Tag: Mount Sinai

March 29, 2015

Three Peaks Egypt: the intel…

Over the last few months, I’ve been part of a team developing the Three Peaks Egypt Challenge, a new 38km hiking trail in the mountains of the Sinai. It’s Egypt’s first mountain challenge and the only Three Peaks Challenge in the Middle East. Well, it is so far, anyway. Hopefully we’ll see other ones. The whole trail is a community initiative. Its aim is to showcase the beauty of Egypt’s mountains and to revive some of the tourism that’s crashed so disastrously here since Egypt’s revolution. We want it to bring a trickle of hikers through the mountains, to help the local communities. Anyway, so far we’ve produced maps. There’s a GPS track. And route guides. We’ve got a website up and running. All that stuff is free and you can get it HERE.

Since then, the emphasis has been on walking and re-walking the challenge in a general intelligence gathering exercise; figuring out its secrets to advise hikers with the best tips and to find the best ways of supporting challenges with guides, camels, accommodation for the local community etc.

Growing a trail is like growing a tree. It’s a long process and we’ll be working on this for years to come. Anyway, I’ve been able to reflect a bit on the first phase a bit lately. So here’s what I know about the 12 and 24 hour options.

THREE PEAKS EGYPT: 24 HOUR CHALLENGE

I reckon this will become the classic way to do the challenge. It’s manageable if you have a good level of fitness and stamina and walk it the right way. The first guy to do it was a 57 year old engineer called Leo who walks barefoot in the Alps and who’d taken a month-long walkabout in the Sinai prior to the challenge. He got round in an impressive 16 hours and 6 minutes. Also with us was Olivia, a PhD grad studying bee pollination in the Sinai who took a generally dim view of the whole Three Peaks Egypt Challenge, telling us she’d done all three peaks before and saw no good reason doing them again, especially not on the same day, and that she was coming for a nice walk and would retire half way around. Which is exactly what she did, despite our best protestations.

OK, so here are my main impressions and top tips for the trail:

1. Slow and steady. Go slow and steady. Look on yourself as playing the part of the tortoise in that old fable about the tortoise and the hare. The hare tears off to the horizon, then relaxes and sleeps, letting the tortoise overtake to finish first. You have to be the tortoise. You don’t need to go super fast. You can go slow. But you have to keep going. You have more time on this challenge than you might think. We set a manageable pace all the way along and took breaks for tea, lunch, pictures etc. Go too fast and you’ll burn out too early.

2. Night hiking. This is unique to the 24 hour challenge. Don’t underestimate it. The paths are loose and uneven and you have to stay 100% focused to avoid a tumble. The darkness also makes it harder to judge how far you’ve gone, how far you’ve got to go etc. Everything feels further. It’s a psychological thing. Take a headlamp and spare batteries. Or hike in spring, when the day is longer. Try to get to Farsh Umm Silla on Jebel Katherina before dark too: just before it is a scrambling section that would take much longer at night.

3. To sleep or not to sleep? I was sorely tempted. There was the hiking hut on Jebel Katherina. A Bedouin tent at the bottom. Cushions. A fire. A hot meal. Actually, we’d planned to sleep here. But then Leo piped up wanting to head up Mount Sinai. Maybe a short power nap on the spot would help. Anything more though, probably not. Setting off after an hour was tough enough. Waking up, pulling on a backpack and pressing the muscles back into service up another mountain would have been a tall order indeed.

4. Small, light meals. We had really good meals. They gave us energy and were a chance to relax and make plans on how to finish. They say the best plans are laid with a full belly. I’d add the caveat that executing those plans with a full belly – especially on a 38km mountain challenge – is another matter entirely. I ate seconds and thirds on this challenge. And I paid the price. I felt like an anaconda that had swallowed a calf afterwards, hauling myself up the mountain. My top tip: eat smaller meals and energy snacks like dates, halawa, chocolate…

5. Know how it works. Ask your guide how the logistics of the trail will work before you do it. This will help you plan each stage. If you’re in a group, a camel will usually meet you half way. That means you can think of it as a game of two halves; carrying lighter loads on each. Know the water points too. There’s more water on the first half than the second, so you can go lighter on the first, drinking water on the way. This will preserve your energy; travelling lighter will also be better for your feet and knees. You’ll feel better.

