UKC

It’s the New Year and time to start planning this year’s adventures!

And what better way to kick-start the 2015 climbing year than by signing up for an exploratory climbing expedition to south Sinai, Egypt in November 2015. Our all-women expedition team will head to the mountains of the south Sinai desert in search of unclimbed rock walls and boulder problems as well as to climb existing routes along the way, many of which are still waiting for 2nd ascents.

The style of this expedition is one of exploration and adventure so we are looking for women who have a thirst for new experiences and the spirit of an explorer. It is important to have solid climbing skills but you do not need to be a world-class athlete to join our team. So if eating traditional Bedouin meals cooked on fire, sleeping under the stars in the desert and putting up new routes on granite walls with other likeminded fun women sounds like the best possible holiday, then you are probably exactly the type of person we are looking for.

To find out more about this trip and how to join our team, please visit our website: http://buff.ly/1t8jf6R

In reply to Dave Lucas:

Bit of a gutsy trip isn't it?

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to: the Governorate of North Sinai due to the significant increase in criminal activity and continued terrorist attacks on police and security forces that have resulted in deaths

The FCO advise against all but essential travel to: the Governorate of South Sinai, with the exception of the area within the Sharm el Sheikh perimeter barrier, which includes the airport and the areas of Sharm el Maya, Hadaba, Naama Bay, Sharks Bay and Nabq

In reply to ToraToda:

Thank you for your comment. It is not surprising that you and many believe that this, for security reasons, is a risky expedition. What we have been reading and watching in the media does not paint a very good picture. But the reality of it is that the majority of the real dangers are in the north Sinai and not the south where the expedition will take place. Where we will be is hundreds of miles away from the northern troubles, but the media annoyingly often does not differentiate between the two areas.

In general the south Sinai is a safe place to travel to. Follow the link pasted in here to read a great article that talks about the difference between reality and how the media portrays the dangers of the south Sinai, written by someone living and working in Dahab.:

http://www.seadancerdivecenter.com/dahab-south-sinai/

We keep a very close eye on the FCO advice for the area, and it is an integral part of our risk assessment. But our risk assessments are far more thorough then just reading the FCO pages. We also add to it information we collect from other sources. These sources include reports from local Bedouin, foreign nationals living in the area and other international agencies. It is this information combined with our own extensive experience in the area and on other expeditions that allow us to make dynamic constant re-evaluations of risk, which helps ensure its mitigation.

It is our approach to risk assessment combined with assistance from industry standards, that gives us the confidence to analyze risk in detail and proudly conduct expeditions that others may not wish to do, or consider too gutsy.

If others reading this are interested in joining our Sinai expedition, but still have concerns regarding the security in the area then we would be happy to send you our recent report on security concerns in the Sinai and our company safety policy. We are not wanting to convince you that the area is perfectly safe, but just to try and re-adjust the unjustly one dimensional and often over dramatised negative picture that the media has set.

Many thanks

In reply to ToraToda:
It's important to look at the FCO advice, but it's equally important to look at the situation in the context of what's actually going on in the region and the realities of the Sinai itself. The article that Dave has linked to is a great summary of what life in the Sinai is actually like.

I can also recommend reading this one from the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/egyptian-streets/a-message-from-the-people_b_...

The FCO suggests that it's fine to be within what they interesting term the "Sharm el Sheik perimeter barrier". That sounds great, but guess what? There's no barrier & there is no security cordon around Sharm. The security consists of a small manned police checkpoint on each of the handful of roads going into town. Between each sleepy checkpoint there are miles and miles of arid scrubland that could be breached by a day-glo elephant. If any jihadist wanted to launch an attack in the Sinai, Sharm is where the most casualties and the greatest carnage would be created...and yet the FCO give it a "green" rating. Go figure that one.

Currently, both France and Egypt share the exact same warning about terrorism, however no one would even consider suggesting that a climbing trip to France was ballsy.

I've climbed in the Sinai every year for the last 6 years. I'm going back in March and I can't wait. Before then I'm going to Sudan and then later in the year Afghanistan. There are risks involved in going to places that are not European/American climbing resorts, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't apprehnsive about Sudan and Afghanistan, but that's natural. It means that before going I'll have done my research, and spoken to lots of people who have direct experience of the areas in question.

The reality is that the greatest risks you will face on the trip are on UK roads getting to the airport and back, the flight itself, Egyptian driving and bad tempered camels. Context and perspective are massively important!

The Sinai is beautiful, the Bedouin are incredibly hospitable and this will be a brilliant trip...and you'll want to go back, and I can guarantee that.