Alex Barnes - Morocco Oct 2024

Sunday, 13th October

6:30am. Stansted Airport. The Perch Bar & Grill. This was the site of our gathering as a group, ahead of a full-on week of climbing in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Despite some initial trepidation on the choice of airport food venue (missing out on an airport trip to Wetherspoon’s is always the wrong choice), the groups’ spirits were high, with everyone excited for some of the routes they planned on climbing, and the many tagines they planned on eating.

Fast forward eight hours, and skipping many pictures and videos taken of our already damaged hire cars, we were at our first crag of the trip- Atkil Edge, a small, roadside, quartzite crag 40 minutes from our destination of Tafraout. Barry, Hannah, and I all spent some time sorting out racks and gear- a benefit to driving in Barry’s car is you get to the crag much earlier than the other car, so you get more faff time- and then the others arrived, and it was time to tick off our first Moroccan climbs!

Disaster! Climbing isn’t allowed here! Or there is rock fall here and it isn’t safe? Or climbers have recently fallen and died here? Or the police were going to be called on us? We weren’t exactly sure what the local man was telling us, but either way he wasn’t happy for us to be there (an implied inference on his angry shouting, and threatening gesticulation with his stick in hand), and being frank, he was slightly (okay, very) crazy. After speaking to a local digger driver, we discovered that we were in fact allowed to climb there, so finally cracked on with it. We all managed to get a lead in that day, with my favourite route being Chasing Rainbows VS, led by Ian, that was described as very 3D- a description I found to be quite accurate when I was doing a layback into the full-splits to get up it!

Eventually, we all began to succumb to tiredness induced from our early start, and so decided it was time to finally head to the hotel for food and a pillow to rest our weary heads, and most importantly our inaugural Casablanca- a delicious, Moroccan brewed, beer. We planned a big day tomorrow so we all swiftly headed to bed ready for our first full climbing day.

Monday, 14th October

I won’t speak for the others, but the 7:30am alarm caught me rather

off-guard, with a 11:30am alarm being much more what I needed. Alas, we all dragged ourselves to breakfast, for what proved to be a very carb-heavy, but reasonably tasty affair of bread, spreads, eggs, and pancakes. Spoiler alert: this breakfast got a bit tedious towards the end of the week. We all chose at breakfast to climb one of the more popular routes in the area: Pink Lady, VS 4C 230m long. Cars got packed, lunch was grabbed (an interesting looking collection of loose fruit, and plain bread- how exciting…), and we were off!

Finding the start of the route proved to be a rather prickly affair, having to battle many spiky trees and bushes to finally get there. This proved to only be the beginning of our battle with the Moroccan flora, a battle which we were comfortably beaten in. Finally, we found a little PL scratched into the rock, and new we were there. Jamie and I were climbing together for the day, and with him swiftly dispatching the first pitch we were off. What followed on from there was very enjoyable multi-pitch climbing, with amazing views, great quality rock, my second ever pitch leading 4C, and an abundance of jokes that are best not written down- a theme that continued on mine and Jamie’s climbs later in the week.

Things were steady going, until we hit about the 2/3rd of the route, with Jamie trying to link up a 4B and 4C pitch together resulting with monstrous rope drag, that drove him to an impromptu hanging belay and me taking the upper 20m of the 4C. Leaving the less-than-spacious belay, without our heavy bag on my back, proved to be just the boost I needed to complete the crux pitch of the route, a traverse rightwards under a roof, rather run-out, which was finally bypassed by a hidden but well-appreciated jug up onto the belay ledge. From there, we were cruising again, with only one more pitch of difficult climbing- a very enjoyable 4B hand-traverse at the very top of the route. Finally, 6 hours after parking, we topped out, and tentatively tucked into our lunch, which ended up being a very pleasant surprise upon discovery of cheese in the sandwich! Phew!

After a relatively pleasant descent, with a few rather steep bits, where me and Dan discovered Ian’s prowess at gliding down hillsides, we headed back to the hotel for a beer, before heading into town for a tagine, but more importantly our introduction to Tafraout Rug Man. A very interesting but nice character, his acquaintance proved very handy later in the week- watch this space. We all were rather intrigued upon his announcement of meeting Chris Bonnington and Joe Brown.

