Taghia: Hi-Jinks in the High Atlas (1)

PART 1

If asked that million-dollar question ‘where is the best place in the world to climb multi-pitch rock routes?’ what would you respond? You might answer with a list of Europe’s mega-crags: the arch-cliffs of France, Switzerland, and Italy might feature prominently, places like the Verdon Gorge, the Wendenstock, Sanetsch, the Marmolada and Cima Grande, Sardinia’s outrageous Gole di Goruppu (home to Hotel Supramonte), or the mighty west face of El Naranjo in northern Spain. Or perhaps you would think further afield, to the awesome granite walls of Yosemite, or to yet more impressive cliffs in Greenland, in Kyrgyzstan, and the Karakorum. The list, as they say, might be as long as that proverbial piece of string.

It is the premise of this feature, however, that the title of ‘the best multi-pitch rock climbing in the world’ may be accorded to the limestone massif of the Taghia region, a spectacular arena of immense and charismatic verticality hidden in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. And this is not a title of a merely personal conjecture: it has been a matter of scrutiny and cross-examination by a number of Europe’s most experienced rock climbers, who have travelled here to establish new climbs on these mighty cliffs.

The Taghia massif is in fact an extremely complex topography of high escarpments, monoliths and canyon-walls based around a system of gorges scoured by the storm drainage from Jebel Lalaguen. This high plateau extends eastwards from Irhil Monte Goun (4071m) in the heart of the high Atlas, the second highest mountain in north Africa.

The village which gives the area its name lies at an altitude of 1800 metres, and provides salubrious base-camp facilities in the form of a couple of gites run by the locals. And the cliffs that surround it are perhaps the pre-eminent destination for European rock climbers in search of the ultimate big wall experience without the hassle of major expedition logistics and costs.

It was from Catalan legend Toni Arbonez that I first heard about this place, one hot afternoon in south east Asia. My coffee, I recall, became distinctly lukewarm despite the tropical heat as he waxed lyrical about some remote village deep in north Africa’s greatest mountain range, surrounded by the best limestone walls he had ever climbed on. Now Toni is not a man prone to exaggeration, and he has probably climbed more routes than most people have had hot dinners. I therefore made a serious mental note of what he had to say.

The following summer, Jack Geldard rang to invite me on a trip to Morocco in October. When I heard that Twid Turner and Steve Mayers were involved, I thought of that conversation with Toni more than a year ago, and swiftly concluded by deductive argument that this unspecified ‘awesome place’ Jack was talking about must be Taghia. I was thrilled with the prospect of finding out just how good it really was, and despite other commitments at the time I booked the first flight I could find to Marrakech.

Taghia is relatively remote, by Moroccan standards, involving a few hours on a gravel road (most roads in the country are now well surfaced) and another few hours walking to get to. Nonetheless, it is easily accessible in comparison to other climbing destinations in the developing world of a similar nature and stature.

The journey from Marrakech to the village barely exceeds 200 kilometres, but takes the best part of a day. By far the easiest way to do it is to hire a ‘grande taxi’ (the ubiquitous old Mercedes, which for a group of four works out at a very reasonable rate) from the city all the way to the village of Zaoia, around 40 kilometres north of Azilal, from where horses or mules can be hired for the final trek of 8 kilometres or so up to Taghia itself.

Turning the last corner out of a narrow valley, the river levels out in a series of gravel flats hemmed with small terraces supporting improbable quantities of thriving vegetables and staples. This is the land of the Berbers - the indigenous people of north Africa, whose distinct ethnicity predates the arrival of the first Mohammedans by at least two millennia - and as you would expect they are expert at growing whatever they can in the poor, infrequent soil and harsh climate of the high Atlas.

Cattle and goats graze freely, the latter often being shepherded through even the most inaccessible canyons by the local herdsmen. An idiosyncratic reminder of this fact is the presence of a multiplicity of extraordinary makeshift ‘bridges’ throughout the high Atlas region, constructed out of wood and the odd jammed boulder, and frequently poised above terrifyingly steep couloirs and giant boulder-chokes in the depths of the canyons. They seem to defy the laws of physics when weighted (!), and many of them appear to have been doing so for as long as the Berbers have lived here.

After a while, walking south towards the village across the flood plains, it becomes apparent that most of the horizon from the south right through to the north west is dominated by cliffs of the dust-red and ochre coloured limestone typical of these mountains, varying in size from the quantifiable-by-eyesight to the incalculably huge. It was towards dusk when we arrived, and despite the cold wind blowing down off the higher slopes I stopped for a few minutes behind the rest of the team, taking in the awesome presence of these rocks that watched over the mud and stone-built houses of the village with a strange, shadowy serenity.

All the information constituting a ‘guide’ to the climbs thus far established at Taghia is collated in a large and well-thumbed A3 scrapbook in the small gite run by Said Messaoudi and his family, which lies near to the new primary school on the very edge of the village. Taking some spare paper on which to transcribe your own topos from the originals in Said’s book will prove useful.

Having just a few days to pack in a whistle-stop itinerary, the two veterans of our party, Steve and Twid, made swift work of establishing which routes they should go for. Their combined experience of putting up new routes and making significant repeat ascents on big walls around the world produced a well-rewarded assessment of the first ascentionists’ comments in what is perhaps the world’s physically largest (!) climbing guide. The three major routes they chose to climb turned out, by the end of our longer stay, to be three of the very best routes in Taghia, produced by the ace duo of Arnaud Petit and Michel Piola. This consensus was also reached by a pair of French guides who had climbed the same routes the week before.

The 350 metre classic Canyon Apache (6b+, 6a+, 6c, 6a, 6b, 6b+, 6c+, 6b+, 5c) is a fully bolted line on the towering canyon-side wall of Jebel Timrazine, and being only a 40 minute walk from the village provides the perfect introduction to the quality and style of climbing at Taghia. After a tricky initiation up a steep groove the angle kicks back for a few pitches on flawless rock before an intricate 4th pitch leads to easier ground and a good ledge system. This would be ideal for a quick tagine-stop, but unfortunately MSR have not yet perfected the manufacture of a lightweight version of the traditional two-piece earthenware pot, an essential item in every Moroccan kitchen.

The last four pitches of the route are impeccable, following a beautiful, twisting line of weakness up a big headwall. The climbing on pitches 7 and 8 began to generate favourable comparisons with the arch-classics of the Verdon, routes like Surveiller et Punir or Frimes et Chatiments. Those who have done those routes will know this means the climbing is about as good as vertical limestone wall climbing can get.

By mid-afternoon Steve and Twid zoomed down their ropes past us, with time for a few mutual exclamations on just how good the route was. Climbing at a more sedate pace our trio topped out a bit later, just as the early evening sun lit up the massive north west wall of Jebel Lalaguen towering over the head of the canyon to the south, and the shadowline crept higher up the wall. A pair of eagles circled a few hundred metres above us. Far below, the village was just visible beyond the summit of Ta Oujidad. It would be difficult to imagine a more impressive and atmospheric location for world-class rock climbing.

In Part 2, more on the climbs of Taghia and some great photos. Coming soon!