Rubaa Bledi, 16, is being lowered to the ground having completed her first rock climb. “I was trembling!” the Palestinian schoolgirl says breathlessly as she rests her head on her knees.

Her face is hidden for a moment by her headscarf and helmet. “I wanted to know if I could do something risky,” she says when she recovers. “I wanted to know if I was up to the adventure.”

It is Saturday and we’re on the cliffs of Ein Qiniya, a band of bulging orange limestone that fringes a valley full of thorn scrub and olive groves outside Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital of the West Bank.

Rubaa is one of a group of about 20 Palestinians, including students and telecoms workers, attending a course run by Wadi Climbing, an initiative set up by two young Americans.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A young Palestinian woman learns to scale the cliffs above Ein Qiniya, outside Ramallah, West Bank. Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian

The participants have travelled from across the West Bank – from nearby Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus – to attempt a sport in its infancy in the occupied territories.

Rubaa says her parents were anxious about her new pastime. “My father didn’t want me to come,” she says. “He told me: ‘Next year you’ll be in the 12th grade. It’s too important to be injured.’” But Rubaa was determined. “I kept asking and told him: ‘Daddy, I really want to come.’”

In almost a year, about 500 people have attended Wadi Climbing’s courses, most Palestinian and 40% of them women.

“Summer” Rushdi is older and more experienced. “A friend of my sister posted a link on Facebook and I knew I wanted to try it. And this is something people do in the rest of the world. That’s another reason why it is inviting,” she says.

“And we are so involved with the reality of the [Israeli] occupation. It is all about the struggle. And it becomes part of our mentality. It is good to do what other people are doing elsewhere in the world, where people have the time and the opportunity to do different activities. That is why it is so good that this is also available to us now.”

Most of those on the Wadi Climbing course are well-educated and speak fluent English. But later in the afternoon three Bedouin youths arrive. They are not part of the course, which costs about £12 for a weekend of instruction, but borrow harnesses and shoes and get on to the rock.

Rock climbing is something people do in the rest of the world. That’s another reason why it is inviting Summer Rushdi

One of the two founders of Wadi Climbing, Will Harris, explains its genesis. “My partner Tim and I were living in Amman in Jordan and studying Arabic.” He says during a visit to the occupied Palestinian territories the pair were struck by the lack of recreational facilities.



Much of the equipment provided on the course, including climbing shoes and harnesses, was sourced from the lost-and-found cupboards at two climbing walls in Colorado, where Wadi Climbing’s founders went to college.

“We came last July – we had done a feasibility trip last January. People were overwhelmingly positive in their response so we moved here.” Wadi Climbing has developed two cliffs close to Ramallah and plans for the city’s first climbing wall are in the pipeline.



The reality of the occupation is difficult to avoid, even in this quiet and pretty corner of the West Bank. In the distance a settlement and Israeli military tower are visible – both factors have limited the development of climbing.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Will Harris of Wadi Climbing helps Summer Rushdi with her belaying technique. Rubaa Bledi, right, will attempt her first climb shortly after. Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian

“Most of climbing on the West Bank has been developed by Israeli climbers,” says Harris. “When we first came we only met one Palestinian climber. In comparison with the Palestinian territories, Israeli climbing is very active. The Israeli climbing club alone has some 3000 members. Most of that climbing on the West Bank is in Area C [ie under Israeli security control and administration]. And it is close to settlements.

“If you go to Ein Fara [a major climbing area for Israelis in an Israeli-controlled nature reserve in the occupied Palestinian territories between Jerusalem and Jericho] you either have to go through the neighbouring settlement and pay or you have a 40-minute walk.



“We recently took our first group of Palestinians into that Wadi by the walk-in access Palestinians are allowed to use. While we were on the trail two [Israeli] security guards approached us to ask where we had come from. We told them we were going to climb and they said it was OK.”



They have received support from high-profile climbers, including Nina Caprez, from Switzerland, who was visiting on a sponsored trip and had inquired about the possibility of climbing in the Palestinian territories.

Harris tells the story of the young Bedouins who come to climb when he is running his courses. “Friday is their only day off and all they want to do is climb. Some of them work in construction in Rehan [a new Palestinian town being built on the ridge opposite the Ein Qiniya cliffs],” he says. “They can look over towards the cliff and if they see us they run across the valley to come climbing. These guys will be the future of Palestinian climbing.”

Fifteen minutes after her first climb Rubaa is ready to try another. She asks if she can use the Guardian’s rope. This time she runs up the climb. When she returns to the ground all nervousness has gone. “This is so much fun,” she says. “I want to come again.”