Tuesday, 15th October

Tuesday proved to be a day of three parts, all rather relaxing, which was very welcomed over the long route of the previous day. To start off we headed to the granite just outside of Tafraout for some shorter routes, with the group splitting into two. Jamie, Dan, and I headed to a 2 pitch VS route- Cornflake Direct Start. Dan took both leads, as neither me or Jamie particularly fancied them, and hauled us nicely up the route. It proved to be my first proper foray into crack climbing, even a little off-widthy at points. I’m still undecided if there is a future for me as a Wide Boy or not. After we messed around a bit between pitches (in this case, messing about means me being put onto a Tyrolean for no other reason than “funny”), we topped out just as the others did, so we all abseiled down together- how wholesome!

After this, we all headed to Eflodne, for an afternoon of sport climbing. This was my first experience sport climbing, and it proved a very pleasant and relaxing experience, with me and Jamie enjoying a nice F4 route. Jamie took the 1st and 3rd pitches, with me taking the second- a setup I’m not sure he was overly pleased with, due to me having bolt spacing of about 2m, whilst he had bolt spacing of many many metres. We spent most of our route adjacent to Peggy and Louis on a rather strenuous looking 6a route, and managed to top-out just behind them, before the four of us abseiled down together- Louis even giving Jamie an abseil efficiency masterclass. Upon returning to the ground, the four of us all quickly romped up a short slabby 5C, led by Louis, whilst waiting for Bal and Dan. The route proved to be very slabby indeed and was a fun way to finish the climbing part of the day.

The final stage of the day saw us visiting the famous painted-rocks, which I believe is a homage by a Belgian artist to his wife- this fact comes courtesy of Louis, so if you are to accuse anyone of false information make sure it’s him. Being completely honest I found them interesting for a few minutes, but overall, rather underwhelming, although that may be due to the cloud-induced greyness of the day. What they did prove useful for, however, was an impromptu club photo shoot! To finish the day off we headed into town, where we found Tafraout Carpet Man (not to be confused with Rug Man), who did a rather accurate scouse impression, offered to fight me and Bal, called Jamie a police officer, called me ‘McDonald Hamburger arms’, called Peggy old, called out Louis for having fake Birkenstocks, and to top it all off, offered us the hand of a random lady for the small price of 3 camels. On the whole, a rather eclectic character.

Wednesday, 16th October

Tizgut Gorge. A day that could fill enough pages to fill a library but is probably best left with many things unwritten (and not just because some of it isn’t exactly appropriate for written media). Jamie, Dan, and I chose a nice looking MVS (a new grade for us all) 150m route, named Golden Pillar, which looked to be an enjoyable climb. The only thing missing was a descent description in the guidebook. Who needs to know the descent anyway? It can’t be that hard to find, can it? Answer: Yes, it bloody well can!

We set off climbing, with Jamie taking P1, a pleasant but unremarkable pitch. As I began to second up after Dan, Morocco decided it was the perfect time to rain, giving me a rather slippery experience heading up the pitch. Upon reaching the belay ledge, the three of us faffed and nattered for a while on whether we should continue on or bail off. With the rain stopping, and Louis heckling us from across the gorge, we decided to continue- after all, Peggy was doing an E1 pitch in the rain, so it was rather embarrassing if we didn’t do an MVS. Dan took P2, and then I headed up P3 to finish the route off. My pitch didn’t go entirely swimmingly, with me cutting right slightly too early, ending up rather run out, with a very tricky roof to bypass onto a blank slab. Pump was really kicking in at this point, and with not a lot of gear in I looked for the closest belay option. Result! A solid looking tree belay, that will do me nicely. I would’ve greatly appreciated a simple walk up to this tree, throwing a big sling around it, and being done. But alas my hopes were dashed, by a very tricky downclimb, resulting in my being in the tree itself, and having to fight the tree to get a good position. The cuts on my arms and legs suggest I lost this fight. Finally, Dan, and then Jamie, came up behind me, both laughing healthily at my interesting belay point, and then we scrambled up to the actual route finish.

Now the fun (very much of the Type 2 genre, edging closely to Type 3) properly began- finding the way off. We couldn’t see any obvious walk-off, or abseil station, and the guidebook and UKC both didn’t mention anything. We made the decision to scramble up the easyish ground above us, moving together on the ropes placing runners, with me leading us. At points this became rather harder, so we resorted to essentially pitching it. After around another 70-90m of climbing, with me just finishing a super run-out traverse, anchored by a very suspect looking tree, we all made the sensible decision to down-climb to the top of the route again and look for somewhere to abseil out. On the way back down, upon picking up signal, one of the club radios crackled into life, and we heard Louis telling us the amazing news that he could see a tree to abseil off (followed by some musical interludes played by him down the radio). Traversing across to this tree, we were all very grateful to see some tat around it- although not tat we trusted. So, leaving a bit of our own tat behind, we rigged up our abseil and finally headed down, with Dan taking the first one and promptly abseiling himself onto a cactus. Jamie and I managed to be just a tad more elegant, but still not exactly stylish. We were down, and the 150m route had only taken us ~8 hours. Not sure we have a future as speed climbers.

