Ala'a mountain in Danniyeh

Hachem invited me to his town in Danniyeh for a hiking weekend. I drove right after work on Friday for around 2 hours to reach Aassoun town.

Danniyeh is an enormous district in the mountains of Tripoli, stretching from Bsharri to Akkar. Its nature is excellent, especially since the area has not been developed.

We woke up early on Saturday, grabbed a mankouche, filled water from a spring along the way, and headed to the high mountains.

Our objective was hiking on the back of Ala'a mountain, which is famous for its wide extended cliff on the front side

With snowshoes on, we started a steep ascension from the back of Ala'a mountain to the very top

Although the morning was clear, by the time we reached the crest, clouds had rolled in beneath us. The view that extends from Danniyeh, through Akkar, to reach many towns in Syria was no more, but the feeling of clouds separating us from the rest of humanity is just as exhilarating.

Because the cliff is rounded, standing on one side of the cliff reveals the other side, emphasizing on how enormous the cliff is

At 2,230 meters cedars give way to juniper trees, which can survive harsher conditions. I love how each juniper tree has its own personality

We hiked further up to explore different areas of the cliff. At this point, the clouds emerged at our level

The cloud attack forced us to look only at specific elements in the scene, which is why I enjoy the limited view imposed by clouds

The rate at which clouds disappeared and came back again was crazy. One moment the view was clear, and a minute later clouds attacked us again

We had to head back, so we descended a challenging steep hill of snow,  and hiked all the way back to the car

During the golden hour of sunset, looking back at the Ala'a mountain, which we were on top of, gave a strong sense of accomplishment