Three Peaks Egypt: the test run

We’ve got an exciting weekend coming up this Friday, with the launch of the THREE PEAKS EGYPT CHALLENGE. It’s a new 38km long trail with over 5000m ascent/ descent, which takes in three of the Sinai’s most iconic peaks. This is Egypt’s first ever mountain challenge. And it’s also the first Three Peaks Challenge in the Middle East. The aim is to finish in 24 hours – it’s a race against the clock. Anyway, I’ve been part of the community group developing the trail and we’ve just got the website and social media pages up and running. All that’s left is to give it the test run with an inaugural hike.

Right now, according to forecasts from St Katherine’s airport, we’re on for the worst weather of the year: sub-zero temperatures, high winds, rain and maybe snow, which means it’ll be cold, wet and slippery.

Not unlike the weather you’d get in the UK – which is  where the Three Peaks Challenge concept was originally born, high on the Yorkshire hills.

There’s a sort of spiritual connection then, which is perfect.

We’ll be tweeting about it where signal allows on trail so follow us. You can follow me HERE and the offical THREE PEAKS EGYPT account HERE.

The main goal of the whole challenge is to boost hiking tourism for the benefit of the local Bedouin community. We want it to become a world class mountain route around which a sustainable economy can be grown giving legitimate employment to local people. We hope it will bring more regular work to guides, cameleers, cooks and garden owners and that it will also help preserve traditional skills, knowledge and lifestyles. As much as that, we want it to be something amazing for the Egypt hiking community. We want to give hikers all the tips and practical resources they need to make an inspirational journey in the most beautiful, fabled and welcoming mountains of the Middle East.

The whole thing will be run on a monthly basis too. So if you want to be part of the next challenge this March then sign up for the Facebook page and look out for updates because it will be announced there. And by the way, for anybody who really wants to push it, there’s also an EXTREME 12 hour challenge, which halves the allotted time you’re allowed. We also have someone lined up for setting a Three Peaks Challenge record and establishing the sport of trail running in Egypt a bit more. That will hopefully be happening in April. Anyway, until then, wish us good luck  in the storm this Friday and check back for the blog about the whole trip that follows.