Thursday, 17th October

With me, Jamie, and Dan all rather tired and slightly stressed from the prior day’s escapades, we all decided to go for some shorter routes on Thursday. So, when the group decided today was the day to head to Robin Hood Rocks, the three of us were sensible and chose to climb some short single pitch. Sorry, did I say short and single pitch? I meant Sun Ribbon Arete, a 510m HS 4B, and the longest climb (by far) at the crag.

We had all learnt from the long slog yesterday, so decided to be efficient and quick, with me taking the first lead, and belaying Dan and Jamie up simultaneously. From there we continued on, swinging leads between us, with myself taking a rather spicy 4C pitch, made spicier by the fact all the lines of least resistance were in fact the most resistive, owing to the fact that they were peppered with cacti- not ideal!

Upon finishing my cactus pitch, the radio buzzed into life, and we heard Hannah come through the other side “there is another local here, not crazy like the man on the first day, we think he is police, saying climbing is restricted here and we need to leave”. Hmm, the three of us thought, we are only about 160m into a 510m route, I don’t think leaving is exactly a quick option. As if she was reading our minds, Hannah came over the radio again to explain that the man understood we were in the middle of a long route, so he was fine for us to finish it, but afterwards we must leave. Sound reasonable enough to us, best crack on with this then. After a few minutes had passed, the radio once again crackled on, with Hannah in hysterics, declaring “Rug Man is here”. I told you to remember him! From what we gathered over the radio, between Hannah’s laughs, was that Rug Man had showed up (somehow, not a clue how- maybe he was tracking us?! Maybe he's magic?!), spoke to the man, handed him a piece of paper (unclear if this paper was a cash bribe, or some sort of note from his mates Bonnington and Brown saying “Let the Brits Climb!”), and everything was cleared up, with us all being allowed to stay at the crag, and all talk of restrictions gone.

Knowing this, the three of us eased off the accelerator a bit and went back to talking absolute rubbish about pretty much anything and everything. Eventually, the pitched difficulties came to an end, and we gained some scrambling terrain that we took head on, to eventually reach the summit. Upon reaching the summit we decided it was the perfect time to throw some bait out to the rest of the club and take some pictures with the club flag upside down- bait which was nibbled by both Hannah and Piers. Don’t worry, we also took a normal picture as well.

After the debacle earlier with the ‘restrictions’, we decided when heading into town that night, that it was only polite to go and visit Rug Man’s shop. On the drive in we ended up driving next to him, on his scooter, us in our Dacia, and had a very short and impromptu race to his shop- one that he won. Entering the shop was like entering an alternative universe, were the humble rug reigns supreme. We were given a talk about Berber rugs and their history, usage, and creation by Rug Man’s accomplice (a very typical Moroccan sales pitch, effectively), and then wandered around the store. None of us were interested in buying, except Dan, who was taken for a private showing of cactus silk rugs, never to be seen again it seemed. We decided to check out the climbing section of the store, which featured one sling, a nut-key, and a few bags of chalk. Needle Sports has some stiff competition. Eventually Dan was let free, after hearing the rather steep prices of the rugs, and we hit the town (that is to say, went for some dinner and then to bed).

Friday, 18th October

With the mercury rising on Friday, and all of us beginning to feel the fatigue of many many metres of climbing, we decided to head to a slightly smaller crag- Ksar Rock- with some single pitches, some linkable to make two pitch routes. Louis and I began the day with the popular Sahara (MVS) & Jedi Groove (HVS) link up. I took Sahara in one, 55m pitch, which was an interesting experience due to me now climbing on Louis’ rack, which is rather smaller than Jamie’s substantial one, and virtually running out of gear at the top, whilst fighting tremendous rope drag. The sight of a tat-riddled boulder at the top was a sight for sore eyes, and Louis was swiftly up with me. We then scrambled round to the bottom of Jedi Groove, and Louis set off, completing the pitch in two due to rope drag concerns. The upper half of the route saw me succumbing to fatigue, and my lack of discipline, with a few sneaky moves bypassed by pulling on gear. Effectively turning the route into an A4 aid climb, I think I’m ready to take on the Dawn Wall.