THE 12 HOUR CHALLENGE: EXTREME

A Bedouin man-of-steel called Salem – born at the foot of Jebel Katherina – was supposed to be doing this. Until he got laid low by a stomach bug. Then I was the next in line. Generally, these extreme sort of challenges aren’t my thing. And generally, since school, I’ve had the knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time when the dubious chance of doing one comes around. Cross country races. The 1500m. Half bloody marathons. I’ve been roped into all of them. History repeats itself. I hardly slept before this: I never do when I’ve got to get up early. Especially not with a 38km mountain challenge looming over me like the Sword of Damocles. Anyway, this was tough: but definitely not impossible. I took 9 hours 28 minutes and 30 seconds. Watch a video HERE.

OK, so here are the main things I’d say if you’re doing it.

1. A fast walk – not a run. You can do this as a fast walk. I ran less than 300m. My plan was to start it as a walk. If I was doing OK, I’d carry on; if I was lagging, I’d run. I got to the half way point in four hours. After that, I knew I’d be OK. Beware though, time is bearing down. It’s breathing down your neck all the way. So although you can do it as a walk, you have to keep going. I took six rests. Most were 3 minutes. The longest was 7 minutes. It’s like being the tortoise again. This time though, a sort of thoroughbred racing tortoise.

2. Use the daylight. You’ll have at least 12 hours of daylight in the Sinai, even in winter. Which means you should be able to do it all outside darkness, as long as it goes to plan. The 12 hour challenge isn’t one for the dark…

3. Watch the clock. Time ticks mercilessly away on the challenge, indifferent to your suffering. Make all the time you can in advance. I didn’t take many pictures. I didn’t stop to eat. I didn’t rest much. I put my chocolate bars where I could grab them. I opened the corn beef before I left. I put some TANG in an empty bottle, so it’d be ready when I re-filled it. I put new batteries in everything. Think of what will take time, then cut it out, minimise it, or do it at home. A lot of this challenge is about strategy and having a tight game plan.

4. Choose company wisely. If I’d been with somebody faster I’d have felt I was holding them back. And I hate that. It would’ve been a psychological burden for me. If I’d been with someone slower on a challenge like this, I’d probably have felt held back myself. Alone, it was 100% my pace and my plan. Company can be good, but it depends. If you go with a partner, make sure you’re well matched: that you can tolerate and laugh about each other’s shortcomings.

5. Know the challenge. Knowing every twist and turn meant I didn’t waste time. I knew where I was going. I knew where to get water. I knew those sections where I could go quicker. The downhill stretches. The better paths etc. My top tip is to walk the whole trail before your challenge, figuring everything out.

6. Eating and drinking. No big, heavy meals this time around. I ate on the move. The chocolate bar count was 12. I ate two slices of corn beef. I drank four litres of water. The annoying thing was drinking through a tube. I borrowed a bladder bottle with a drinking tube that dangled round my chest, thinking it was a good idea. Actually, sucking water through a tube messed with my breathing rhythmn. To use an Americanism, it sucked. Literally. So I abandoned it, carrying a small 750ml litre bottle in one hand and reverting to the traditional method of pouring it down my oesophagus when I was thirsty.

7. The pain barrier. Four months ago, some eegit dug a hole outside my front door in St Katherine. I fell into it and didn’t walk properly for a month. Half way through this challenge I couldn’t put my foot down. I thought it was the old injury: actually, I’d strapped it too tight. That was the first pain barrier. Later, the accumulative battering took its toll. Knowing my pace count I reckon I took at least 53,200 steps on the hard, rocky paths. My feet really felt it. The balls and heels. At the end, my body did too. In fact, it felt like my 32 year old self had been reincarnated in my 80 year old self’s body. So be prepared for it to hurt a little…

Over the coming weeks we’ll be working all the information into the website, so if you’re serious about doing it, have a look. I haven’t talked about the 72 hour challenge here but that’s also an option. Good for the blazing heat of summer. Or for other inclement weather. And if a challenge event isn’t your thing you can do the walk as a normal hike, in whatever time is comfortable. In the coming months, the next phase here will be setting up a system through which a hiker can do the challenge easily and independently. And it’ll be about finding businesses – ethical, responsible sorts of businesses – that can offer the challenge to people, bringing more people to the local economy and helping the region. Contact me if you need any info on the whole thing!

