| Holey
Moses |
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Sinai, troubled land of wars and Old Testament migrations,
is blessed in its mountainous south with a legendary
bush that once burned and superb granite climbing. In
the midst of this playground, or place of pilgrimage,
depending on your chosen devotion, is the ancient village
of St. Catherine. It provides an accessible centre from
which to explore the barren land of the nomadic Jebeliya
Bedouin. Our attention focused on the towering rocky
peaks of Jebel Safsafa and Jebel A Dir that form a spectacular
backdrop to an arid landscape cut by subtly coloured
wadis.
Dr Gasser, or ‘Gazza’, manages the local
Bedouin health project in the St Catherine’s Environmental
Protectorate. He proved to be an excellent contact,
not only in finding climbing locations, but in showing
us some of the medicinal and salty plants that have
helped the Bedouin survive this harsh environment for
centuries. Everything he knew about climbing, which
wasn’t a great deal, had been passed on some time
ago by visiting Hungarian climbers.
Climbing with him had its comic moments like when one
of his trainers flew off mid-pitch, slithering and bouncing
its way to the ground. Undeterred and keen to continue
he first had to be lowered off and reunited with his
footwear, surprisingly unwilling to continue in his
socks. Then on nearing the summit, disappointed that
we had no plans to abseil, Gazza suddenly conveyed the
urge to untie and scramble higher to look for a good
way off. Even highly intelligent beings can be ridiculous
at times; soloing E3 in trainers would have been quite
a challenge had we not been able to discourage him.
Our goal was to climb a steep 250m wall on Jebel Safsafa,
this time without the doctor. As we walked out of town,
the road workmen momentarily stopped their deafening
drills to wave, having grown used to our packs, bouldering
mats and smiles. Starting at 8am we raced up four direct
slab pitches, wonderful smeary climbing with quartz
crystals that crunched underfoot. By 10am we were sat
under a beautiful overhanging orangey-red wind-sculpted
face.
The first of the steep pitches led past a beehive-like
mound of crumbly rock, unsettlingly perched on the hand
traverse between me and the belay. It appeared to be
staying in place purely by virtue of its flat base.
I eyed it with suspicion hoping that it wasn’t
going to crush a finger or collapse onto me at the slightest
touch. John shouted encouragement from what looked like
optimistic belay placements in an exfoliating crack.
‘The rock’s better underneath than it looks.’
Sure enough, once the mound had been circumnavigated
the rock a fist-width beneath surface was much more
reliable and the belay looked quite good.
As I looked down into the valley six more coaches arrived,
packed with tourist pilgrims drawn to the Monastery
of St Catherine where they would squeeze their way in
turn along its narrow passageways. Among the monastery
treasures is a library of ancient manuscripts and icons
comparable almost to that of the Vatican, and a 6th
century church reputed to lie directly on the site of
Moses’ burning bush. It has, allegedly, has been
growing ever since the Exodus and can still be seen
today. With America just about to declare war on Iraq
another Bush became a hot topic with locals keen to
know what the English thought. From here though, the
hubbub of events below somehow seemed insignificant,
especially since the incessant cries of ‘taxi’,
‘camel’ and ‘where you from?’
were no longer audible.
Above looked demanding and perhaps impossible without
a siege. The choice: insecure barn-dooring with little
gear, or a strenuous fingertip crack to surmount a bulge.
Opting for the former, we hoped the difficulties would
be short-lived. Part way up John began to look uncharacteristically
unstable. ‘You can always come down you know’,
I yelled, only to be met with a withering look from
above. How could I have been so stupid?
A few minutes later, after a fruitless foray and nervous
retreat, the crack seemed the best choice after all.
Its technical and pumpy lower section succumbed to headpointing
and led to an easier-angled continuation. I shuffled
up inelegantly, Egyptioning (or ‘Sinaiing’)
against the heavily talc-veiled sidewall to emerge with
a differently coloured top at the belay. Higher lay
red, wind-sculpted rock offering a selection of charismatic
features, including a giant folded ear which was huge
fun to crawl beneath. An assortment of Hueco Tanks-style
holes appeared, requiring lateral thinking to worm between
them. Eventually the angle eased and the adventure of
surfing through our ocean of petrified waves came to
an end. Two hours of scrambling and two abseils in the
gloom finally deposited us once again at ground level
at the close of a very tiring day.
After a day or two of excellent bouldering the two
of us, plus an English journalist who spoke fluent Arabic,
headed off with Dr Gasser to stay with Bedouins at the
remote Echo Lodge. Whisked along by off-road ambulance
to a high mountain plateau, we explored valleys with
300m unclimbed walls above Wadi I’tlah and Wadi
Tala’hey and vowed to return. I watched with fascination
as the local Bedouin elder gave animated accounts of
snake and scorpion vaccines, and plants useful for men
with young wives, wondering how they might work. His
family had been settled in the area for hundreds of
years and now in his fifties he had clearly prospered,
having nine children and several camels.
More than a hundred 2-8 pitch routes have been recorded
in the area, the majority climbed in the 1970s and mostly
in the VS-E3 range. On our visit we also climbed the
neighbouring Jebel A Dir by an easier new route - named
Dr Gazza’s Camel - that followed curious dykes
up immaculate slabby granite. In addition there is a
mass of bouldering, all of it, as far as we could tell,
previously unrecorded (see www.thefreeclimber.com for
a topo of some areas).
Summary: An account of a new route, Holey Moses, E6/7
6b, 250m, climbed by John and Anne Arran on the North-West
face of Jebel Safsafa, Sinai, Egypt. We accessed the
area by plane to Sharm-el-Sheikh and then travel is
possible via taxi or local bus to St Catherine via Dahab,
taking half to a full day. It is also possible to take
a holiday company day tour to St Catherine and arrange
to stay there.
This article, by Anne Arran,
appeared in the 2003 Alpine Journal.
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