Cedars of God - Dahr el Qadib - Col des Cèdres (Col Ainata) - French room

This snowshoeing adventure was part of the 33north winter expedition 2023. We departed from our camp heading towards the route going up from Cedars to the "col des Cèdres". Check my trail "Cedars camping" if you are starting from the Cedars road. Baby Cedars are planted on the way (reforestation site) to the Eco house (البيت البيئي). I forgot to save the location but you can see it clearly on the map. From there, we continued our way up to the snow-covered zigzag road of Cedars-Ainata. The slope gets steeper there towards Dahr el Qadib and you have to watch your steps carefully. Try to secure your step firmly with one snowshoe before moving the other. Good snowshoes are recommended with up/down technology. I personally have the french TSL 438 snowshoes which i find perfectly convenient to the lebanese tough mountains. An ice axe can add more safety to this tricky passage (self-arrest in case of fall). Make sure to be well-equipped with all safety equipments essentially a gps device (not only your phone) and snow goggles. Weather can turn bad at the mountain pass with high winds and fog. You will notice that i marked many waypoints as possible "escape" routes in case we got caught in the fog on the way back. Fortunately, the weather remained clear and we reached the mountain pass. Col des Cèdres or Col Ainata is the highest road mountain pass in Lebanon (2581 m) and separates the governorates of North Lebanon and Baalbak-Hermel. Here you can find one of many french rooms in Lebanon (Chambres françaises), which are former french army posts. The french room was open but it was dirty enough to change our plan for lunch inside. It can still serve as a shelter in bad weather. Not far from this place, you can reach the famous "Nessef l Batrak" on the way to Ainata (we didn't reach it). Beautiful sceneries all around. We went back down to the valley on a steep slope to "Jouwar Chaebarnoub". You can feel the advantages of the snowshoes "descent" mode on such steep slopes. We followed many couloirs to get back to our winter camp. Keep hiking, enjoy Lebanon’s beauty and stay safe!