So, 24 signed up to join me for the 1st post Covid Morocco Meet. Considering we flew out to Agadir from 3 different UK airports, Manchester, Glasgow and Gatwick, we all rendezvous’d successfully in the welcoming warm evening Moroccan sunshine and sorted our cash exchange and hire cars in a relative jiffy. The 2 hour drive through the darkness also went surprisingly well and without hitch and we were soon sat down enjoying a late meal laid on by our friendly hosts at The Kasbah.
It may be tempting to make assumptions that a team from the UK heading to North Africa on a trad climbing trip, most of who have never met each other, could potentially witness a minor incident or two. But no, nothing to write home about on that subject. No accidents, no benightments, no screaming whippers! The only things that could be considered out of the ordinary was one case of gout (many an apres climb/pre dinner aperitif, being the culprit perhaps). The sufferer shall remain anonymous. And a Euphorbia cactus root, laden with acidic white sap, colliding directly square on with my eye. This occurred during a ground up new routing debacle, while putting ones nut key (I usually call it my podger, but not this time for fear of being misconstrued) to alternative use. I can’t recommend this experience enough, being akin to squirting the highest quality and hottest strength chilli paste in one’s eye. Putting it politely, it burns like hell and took a couple of hours rinsing out with clean, cold water before the pain started to subside.
Back to the climbing and the evening ‘post climb’ feedback was very positive, in fact it was tremendous and seeing all the smiling faces returning to The Kasbah after the days adventures in the mountains was heart warming. The beautiful Moroccan quartzite soaking up the sunshine and gobbling up the wires and cams. Much banter was exchanged about the beautiful scenery and great locations of the crags, be it roadside or an hours walk in away from the crowds. Actually, there are no crowds on the cliffs, in fact you’re lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be) if you unexpectedly bump into another climbing party. Many of the more obvious 3 star routes were climbed whether single or multi pitch, but by no means all crags were visited. There are so many.
It will be a trip to remember, for everyone involved, but a particularly memorable day for me personally was to have a day out with Jesse and Molly Dufton. There was a certain amount of mixing n’ matching, which is always good, but seeing as Jessie is blind, this was on a different level. I had watched the pair climb a couple of days previously on Dragon, doing a 2 pitch VS and was amazed and impressed as anyone would be as Jesse led pitch 2 very swiftly indeed. But on the day I was to team up with them, Jesse asked over breakfast “Do you know of any suitable new routes?” This was followed by “I’m keen to do one!” So, I had a think and came up with a plan, which was to head to Alma Slabs, a pleasant roadside crag comprising of mainly single pitch (50m) routes and the occasional 2 pitch climb. On the drive up the somewhat rough track however, we passed a bigger crag and so naturally it caught the eye and we stopped for a look. I gestured that a handful a 4 pitch routes were put up on the right end of this crag last November and pointed out to Molly the potential still remaining on the left end and added “Its deceptively only about a 15 minute walk in”. A few glances and mutterings of agreement ensued and we headed up to the crag. The terrain in The Anti-Atlas is usually rocky, loose scree or tumbling down ancient terraces with abundant spiky trees and shrubs and the approach to this crag, which has been named Heavy Rock, was no different. The mountain air full of enthusiasm as I stride up the hillside with Molly and Jesse holding on to her walking pole one step behind. After a few minutes discussing the options, an inviting brown groove was selected as the objective. It looked (to Molly and me) to be 3 or 4 pitches and showed signs of possibility and a strong line. Although one can never really be 100% sure if a line will ‘go’ until one rubs one’s nose in it (a favourite saying of an old friend, the late Ben Wintringham)!
So before you could say boo to a goose, Jesse had racked up with his gear, a double set of cams and a single set of wires. Molly rigged up her remote camera back from the crag and I held Jesse’s ropes, then off he went, speaking over our 3 way walkie talkies. Calmly, competently and comfortably the first pitch was dispatched with Molly giving pointers over the radio as Jesse felt his way up the 30 metres of groove with good cracks for gear and an overhang to negotiate to reach the first belay ledge. All of Jesse’s gear (a few cams and a big blue hex were bomber and were removed without problem). We all agreed that it was a fine pitch of about VS 4b. The only way to leave the ledge was to try a left-slanting ramp slicing its slabby way between overhangs above the left end of our stance. So off I went and fortunately it went at about VS 4b also. We regrouped on the second ledge and Molly took the gear for her lead, where actually there was a choice of 2 lines, a rib and gaping chimney high above, or a nice looking groove and overhanging crack splitting the final bulge at the top of the cliff. She set off up the latter and after 50 metres shouted “Safe”. Jesse and I followed the pitch which gave superb climbing with an exposed leaning crack on the worlds most perfect rock as the climax. The route was named by Jesse in accordance with the general Heavy Rock theme of the crag ‘Eye Dissappear’ (a song by Metalica) and given the grade VS 4b,4b,4b and awarded 2 stars by us. After the gully scramble descent we returned to our home for the week, The Kasbah Tizourgane where we told of our great day. It wasn’t too long before another party, Mike Fenwick and Paul Scott returned to Heavy Rock to repeat Eye Dissappear which they gave confirmation of the grade and quality.
It was all rather civilised really, with everyone returning in the evening well before dinner time of 8pm, which is just as well as the Moroccan custom is to wait until everyone is seated at the dinner table before the food is served. All hungry bellies were satisfied without too much delay in the evening, with copious quantities of tagine being devoured rather swiftly.
Breakfasts were a fairly relaxed affair, commencing at 8.30 am and being drawn out to 9.30 or so. The waiter would often surprise us with boiled eggs, sweet pancakes, savoury pancakes, bread, buns, parathas, Moroccan porridgy gruel and an array of spreads including jams, honey, amelu (Argan nut paste & Olive oil) and olives. Yes, olives at breakfast.
So in summary, a fine week was had by all, whether it was the first timer’s experiencing the classic Anti-Atlas rock climbing or the old sctrotes beavering away on new routes (someone’s got to do it). Or, those who mixed it up bit and sampled some of the breath taking mountain and gorge walks on offer-featured in Don Sargeant’s excellent booklet of walks.
The only complaint I got wind of was that one week was too short and can we go for a fortnight next year! So much to go back for!
Paul Donnithorne
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