Egypt is famous for many things; ancient pyramids, the Nile, golden deserts, it’s biblical significance, the Red Sea and so on… but much less known are it’s amazing mountains.

On Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, lies it’s highest peak Jebel Katherine (Mount Catherine), towering over it’s surrounding at 2,642m (8,668ft) above sea level, and standing side-by-side with the famous Mount Sinai.

The climb is long, but beautiful, as you follow in the footsteps of bedouins and pilgrims alike, weaving through valleys, passing desert gardens, and climbing over rocky terrain to get to the summit, at which you’ll be rewarded with incredible views from the Red Sea, all the way to Saudi Arabia.

Getting to Mount Catherine

The climb begins from the small village of Saint Catherine, nestled in the heart of the Sinai Mountains. You can reach it by:

Bus from Cairo, which takes around 8-10 hours. (Several companies operate overnight services).

Taxi from Dahab or Sharm El Sheikh which will take around 2-3 hours.

Or you may be able to fly into St. Katherine International Airport (SKV) once it reopens. The airport has been closed for several years as it undergos a big expansion into an international airport that handle 600 passengers an hour (up from just 80 previously). I was told by locals that the airport should be reopening mid-2025… however I haven’t been able to verify how accurate that is.

Best Time To Go

The ideal months for climbing Mount Catherine are October to April, when temperatures are cooler. Avoid summer months, as the heat can be brutal.

Winter, December – February, can bring snow some years (snow in Egypt, imagine that!), which’ll definitely add to the adventure, but it will also make conditions much more difficult.

Where To Stay

There arent a huge number of options in Saint Catherine in terms of accomadation, although this may change in the future with the opening of the airport and expected tourism boon it’ll bring to the area and local economy.

There are a few hotels you can stay at but personally I would really recommend staying in a local Bedouin Camp for a more authentic culutral experience. I stayed at the Sheikh Mousa Bedouin Camp and was very well looked after.

Booking a Guide

Hiking with a guide is highly recommended! They’ll be able to share knowledge about the area and landscape, assist with cooking food, and point you in the direction of clean, safe drinking water during the day. Not least of all as they’ll also know the route inside out.

At the time of writing this, there are no tour operators in the area offering climbs of Mount Catherine (although many offer Mount Sinai climbs).

The best way to organise a guide is through your accomadation. I recommend messaging them as soon as you’ve booked, to make sure they can supply a guide and have availability. This is how I organised a guide through Sheikh Mousa Bedouin Camp.

The Climb

After a long exhausting journey, which included an 8 hour lay over (god help me I love cheap flights), flight delays and a seemingly endless drive from Sharm El Sheikh Airport, I finally arrived at the camp in the early hours of the morning. After getting some much needed sleep, the first order of business was to confirm the hike up Mount Catherine for the next day.

I had three options presented to me by the owner of the camp;

• Hike Mount Catherine. It’s around 20-21km and will take roughly 10 hours
• Hike Mount Sinai. That’s around 9-10km and takes roughy 6 hours. Or…
• Hike them both in a single day. It’s only around 22-23km to do them both in one hit and will take 10-12 hours.

It seemed like a no brainer to do them both in one go. Due to the proximity of the two mountains it didn’t hugely increase the distance covered for the day, whilst I had planned on doing Mount Sinai on another day, so it would also free up that day in my itinerary to do other things.

Both it was.

But like Emile Heskey shooting from the edge of the area, the owner’s estimates ended being pretty far off the mark, almost going out for a throw in. The real numbers for doing both in one day are 27km and around 13 hours.

The Route

Mount Catherine

After a 5am wake up, we set off from the camp slightly bleary-eyed at 5:30am, heading through the village before starting our ascent into the mountains. As we made our way to the trailhead we picked up a couple of additional hikers who were joining us for the day. They weren’t people however, our new hiking friends were a couple of local dogs who decided to tag along, and would end up spending the entire day with us, summiting both mountains, and showing us up fitness wise. Along with all the hiking they even found the energy to get… amorous… with each other several times during the day. Fair play to them.

We reached the trailhead and from there began our ascent. A backdrop of a beautiful sunrise just over our shoulders. I set off with around two litres of water, but as the sun rose and the cold air warmed, I realised this wasn’t going to be enough for the day. Thankfully about an hour in we had our first stop, at a well with fresh, clean drinking water where I was able to fill up. These wells are common at the start of the trail, but are much harder to come by later on so it’s important to fill up whilst you have the chance.

We cracked on with our ascent, passing by desert gardens along the way, which although lacking the lushness and vibrancy of a garden in the UK for example, were still beautiful and remarkable to see in the environment we were in.

Including a half hour stop for breakfast (which was a tin of beans placed in a fire to be heated up, then mashed up in the tin), we reached the summit 4 hours and 45 minutes after setting off.

The views were incredible, under the clear blue sky you could see all the way to the Red Sea and Saudi Arabia, as well as all the rugged peaks around us, including the next stop Mount Sinai.

At the summit you’ll find a small church, as well as a box full of notebooks for summiteers to sign. But my favourite part about the summit… the toilet. A little brick outhouse with a window, and stunning views. The perfect place to relieve yourself, whilst taking in the surrounding relief. Have a poo with a view.

Mount Sinai

After resting atop Mount Catherine for a little while it was time to take on summit number two, the famous Mount Sinai.

We descended down from the summit and down through the valley. I wasn’t familiar with the route beforehand, in my head I knew we would be decending a fair amount between mountains, but I had also imagined there was likely a kind of ridgeline between the two. Nope. No such thing. We descended all the way down to the foot of Mount Sinai. Before then having to ascend again.

However, the ascent to Mount Sinai’s summit was, for the most part, much gentler than Mount Catherine’s, and before too long we arrived at the foot of the final 750 steps to the summit, known as the Steps of Repentance (I’m sure there’s more steps than that by the way). It’s a tough finish to the climb and was where, for the first time that day, we ran in to alot of other people/tourists, most of whom weren’t necessarily the outdoors type and were really struggling up the steps, creating a lot of traffic and a real bottleneck to the summit.

Arriving at the summit we were greeted by the same stunning views that Mount Catherine had offered. Atop Mount Sinai is a mosque that is still used by Muslims, and a Greek Orthodox chapel, which is closed to the public but is said to house the rock considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. Also at the summit you’ll find Moses’ cave, where Moses is believed to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments from God.

We took a much needed long break at the top, refueling with some tuna salad flatbreads, a big step up from mashed beans in a flaming can.

Before setting off back down the mountain I faced a grilling from some Malaysian tourists around the exploits of the British Empire, and had my own exploits for the day greatly diminished as I was dutifully informed by one man “You’re not the first British person to climb here, your empire was here years ago”. Great, thank you Sherlock. I can only assume he was a revered detective and historian back home.

I headed back down the, now very aptly named, Steps of Repentance with the weight of the British Empire on my shoulders.

At this point in the day I was getting tired and looking forward to getting back to camp and being done for the day. I was regularly checking my AllTrails app to see where we were. I had been tracking myself but not following a route on the app. We had hit 22km. And we still appeared to be a long way from home and even heading in the wrong direction. It was a slightly crushing realisation. As mentioned above the camp owner was pretty far off in his estimates.

That additional 5km became a long slow slog as I started to run on empty, and frustrated me a fair bit at the time in my tired state. But, as the sun began to set, lighting the sky up in beautiful array of colours, we eventually arrived back at camp after what was, ultimately, an incredible day.

All’s well that ends well.