The heat was getting to us at this point, and we headed down for a cheese sandwich and a tomato- a lunch that was starting to wear rather thin by this point in the week. Louis scouted out what he called an intriguing looking E1, I thought the word horrible was more fitting. We scrambled/caved to the start, and off he set on the 35m route, with a few choice grunts/swear words helping him past the harder moves. I found it a rather interesting second, with a bit of almost every climbing style used, particularly when I ballsed up a layback to undercling transition and fell off. Louis caught me fine, but I think he would prefer I hadn’t fallen off, as it resulted in me pulling him out of the shade at his anchor. I then doubled down on the annoyances, by not being able to remove his gold wall-nut from the very top of the route, bringing the count of Louis’ nuts I’ve lost to three. Two on Main Wall on Cyrn Las, and one on Pelez on Ksar Rock, if anyone fancies some crag swag.

This strenuous E1 proved the end of mine and Louis’ energy for the day, and we resorted to watching Hannah on a very nice lead of Sahara, and Dan leading a HVS in style, with a full viewing gallery cheering him on. It even resulted in Peggy trying to trim down Jamie’s inflated rack by dropping one of his red cams when removing it (Jamie very swiftly recovered it on his go up, I suspect the fear of climbing with less than 10 cams proved too much for him to accept losing it).

Saturday, 19th October

The final day of climbing loomed, and with it we all decided to finish with one more large mountain route, before returning to the rather shorter routes of Rock Hub and The Lock. Heading to Taskra East Pillars, a crag on the way back to Agadir, Jamie and I eyed up Pan’s Labyrinth a 235m HS route. The excitement/anxiety started before the climbing even began, when on arrival at the crag mine, Barry, and Hannah’s car got a fuel light come on, one hour from the nearest petrol station. We resigned ourselves to the fact that that was a problem for later, and a local herd of goats could surely pull the car if needed, and all headed up to the crag.

Jamie and I arrived at the route, and I took the first 55m pitch, which was rather more difficult than I was expecting from a HS, and featured a horrible flaring chimney with some rather unpleasant offwidthy moves to bypass, before reaching the belay. The gear was runout and the moves were hard, a trend that would continue for the whole climb. Listening to Jamie come up on second was frankly hilarious, with him having some rather annoying difficulties in the off-width, due in part to the strenuous nature of the climbing, and part due to fact he was carrying our bag which kept on getting stuck. The symphony of grunts, interlaced with a few (many) choice swear words was hysterical for me to listen to, but I elected to try and laugh as quietly as possible, out of moral support for my second.

After finding the first pitch rather tricky, Jamie was somewhat happy for me to take pitch 2 as well, a 60m pitch up to a cave. I set off onto a rather fun, well-protected, and not overly difficult chimney climb, coming up to a large ledge after around 15m. Knowing I was miles from the finish, but with the thought of horrid rope drag looming over me, and wanting to have as much gear as possible, I set up a belay here, brought Jamie up, then I continued onto the last 45m, which the guidebook described as a slab. This was a lie. What followed was a rather steep, blank, gear devoid, scary-as-shit pitch. And to top it all off, there were large chunks of rock that was black, which after sitting in the direct Moroccan sunlight all day was rather hot to the touch. After a few near-breakdowns, and a rather few more expletives, I finally came up to the mouth of the cave, lunging towards the first boulder I saw to throw a sling around and make myself safe. Jamie slowly made his way up behind me, and then we quickly sought refuge in the shady interior of the cave. Bliss.

The following pitch was a completely blank looking traverse, with barely any gear visible, pretty difficult looking moves, and an ascent that seemed to be as dangerous for the second as it would be for the leader. No thanks. Instead, Jamie and I decided to resort to the lovely looking scramble out of the back of the cave to the start of the following pitch. How the scramble was part of the VS route, and the traverse the HS, I’ll never know. Jamie took the lead of the scramble, I swiftly joined him, then he headed up a 25m 4A pitch, which (in fashion of the rest of the route so far, if my cynicism hasn’t already made clear) was stiffer than described and lacking on gear. With Jamie hunting backwards and forwards, left and right, for even the most marginal gear placement, it proved to be an intriguing second for me, feeling more like a zigzag than the straight line the guide book promised me.

