtaking views of the surroundings perched under the improbable monolith of the Mouse buttress.
Once camp was established we had a look at the surrounding crags below the Mouse ticking of a few new lines. The obvious draw of the larger crags is easy to see but that would write off a lot of climbing if your focus was solely on these cliffs, also it would be good to expand the area so that climbing of all levels was available for Johns camp. Some visiting Italians recently put up some new lines in the range of high 7s and into the 8s which isn’t so accessible to all. Although the rock is good to climb on it is also loose in places so its a careful game of picking a line and not pulling off any large shields of rock. The rock is often has a layered effect like peeling an onion and so the odd removal of a layer is needed to clean the line, once thats done though it does leave great rock. As with all climbing areas traffic quickly clears and beds things in, that said there isnt a huge amount of traffic here but it is steadily building.
The following day we headed into the Kirche valley for a developed sport crag with some great routes in the morning shade. The afternoon saw us visiting the Mini Mouse an area just below the Mouse crag. An Italian team have been operating here putting up some hard sport lines. There was a couple of trad lines on offer including a large off width which proved to tricky on the day.
One last day and an ascent of the Mouse, Bianca smoothly sailing up the top a long second ptch of 6b pitch leads to the top. This was first climbed about fifty years ago which must have felt like a pretty adventurous line at the time and even since then only a couple more lines have been established although one impressive line by Alex Hannold. They visited the region a few years ago putting up new lines on both the Cat and Mouse. Well worth a watch of their video of ‘Choss and Lions’.
As the heat ramped up after the Mouse it was time to head home after another wonderful trip to the North. Although we had one more visit to make not to far away. A local music artist was playing a concert out in the bush which we called in to have a look at. Masai’s from all over the region where gathering for a superbly colourful dance and get together. It was certainly the hottest festival I have been to, superb to see and a good send off back up to the cooler air of Nanyuki.
Comments