St Catherine

Jebel Safsafa

The iconic mountain of St. Catherine

Right above the beginning of the village, this mountain is impressive. It's sheer walls drew countless mountaineers to St Catherine over the last decades.

Getting there

There are 2 main routes of access, for the West part of Safsafa approach through Wadi Shrej, starting out from Fox Camp. For the east part of Safsafa approach through Wadi al Dir which hosts the monastery and is currently restricted for climbing by the authorities.

Descent

A few descent options: From the top out of your route you will have to find the little path, marked by cairns which goes pretty straight North-south and ends up in a slot or corridor towards the south (28.555329, 33.962803). Hike up and through this corridor. From here, to the left (SE direction), you will have a view through a couloir towards Mount Moses. Go down the couloir to a small chapel and garden (Farsh Safsafa). The fastest descent back to Wadi Shrej follows the wide col straight south from the garden. (See picture below). Circle around the garden on the left and either head south towards that col and quickly reach Wadi Shrej leading you back to Fox Camp in town. OR from the garden: go out onto a paved path leading from the gates of the monastery to the foot of Mount Moses. From here, go down the Monk's stairs to the left to the monastery of St. Catherine - a standard tourist route. Other paths: it is possible to go to Wadi Arbain turning off the paved path onto an inconspicuous path to the right a bit more south than the col(unconfirmed) or go down to the road between the village and the monastery of St. Catherine, turning left from the first monastery into a rather steep gorge. [Misha] It might be possible to descend even further north of the col, it was wrongly marked as a path in the earlier print guidebook edition. Probably this will take a few rappels.