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ROUTE FIVE

Jbel Msedrit (Msadrid) 3077m

Commitment	A straightforward walk (paths help) via the Tizi n’ Taghighacht (2662m) from Isli (lake on N side, 2270m) or longer from the trans-Atlas road on the S. As described, an 11-hour tramp over rough ground, well worth the effort.
Maps	100: Tounfite, Imilchil (essential for our route but not needed if just heading up from the lake in settled weather).
Texts	MP2: Isli–Tizi n’ Issural – easting by Fazaz is on Peyron’s main GTAM line, and he describes Fazaz and other fine peaks in the area.
Travel to start	Easy piste from Tislit to Isli lakes N of Imilchil. The trans-Atlas route is part goudron, part piste, so 4x4 needed. Isli is an attractive camp spot.
Local assistance	Not needed, although our route described is a challenging option.

Two secretive lakes lie hidden in the heart of the mountains near Imilchil, while above stands a peak with ‘a view of the world’.

On Jbel Msedrit

This very different approach followed on from Hayane (Route 4). From Timnay we drove back to Zeïda, then on by bustling Boumia to dusty Tounfite, which still had the feel of a Wild West town. After rounding Jbel Masker the goudron ran out at Agoudim, and it was piste thereafter (it may well have been upgraded now). A tough section, but with remnant cedars (the climate is too dry and they’re dying out), led to Amemzi. Sloul (2700m) was a battlemented peak off to port and, rounding it, Hayim (2755m) caught the eye. Peyron describes climbing routes on it and on Fazaz, lying across the road from it. We had picnicked earlier among the better cedars, but rounding Fazaz the world was harsh. The village of Tirrhist was surprisingly large though, and when we camped nearby we received lots of curious visitors. The driver produced mint teas for the elderly bearded worthies, one of whom pulled my leg about my beard (small and white). The driver also did a good supper – a thick soup with Zeïda bread, tasty salad, and piles of fresh vegetables with our tins of meat, melon, coffee and biscuits. I do so like roughing it.

Campsite observers

We’d stopped simply because we couldn’t just drive through such an array of peaks. If the area were nearer Marrakech it would be very popular; if I’d seen it years earlier a few more of its hills would be described in this book. However, we did bag Fazaz (3023m) next day. We walked up to the head of our valley, south of the long 8km crest, to the Tizi n’ Enjar, and more or less up from there. Fazaz would become something special later. We had also stopped with another ploy in view – reaching the beautiful lake Isli by going through on foot from the east. Some of us had already camped by its shores, but had driven there – not the same thing. The Land Rover would go round with some of our party by Imilchil and be there for our arrival. Insh’ Allah.

Three of us set off at 06.00 and arrived 11 hours later. Starting at 2174m, a pull led up to the Tizi n’ Isswal (2600m), and we then made up onto a long, long crest that ran along to Msedrit (3077m), the highest point above the lake. Fossils littered the ground. The Assamer n’ Inouzane, as the crest was called, had very little in the way of trods on it (too barren). At one stage a green band just below the crest helped, but the going was rough generally. Crags forced us up again, horrified at how far off the summit still lay, wall after wall of rock between. We found shade to eat in, then carried on steadily, with no more nasty surprises, to reach the summit.

I’d been up before, but still took a while to hit a path that led round a 3059m point towards the Tizi n’ Taghighacht (2662m), a major north–south pass. At one stage we heard the bleating of new-born lambs and found them in a small protective pit roofed over with stones. In just a few days, however, they’d be coping with their inhospitable landscape. There were many cairns on the tizi and well-made zigzags down before we headed off for the red world leading to the blue lake (2270m).

From there we watched the tones of evening on Fazaz, which stood up as a blunt prow through the gap of our morning pass. We would see it again on other visits, and also many times from the twin lake of Tislit, further west, so it hangs as a very special icon in our visual memories.

The two lakes are fiancé and fiancée, derivations lying in a folktale of thwarted love, the lakes being the tears of denied happiness caused by family feuding – the Berber version of Romeo and Juliet. Apart from lapping water and the occasional sounds of a shepherd’s distant pipe there was only the tingling silence of the desert. Such stars too; and the Milky Way like a dust trail across from black horizon crest to black horizon crest.

