Go back to Egypt.
Go back to Stolen Mirror.
Papa Giovanni.
The plan for the following day was for us to hike up and climb a route called Papa Giovanni (7 pitches, V+) on Jebel Safsafa. Misha would meet us up at the top and together we’d hike down – the scenic way – to a small Bedouin settlement in the mountains where we’d spend the night and climb something else the following day. While we were climbing, a camel would carry our overnight supplies to the village. Things went according to plan exactly. We enjoyed the climbing the climax of which was a slabby and hard (some A0) hand traverse high on the route. This is a variation and is not V+. On the way down, we checked out a church in an isolated valley. The highlight of the day was our stay in the Bedouin settlement. There we were entertained by Mr. Ramadan (the elder of the settlement) as he played a home-made stringed instrument and sang while we sipped sweet tea by the fire in the evening.
Photos
Setting off for the hourlong approach on our day 2 (Dec. 2020).
Some settlements on the edges of St. Catherine (Dec. 2020).
Wild looking granite (Dec. 2020).
Views back down towards the village (Dec. 2020).
Leading pitch 1 of Papa Giovanni (Dec. 2020).
Shirley starting up Papa Giovanni. Photo by Misha (Dec. 2020).
More of Shirley on the first pitch. Photo by Misha (Dec. 2020).
Shirley topping out on pitch 1 (Dec. 2020).
Leading pitch 2 (Dec. 2020).
Starting the lead of pitch 3 of Papa Giovanni (Dec. 2020).
Crux moves of the pitch and the route if you don’t do the Grand Hand Traverse (Dec. 2020).
Higher on pitch 3 (Dec. 2020).
Shirley entering the chimney on pitch 3 just past the crux (Dec. 2020).
Shirley arriving at the third belay (Dec. 2020).
Views from atop pitch 3 (Dec. 2020).
Shirley on the nice pitch 4 – this is the start of a 2-pitch variation to the original route (Dec. 2020).
Shirley arriving at the fourth belay (Dec. 2020).
Leading the Grand Hand Traverse that is pitch 5 of Papa Giovanni (variation). Not so easy for us; some aid (Dec. 2020).
Looking back at Shirley from the end of the hand traverse (Dec. 2020).
The traverse ends with a tricky, downward exit (Dec. 2020).
Shirley at the end of the hand traverse on pitch 5 of Papa Giovanni (Dec. 2020).
Shirley on pitch 5 just after the hand traverse (Dec. 2020).
Shirley nearing the fifth belay (Dec. 2020).
Views from top of pitch 5 of Papa Giovanni (Dec. 2020).
Shirley on pitch 6 – moving the belay from one large ledge to the next (Dec. 2020).
Leading pitch 7 (Dec. 2020).
Higher on pitch 7 (Dec. 2020).
Shirley topping out on pitch 7 of Papa Giovanni (Dec. 2020).
Belaying Shirley atop the route. Photo by Misha (Dec. 2020).
Shirley topping out on Papa Giovanni. Photo by Misha (Dec. 2020).
A slightly different perspective (Dec. 2020).
Packing up atop Papa Giovanni. Photo by Misha (Dec. 2020).
Views from the top of the formation (Dec. 2020).
Shirley and Misha hiking down from the top of the route (Dec. 2020).
Shirley, Misha, and a cresting wave of granite (Dec. 2020).
Hiking down towards a valley with a small monastery (not in full time use; Dec. 2020).
A church and a mosque atop Jebel Musa or Mount Sinai (Dec. 2020).
On the hike down. Look at that eroded granite. Photo by Misha (Dec. 2020).
A monastery in a backcountry valley (Dec. 2020).
Breaking & entering (Dec. 2020).
Misha sampling the well water (Dec. 2020).
Shirley checking out the well (Dec. 2020).
In front of the monastery church (Dec. 2020).
After checking out the monastery, we continued our hike towards a Bedouin settlement in the mountains (Dec. 2020).
A run-in with a camel rider in the mountains (Dec. 2020).
Nearing the village (Dec. 2020).
Well-dressed (Dec. 2020).
Misha brewing up some tea in the village (Dec. 2020).
What kind of horse is this?
The homemade instrument made out of an oil can (Dec. 2020).
Mr. Ramadan playing the above instrument for us. Click photo for a taste of the music (Dec. 2020).
Mr. Ramadan playing the homemade instrument. Photo by Misha (Dec. 2020).