February 2, 2015

Five holy peaks of the Sinai

Mount Sinai is the spot they say God spoke with Moses, giving the 10 Commandments. It’s the Sinai’s holiest peak. You could make a good case for it being the holiest in the world too. Holier to more people, in more parts of the world, over a longer time, than any other mountain on earth – which is really something. It isn’t the Sinai’s only holy peak though. There are plenty of others. Some of them are holy because – like Mount Sinai – they’re on the Biblical map. Others, because of later miracles. And some were holy in much more distant eras, to much earlier peoples of the peninsula, whose religions we know little about today. Here are five holy peaks of the Sinai you rarely hear about:

1. JEBEL SERBAL Jebel Serbal looks amazing. If you had to say any peak in the Sinai was holy based on looks alone, it’d probably be this. And for a long time, people did say it was holy. Some scholars reckon the name Serbal comes from ‘Baal’, a pagan God who was worshipped in these parts of the Middle East in ancient times. There’s a little ruin on the mountain top that dates from a later era, which archaeologists reckon was a Nabataean temple. Later still, in Christian times, Jebel Serbal took on a whole new association. Early Christians believed it was the real Mount Sinai of The Bible – i.e not the peak we call Mount Sinai today. The ruins of the Sinai’s first episcopal city, plus hermit cells, chapels and crumbling stairways, still stand around the mountain today.

2. JEBEL KATHERINA Egypt’s highest peak. Legend has it angels carried the body of St Katherine here after the Romans killed her in Alexandria. The exact whereabouts of her bones remained unknown until one day in the 9th century when, claiming all had been revealed in a God-given dream, a local monk wandered up the mountain and found them on this summit (the lower of the mountain’s two high points and the second highest point in Egypt 2637m). Ever since then, this peak has been hallowed ground. There’s a small chapel on top but the bones of St Katherine are now in the Monastery of St Katherine.

3. JEBEL TAHUNA A little peak in Wadi Feiran, local legend has it Jebel Tahuna is the spot where Moses watched the Battle of Rephidim, raising his magic staff to spur the Israelites on to victory. A 1500 year oratory crowns the summit, with a near-perfectly preserved water cistern dug into its foundations. Small chapels, whose walls, columns and altars are all still visible, stand by the path up the mountain. Hermit cells are dug into banks along its lower slopes and the higher hillsides are scattered with ancient Christian tombs. Travellers have been climbing this peak for centuries, and you should too. As much as the history, it’s worth it for the beautiful views you get over Wadi Feiran – one of the Sinai’s biggest, most beautiful wadis – and of Jebel Serbal, towering up like a castle.

4. JEBEL MONEJA A lot of tourists climb this, making the mistake of thinking it’s Mount Sinai. Actually, it’s just a smaller, sister peak, half way up. It’s also called Jethro’s Mountain, after Jethro, the Biblical figure, whose daughter is supposed to have married Moses. Monks say God spoke to Moses here, beckoning him further up the mountain, and it’s another of the Sinai’s holiest spots. With a chapel on top, this is a brilliant peak with what is – in my opinion – the best view of the Monastery of St Katherine in the Sinai; the classic viewpoint from which artists sketched it, huddling below Mount Sinai, for centuries.

5. JEBEL EL AHMAR Sometimes also known as Jebel Moneja – like the peak above – this is a little-known summit in the northern foothills of Jebel Serbal. It isn’t as dramatic-looking as the other peaks here, but all the same, this was one of the Sinai’s holiest summits for a long time. Early explorers recorded it having a special place for the local Bedouin of Wadi Feiran. They’d make pilgrimage trips to a shrine on the top, tying rags, beads, camel reigns and other offerings to the stones. That’s stopped today, but I’ve still heard people talk about it in the past. If you go you’ll have a spectacular view over Wadi Feiran, with its big palm grove; and one of the best views of Jebel Serbal. You can also visit the tomb of Sheikh Shebib, a holy saint of the Gararsha tribe, at the foot of the peak.

