11 Feb 2025
Text by Maria Longas
Photograghy by Maria Longas & Lewis Beards
SANDSTONE GIANTS
A TRIP BACK IN TIME TO 2022
I suppose the usual procedure for writing about a trip should be to pour out your thoughts and impressions shortly after it. You've just arrived, you remember every insignificant detail, and it seems like the best approach to describing the experience, right?The objective was the following: the climbers Gonzalo Saldaña, Jaume Peiro and Alex Gonzalez (professional climbers and LGTBI+ activists) would open a new route in the massive walls of Wadi Rum. After climbing walls all over the world, scaling El Capitan at the age of 16 (in Alex's case) and opening the Queeraction, a 500m 7a /6b+ multipitch route in Taghia, expectations were high. For my part, the idea of spending 10 days lost in between sandstone canyons, documenting this project from the heights, gave me butterflies.
We landed in Amman and started our journey to the desert. Our first stop was a dip in the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, at 430 meters below sea level. I didn’t know what to expect from that swim, but nothing came close to what I felt when I dipped into that warm water. I could describe it as the most similar experience to floating on a cloud, if you add the awkwardness of swimming clumsily because you can’t submerge, and the slight sting in my intimate areas from the crazy amount of salt.
Don’t expect an overwhelming landscape if you visit the Dead Sea. It’s more like being in a swamp, with shores petrified by salt crystals that will destroy your feet if you go without shoes, as I did. That day, my hair made an incredible tie-dye pattern on my shirt because of the water, so make sure to tie your hair up if you swim in such a place and avoid getting it wet.
That night we arrived at our home in the village of Wadi Rum. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel like running away, but I took it as an experience I would laugh about later, so I proceeded to gather all the “mattresses” I could find, to stack them on top of each other.
It was funny to see the evolution of my bed, made of three mattresses, over the days. The first days, I would get up leaving the shape of my body marked in the foam, but by nightfall, the mattress had regained its shape. By the 5th day, the foam had enough and the same shape that I left in the morning welcomed me at night.
In this way, our routine consisted of driving every day through a different area, meticulously analyzing the walls and possible routes that could emerge from them. On our side, Lewis and I would analyze perspectives from which we could film and photograph the process, debating who would follow them up the wall and who would look for external spots on the ground. Between the routes we climbed, and trips to find the most scenic canyons, the days flew by. Shawarma used to be the dinner of choice. We became VIP clients of the only bar in town, which seemed to be the place where the locals socialized.
As the days went by and walls were crossed off the list, the alternatives were dwindling. Frustration began to be a stronger and more difficult feeling to deal with each day. The walls in this desert are mostly sandstone, which not only made the search more challenging but also added an extra layer of risk.
The frustration of those days was strongly accompanied by anxiety, a sense of failure, mental blocks and nerves. It was challenging to isolate these feelings in order to continue prioritizing the main goal and to minimize the impact on the group.
The final stage in the desert took place very close to the border with Saudi Arabia. Wadi Rum is quite a touristy place, but moving so far into those southern canyons led us to spend long days without connection and in complete silence to think. Our conversations were us shouting from different points in the canyon to hear each other, was the only thing that broke the silence during those days. I have never felt so small or seen such remote landscapes. At one point, it became necessary to stop being so demanding with the search and start prioritizing true enjoyment.
Despite not achieving our goal, this trip taught us some lessons that are worth remembering from time to time. Coming back to these photographs, I just realized how essential is to learn to deal with anxiety, uncertainty, boredom or any other way of unpleasant feelings.Most of my favorite photographs from this experience were taken during the last stage of the trip. The more emotionally and physically exhausted we all were, the more inspired I felt. Other factors surely played a role, but perhaps this helps you understand that creative blocks are part of the process of creating. Great ideas often come from boredom, but it's important to flow with it.We went to Jordan with the goal of telling an epic story, because that's what sells, right? I feel like sometimes social media drives us crazy and makes us feel like we're not enough. But it took me two years to realize that what was truly inspiring about this story was precisely what once made us feel everything but fulfilled. To this day, these photographs tell a beautiful, real and relatable story. Isn't that the essence of photography? Telling real stories.