Sun, dust, rock, wildlife and cries of Farenji!
Ethiopia is in the Horn of Africa, it is the oldest African independent country and it is 4.6 times larger than the UK. It covers 1.13 million km², and has the second largest population of any African country. It’s a country of extremes, with the fertile Omo Valley in the South, with an average annual rainfall of 1134mm, (in 2013 the UK’s average annual rainfall was 1091mm). The Danakil Depression in the North is –125m below sea level and one of the hottest places on earth, while Ras Dashen (the highest mountain in Ethiopia), is 4550m above sea level (just 260m below Mont Blanc). These differing weather conditions mean that it’s a great place for our Ethiopia Rocks 2014 team to test out the new Páramo Enduro and Ventura fleeces and windproofs, as although we saw some very hot weather, we also came across cool evenings, shady crags and rain showers.Ethiopia has endless adventurous rock climbing, in the sun, with new routes at a large variety of grades, in a country full of culture. To encourage more long term sustainable rock climbing tourism in Ethiopia I have put together a free basic rock climbing guidebook, links can be found here:(https://www.facebook.com/ethiopiarocks2014).
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