September 5, 2014

Jebel Umm Shomer: a history

Jebel Umm Shomer is an amazing peak. One with a high, pointed top that looks almost alpine – especially in the snow – and which stands in one of the most hard-to-reach parts of the Sinai. Europeans in particular were always fascinated by Jebel Umm Shomer; mostly because of its height. Up until the 19th century ,they reckoned it was Egypt’s highest peak: NOT Jebel Katherina, as we know it is today (Jebel Umm Shomer is the SECOND highest peak in Sinai and Egypt at 2537m). The Bedouin never saw its height as important in the same way; for them, this was a more magical, mythical mountain. They once said an immortal maiden lived on top; one whose hair flowed in rich waves down her back and who filled the valleys with her enchanting song.

The first attempt – the first attempt in written records, anyway – was made by Jean Louis Burckhardt: the son of a Swiss aristocrat who moved to Germany, became almost destitute in London, then landed a dream job as an explorer.

He’s the guy who’s credited with re-discovering the ancient city of Petra.

Anyway, he travelled through the Sinai in the early 19th century, penning a hugely readable travelogue (Travels in Syria & The Holy Land – definitely worth a look). He loved mountains. And Jebel Umm Shomer wasn’t the only one he tried. He went to Jebel Serbal too – another of the Sinai’s most majestic peaks – but headed up the wrong summit after an argument with his guide. At least, he didn’t do the highest one. Which, I think, is what he meant to do AND what he thought he’d done!

Jebel Umm Shomer’s peak isn’t hard-to-find. It towers above you all the way. Burckhardt started the climb in a ravine that runs up the mountain. At the top of this ravine, he took a breather; huge views opened up over the sea to mainland Egypt and he gazed down to the port of El Tur. Between him and the top were now just the last cliffs, and he wrote this in his journal:

“Umm Shomer rises to a sharp, pointed peak, the highest summit of which it is, I believe, impossible to reach; the sides being almost perpendicular, and the rock so smooth, as to afford no hold to the foot. I halted about 200 feet below it, where a beautiful view opened upon the sea of Suez“.

So he turned back there, declaring the mountain unclimable. Others tried after him, but none of them found a way to the top.

Jebel Umm Shomer, high crags, Go tell it on the mountain_result

The mountain remained unclimbed – by Europeans, anyway – for about half a century. Two Englishmen – T.E Yorke and the Reverend T.J Prout – were the first on top in 1862. And a local Bedouin guide showed them the way (as ever, the Bedouin had been up this mountain long before Europeans; their climbs just aren’t recorded in writing). They submitted an account to Britain’s Royal Geographical Society – ‘ASCENT OF UMM SHOMER: THE HIGHEST PEAK OF THE SINAITIC PENINSULA‘ – which you can still read today. They walked in from St Katherine, camping at a spot called Zeituna before carrying on over Jebel Abu Shajara – Mountain of the Tree – to Burckhardt’s ravine.

Here’s what the Rev T.J Prout where Burckhardt stopped:

“It is a little higher up [ie from the top of the ravine] that the difficulty of the mountain occurs. The huge buttresses which support the biggest summit are, at first sight at least, quite insurmountable. But on further inspection the perpendicular face of one of these buttresses is found to be rent by a fissure… gradually contracting until there is barely room for a man. On the floor here boulders rise within reach of a small ledge…”

From this ledge they carried on, threading through the crags to the top.

Jebel Umm Shomer, summit graffiti

Since then, Jebel Umm Shomer has been climbed many times. It’s well-known to any enthusiast of the Sinai’s mountains. If you get the chance, you should definitely do it too. You’ll follow that same route in the ravine that Burckhardt wrote about nearly 200 years ago; and which Yorke and Prout finished describing later. If you DO go, be sure to have a good look around the top, because there’s some interesting stuff. I found the names of T.E Yorke and T.J Prout carved on a boulder (obviously there from way back in 1862). There’s a pilgrim’s crucifix carved in an early style too (meaning an outsider was probably on the top centuries before Burckhardt even tried). Also, there’s a footprint scratched on a rock: an old form of Bedouin marriage proposal – which you can read more about HERE – which I’d love to think was something to do with the Bedouin story of the immortal maiden who lived on top…