Finally, we just had one more pitch of proper climbing left. A short 60m scramble got us from the top of Jamie’s pitch to the bottom of the supposed crux pitch of the route- a 4C chasm which was bridgeable until about 2/3rd of the way up, upon which point you had to step onto the right side and then tackle a very steep crack before it eased off. At this point of the day me and Jamie were both on our fourth sulk and neither of us massively fancied it. Telling Jamie fancied it even less than I am, and with a promise of a free beer, I decided to take the pitch and get off the damned route. Despite being described in the guidebook as “unlikely” and “intimidating”, it was easily the most fun pitch of the route, with very 3D climbing, and some very solid protection. Climbing up and through the steep crack proved to be the crux of the pitch, but after that it eased rapidly. 4B seemed more accurate, but the first two pitches were easily 4C.

Finally, Jamie topped out and we were done. Louis and Dan, who had topped out a measly four hours earlier, were rather happy to see us, but not out of happiness to see their mates were alive, more out of hunger due to the fact we had their sandwiches in our bag. Oops. Jamie and I gave them a thorough debrief, which I won’t include here, for the sake of this writeup already being too long. What I will say is there is no way that was a HS route. VS 4C would be fair, although there is video evidence floating somewhere in the ether of me and Jamie moaning in the cave claiming it was easily E4. If so, I’m very happy to say I have led ~160m of a 235m E4. Piolet d’or here I come.

Hannah, Bal, and Peggy topped out not long after, and we all enjoyed one last sulk, before heading down the descent- a monstrously steep and very loose gully. Think Gouter couloir. Reaching the car, we had one last challenge left to face us- would we have enough petrol to reach the nearest petrol station one hour away? Yes, we would, to soothe the nerves you felt for us. A couple of hours later we were into Tagazhout, with the sound of the ocean blessing our ears, the feeling of a day lying on a surfboard tomorrow, rather than halfway up some silly cliff face somewhere, was a blissful one. And even better- we all had private rooms! Not to say Louis was a bad roommate at all, but it was nice to leave all my stuff everywhere for one night without me being a burden.

Sunday, 20th October

Surf day. Finally. What I’d be waiting for. Ever since the debacle on Golden Pillar, and then the HS/VS/E4 of the previous day, there wasn’t much I wanted to do more than lie on a surfboard and catch a few waves. Just one little issue. There were no waves. In our few hours in the ocean I managed to catch about two waves, and whilst I’m not exactly a pro surfer, I like to think I’m better than a two wave session, so I feel confident to blame the conditions (or lack thereof) more than my mediocre surfing skill. Either way, it was rather nice to be lying on a surfboard in the relaxing Atlantic Ocean, rather than climbing.

The surf session ended quicker than I wanted, with much less waves than desired, and it was time to head home- with a quick interlude for some food at the very traditional Moroccan restaurant Rasta Pasta, and the chance to try our hands at haggling with the locals. One final challenge awaited us at the airport. Were our bags overweight or oversized? No, was the answer. All with the exception of Jamie, who was forced to take out half his clothes from his carry-on and wear them so that his bag met the requirements. Facial expressions suggested he wasn’t overly pleased by this, but I’ll let him share his feelings on the situation. My feelings were that it was hilarious. Finally, we were all sat on the luxury of our EasyJet flight home, headphones on, eyes fighting to stay open with the embrace of sleep calling to us all, and a very full-on but amazing week of climbing coming to a close.

Personal Stats:

Routes climbed:

Tizi Gzaouine Crag:

• Watersports HS (25m)- Seconded (Louis led)

• Tired blueberry HS 4a (20m)- Led (Louis and Ian followed)

• Chasing Rainbows VS 4c (34m)- Seconded (Ian led)

Lower Eagle Crag:

• Pink Lady VS 4c (230m)- Alternate leads (with Jamie)

Wildcat Wall:

• Cornflake Direct Start VS 4c (65m)- Seconded (Dan led)

Eflodne:

• Northwest Buttress F4 (115m)- Alternate leads (with Jamie)

• Nutcracker F5c (50m)- Seconded (Louis led)

Tizgut Gorge:

• Golden Pillar MVS 4a (150m)- Alternate leads (with Jamie and Dan)

Robin Hood Rocks:

• Sun Ribbon Arete HS 4b (510m)- Alternate leads (with Jamie and Dan)

Ksar Rock:

• Sahara MVS 4a (55m)- Led (Louis followed)

• Jedi Groove HVS 4c (40m)- Seconded (Louis led)

• Pelez E1 5b (35m)- Seconded (Louis led)

Taskra East Pillars:

• Pan’s Labyrinth Direct HS 4c (235m)- Led (Jamie seconded, with one pitch led)

Distance climbed: 1564m

Highest grade led: VS, 4c

Highest grade seconded: E1, 5b

Waves caught: 2 (hoped for many more)

Quirky/crazy locals met: 3

Kg of bread eaten: Too many