Tuesday March 19th, 2024
Download SceneNow app
Copied

New Cairo Now Has its Very Own Indoor Rock-Climbing Wall

Rock climbing is a foolproof way to ensure that you get a sharper mind and a badass personality.

Staff Writer

Ah, the great outdoors – there’s nothing quite like it. However, in Egypt, it’s often hard to really get ‘out there’ and engage in an activity that takes advantage of being outside – which is why ventures like Fingerlock Egypt brings the mountains to an indoors rock climbing studio – kind-of.

Fingerlock Egypt collaborated with Gold's Gym in New Cairo to create Cairo's very first indoors rock climbing course, with several levels of difficulty to challenge each rock climber.

Now, after seven years of activity in Egypt, Fingerlock Egypt has partnered with Gold's Gym to create the first rock climbing complex wall in Cairo. Their walls consist of different routes and difficulty levels, depending on how experienced you are with rock climbing.

"It's not just about ascending," said co-founder Islam Sherif , who alongside the other co-founder, Amr El Bialy, devised the idea after noticing its absence upon returning from a bouldering retreat in Thailand.

"There are certain moves you need to learn, like the knee jump, to get you past certain levels," Sherif continued, describing the variety of ascension levels at Fingerlock Egypt.

Fingerlock Egypt first began in the outdoors, as monthly or bi-monthly trips to the mountains of Dahab. Every year, ever since their Volume 1 in 2011, Sherif and El Bialy organised winter trips to South Sinai, where they would gather around 10 to 15 rock climbers of different levels.

"For the beginners, we teach them how to climb the mountains; for the advanced members, we send them off to the more difficult routes," Sherif said. Dahab's mountains are intermediate and accessible, which makes it a perfect destination for this rock climbing group. St. Catherine is also home to a couple of more rock climbing routes, though provide a more advanced difficulty level for the average Fingerlock-er.

After partnering with Gold's Gym,New Cairo branch, they established the rights to manage their indoors rock climbing area with nine distinct routes on the wall. "Actually, we have nine ropes," Sherif explained. "Each rope has two to three routes that you can challenge yourself to take." The walls are rendered to reflect outdoor nature, with the grainy walls and the makeshift cracks between the rocks.

When you go rock climbing, you can determine your level by the routes you're able to complete. Following international safety standards of mountaineering and rock climbing, Fingerlock Egypt has marked on their paths the different difficulty levels.

The instructors at Fingerlock Egypt provide tips and climbing techniques to help you advance and climb higher up. "It's like a puzzle," Sherif said. "You need to learn the correct move to be able to go further up. You keep figuring and trying out different moves in order to ascend."

Keep up with Fingerlock's updates and activities on their Facebook and Instagram.