Don’t be worried by the accounts of early explorers either. Jebel Umm Shomer is a good scramble: that’s it. The way is well-marked and there’s nothing technical. And nothing too exposed. So how do you do it? First of all, head to St Katherine; go to a local Bedouin camp, and arrange a 4×4 – or a camel – to a place called Zeituna. Zeituna is the name of the spot you start the walk to the mountain; there’s an old garden with a well here. If you want to sleep, there’s an unlocked storeroom that belongs to the Monastery of St Katherine too. You can use that as shelter. There ARE other approaches: if you’re feeling adventurous you can start in South Sinai’s capital El Tur: this way, you’ll approach the mountain through Wadi Isleh – a spectacular gorge – then go up Wadi Rimhan. If you want even more adventure start at St Katherine and go via Wadi Jibal and Naqb Umm Siha: from here you go down to Wadi Zeraigiyeh, which you can follow up to the mountain past the ruined chapel and mosque of Deir Antush.

May 14, 2014

Mt Sinai: dodging the crowds

Mt Sinai is – without a doubt – the most famous peak in Egypt. Personally, I’d go further and argue that, through history, it’s been the most famous peak anywhere in the world. Known to more people, in more places, over a longer time, than any other mountain on earth. More than Everest – which came to global attention relatively recently. More than the likes of Mont Blanc – Europe’s highest – and definitely more than any peak in the Americas (which most of the world didn’t even know about as continents until a few hundred years ago). Stories about Mt Sinai have been told and re-told in three different religions for thousands of years. People read about it in their holy books. They heard about its legends in their congregations in churches or mosques. All of this kept Mount Sinai alive in the imagination. When it came to actually seeing it on the ground though, in all three dimensions, only the very rich or very intrepid had that privilege. The gruelling approach – over a week’s camel ride from Suez – made absolutely sure of that.

Things changed in 1977, when a dirt track was beaten through the desert, crossing huge sandy plains and mountain passes, all the way to the foot of mountain itself. Suddenly, anyone with a 4×4 could visit in just a few hours. Today, that dirt track has become a tarmac road; and Mt Sinai has become a mass tourist attraction that thousands of people visit from coastal resorts every year.

Modern transport has penetrated the wilderness shield that gave the mountain its isolation and now it’s the Sinai’s busiest peak. Nothing else comes close.

All the same, it doesn’t HAVE to be. You CAN dodge the crowds. HERE’S HOW:

1. TIME YOUR CLIMB – mainstream guide books like Lonely Planet bill sunrise on Mt Sinai as one of those must-do, bucket-list type experiences. A sort of rite of passage and definitive hike without which no trip to the Sinai would possibly be complete. Buying into the hype and thinking sunrise was virtually the ONLY time I could do it – I did it like this my first time too. And I still count it as my worst night in the Sinai. The whole thing; from walking up in the dark, to the huge, lumbering crocodiles of people on the paths, to the insufferable singing, clapping and praying through the dawn. It felt like a sort of pennance. It’s time to debunk this over-peddled sunrise myth. SERIOUSLY – avoid it! Go up this mountain at sunset: the soft red hue of the mountains looks even more appealing. And, even more, you’ll just have a handful of other people for company. It feels less like a tourist attraction and more like a mountain should.

2. THE ROUTE – I don’t have stats, but I’d say about 95% of tourists – maybe even a little more – go up the so-called Camel Path, then down the Steps of Repentance. Or vice versa. These are the two main tourist routes on Mt Sinai: the ones in the guidebooks, that get you up and down ASAP, starting and finishing at the Monastery of St Katherine. Avoiding THEM means you avoid the crowds. But it also means you’ll see another half of the mountain: the BETTER half, with ruined chapels, deep springs, beautiful orchards and little-trodden peaks. The best route up Mt Sinai starts in a valley called Wadi el Arbain, near St Katherine. From the end of this, you can walk up the side of Jebel Safsafa and explore. You only join the busy tourist route at the end, just below Mount Sinai’s summit. There are plenty of secret places to discover on the way. Just remember to take a good Bedouin guide. Check them out HERE.