Mountaineering in the Moroccan High Atlas. Des Clark

routes that will entice them to return. Although all the routes described in the guide can be undertaken in spring and autumn, the majority have been described specifically with a winter ascent in mind, as in my view this is the most rewarding season for mountaineering in the High Atlas.

      Mountain guidebooks of any description risk opening up hitherto lonely areas to mass usage and over-development. However, the fact that the routes in this book may entail winter camping, remote access and self-sufficiency are just as likely to turn many away. Those who find themselves, particularly in winter, on ridges and summits described in this guide will deserve to be there.

      The guide is aimed at – and will be most useful to – those who have a background of winter walking, climbing and scrambling, and who are looking to expand their horizons in a mountain range brimming with adventure possibilities.

      Des Clark

      Southern Morocco, 2010

      Nearing the top of the Tadat Couloir before the traverse across the north cwm of Biguinoussene (Route 10)

INTRODUCTION

      The Atlas mountains were described by Pliny, the Roman geographer, as the ‘greatest mountains in all of Africa’. While there may be other contenders for that title, the range certainly offers a huge variety of scenery, culture and terrain to the mountain traveller. There are similarities in some areas to the high Tibetan plains, the South American Andes and even the Scottish glens, but this is a unique range of mountains and a unique mountain people lives within them.

      Stretching across Morocco, the Atlas mountains run in an east-north-easterly line into neighbouring Algeria before fading away in Tunisia, and reach their highest altitudes in Morocco. Rising just east of Agadir on the Atlantic coast, they seldom drop below 3000m for most of their time in Morocco and are justifiably called the High Atlas.

      Depending on what is judged to be a separate mountain rather than a subsidiary top, there are at least seven mountains that reach over 4000m. The highest of these is Jbel Toubkal at 4167m (jbel = mountain). All of the 4000m peaks are in the Toubkal region apart from one – Ighil Mgoun (4068m), which is situated in a vast tract of upland east of the Tizi n-Tichka (tizi = pass).

      Looking at a map of Morocco, you will notice a few other subsidiary ranges. The Anti-Atlas run parallel to the south of the High Atlas, as do the Jbel Sahro further east. The Middle Atlas run in a more north-north-easterly line, and although they sometimes reach over 3000m and are snow covered in winter, they never attain the grandeur of the High Atlas.

      Although the High Atlas is predominantly Jurassic limestone, there are significant interruptions at the western end of the range, with volcanic andesites and rhyolites, particularly in the Toubkal region. These weathered volcanic rocks are very fractured and bedded together as loose masses. The visual result in the Toubkal massif is of jagged peaks and steep-sided valleys, with mostly grey masses of scree evident in the summer and early autumn when free of snow cover.

      Small ancient glaciers may have existed in the higher cwms, but these have now receded. In fact, there are no glaciers in all of North Africa.

      Moving east of the Tizi n-Tichka, rivers have cut down through the soft Permian-Triassic rock to produce deep gorges. Together with huge escarpments, terraced cliffs and flat-topped summits, they are typical of the region, particularly in the Ighil Mgoun and Jbel Maasker areas. Close observations on the summit ridge of Ighil Mgoun reveal many small sea-shell fossils.

      Toubkal south cwm route, on the ridge above Tizi Toubkal (Route 24)

European Exploration

      The Atlas mountains have been inhabited for thousands of years. Indeed, some rock carvings and engravings could suggest that they have been lived in for some 12,000 years, but exploration by European visitors has taken place only in the past century.

      The early explorers in the late 1800s were primarily British. The British botanist and director of the Royal Kew Gardens, Sir Joseph Hooker, and his two companions, Ball and Maw, toured around the Atlas and were the first Europeans to visit the village of Aremd below Toubkal. They were also the first Europeans to climb a 3000m peak – Jbel Gourza, just north of the old TinMal mosque on the Tizi n-Test road. However, when they climbed up to Tizi n-Tagharat (north-east of Jbel Toubkal), they were unable to establish which was the highest point in the Atlas – rather ironic, as they were not too far from Toubkal on this col.

      The Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson was in the country in 1889, and, continuing the Scottish theme, RB Cunninghame Graham, a politician-cum-adventurer, travelled and trekked around the southern Atlas region in the 1890s, getting close to Taroudant in disguise before he was discovered and returned to Essaouira on the coast. (At that time, Taroudant was a city forbidden to outsiders.)

      Morocco became a French protectorate in 1912 under the Treaty of Fez. Thereafter, the French carried out most of the exploration of the Atlas until the 1960s.

      A small group of French alpinists formed the Moroccan High Atlas section of the Club Alpine Français (CAF) in 1922. Shortly afterwards, it was established that Jbel Toubkal was the highest peak in the range. A small party led by the French Lieutenant Marquis de Segonzac climbed the peak in June 1923 and claimed the first ascent. The first British man to climb Jbel Toubkal was Bentley Beetham in 1926, two years after his return from the famous ‘Mallory and Irvine’ expedition to Everest.

      Louis Léon Charles Neltner (1903–1985) was a geologist and mountaineer awarded the French Légion d'Honneur for his achievements in the First World War. He was the geologist in the first French expedition to the Karakoram in 1936. He spent more than 20 years exploring the Moroccan High Atlas and Anti-Atlas in both roles – as geologist and mountaineer. The original refuge at the foot of Toubkal was named after him, which is why on some maps the CAF refuge below Toubkal (now called Toubkal refuge) is still marked as the Neltner refuge.

      Jacques de Lépiney was one of the leading French Alpinists and climbers in the early 1900s. A founding member of the French Groupe de Haute Montagne (GHM), later joined by other famous climbers such as Pierre Allain, Lépiney made numerous first ascents in the Mont Blanc massif, bouldering routes in Fontainebleau, and undertook many first ascents in the Moroccan High Atlas. He was also instrumental in establishing CAF Maroc. Along with Jean Dresch, he wrote the definitive topographic guide for the Toubkal region in 1938, which remains to this day the best guide to that region (see Appendix A).

      View from near Tizi Aguelzim towards Tizi n-Tagharat (Route 9)

      Deviation from normal south cwm route on Toubkal (Route 24)

      Morocco gained independence from France in 1956, and, with peace in the country, exploration, climbing and trekking in the High Atlas has slowly developed. Notables such as the Scottish climber and write Hamish Brown and the French Michael Peyron have been very active. Between them they completed a number of long-distance traverses and have written extensively about their adventures (see Appendix A). There has been more recent activity by the French on the huge rock walls of Taghia in the east of the range, and the Spanish, principally, have climbed in the Toubkal massif. In addition, in recent winters the climber-camerman Andrew Stokes-Rees has been responsible for some new extreme mixed routes on the 4000m summits in the Toubkal massif. Compared to the Alps, however, the High Atlas range is still very undeveloped, with acres of virgin rock and countless unclimbed snow gullies beckoning.

The Berbers

      The Berbers were the original Moroccan settlers, but with the arrival of the Arabs at the end of the seventh century, they lost their dominance. Today, the mountains are their preserve, while in the urban areas there is