Camels on the move

ROUTE SIX

Jbel Laqroun (Lqroun, Qroun) 3117m

Commitment	Quite serious country, as remote and rough in places, so a 3-day round trip would allow you to best appreciate the varied landscapes.
Maps	100: Beni Mellal, Imilchil.
Texts	MP2: descriptions, illustrations; AFC (gives Qroun spelling; erroneously on Pt 2836 on 100 map) has useful sketch map.
Travel to start	Goudron, then piste access from the Bin el Ouidane lake to Tamga and the valley start, or from Tamga rough piste to Anergui and beyond there trek to Tizi n’ Wanargi, allowing a more aesthetic traverse (see MP2). Tamga, below the Cathedral, is 1167m, and Laqroun summit 3117m, so a 3-day outing from Tamga is advisable, as my experiences suggest.
Local assistance	No local mules. We had trekked from the Bou Guemez, but mules from there could rendezvous at Tamga, if not engaged from further off.

With beautiful approaches through woods and glen above Tamga and the Cathedral, Laqroun gives a classic Atlas experience.

Laqroun from Mouriq

Having seen Laqroun and the Cathedral on GTAM95 I was keen to return to the area – which we did in May 1997. We took in various peaks and passes from the Bou Guemez valley and down the Ahancal valley to camp at Tamga below the Cathedral. The piste in from Wawizaght and the Bin el Ouidane would be the straightforward access for Laqroun, and I’m sure I’d noted a helpful description in MP2, for we largely followed his line describing a route over the Tizi n’ Wanargi along the south flank of the mountain.

From above Tamga, the Aqqa n’ Irghis/Aqqa n’ Oufezzat runs up along under Laqroun to the 2650m Tizi n’ Wanargi, an exceptionally pleasant and varied walk. First light on the Cathedral seen through the trees rewarded an early start. The lower Irghis I compared to the Nevis gorge, with a high path wending through pines then, later, oak, ash and box. Shingles and an intermittent stream which finally disappeared made us wonder about a camp water supply, but at a gorge we found a source, the mules caught up, tents blossomed and we dined with the scent of genistas in the air.

On the track up for Laqroun

We continued up the gorge then angled off up a long ridge, snow-edged, for Ouzoua (Ouzwa)-n-Igader (3093m) on the south side of our glen, looking across to the sprawl of Laqroun. The limestone meant good flowers. We hit the crest and undulated along to the highest point of a rewarding summit. The north-east corrie was a jam roll of layered strata, and we looked right into the big cirque of Mouriq, also on the ‘shopping list’ after our 1995 walk through. The descent to the Tizi n’ Wangargi (2650m) wasn’t straightforward, with barring crags and snow gullies. (From Laqroun it was all black and white stripes.) Laqroun thereafter was really just a long plod, keeping to the edge being the most interesting line until rising onto the crest, which gave endless bumps and hollows and a confusion of final bumps for the summit, at 3117m.

Passing traveller

Camp was at c2010m, so feeling the 1000m descent hard work was justified. We simply went on and descended the corrie/valley straight to our overnight site. A relaxing end of the day would have been pleasant, but some of the party who had just ‘bagged’ Laqroun rather than making the circuit were itching to descend to Tamga (1167m) that night – another 3½ hours of descent (Morocco has such depths as well as heights!), and we arrived at dusk after a 13½-hour day. This forced descent was made because some of the party wanted to find a way up the Cathedral. They failed. The saner of us had a delectable day doing very little and resting afterwards. A cathedral, after all, calls for worship.

ROUTE SEVEN

The Cathedral (La Cathédral) / Mastfrane (Aghembo n’ Mastfran) 1872m

Commitment	An extraordinary find, a day out from a Tamga camp – but the way up not for the faint-hearted; very exposed and decayed aids and narrow ledges. Great ‘Wow!’ factor.
Maps	100: Zawyat Ahancal; 50 Zawyat Ahancal. Latter clearer, but most paths and useful detail absent; but, mapless, you can hardly miss the Cathedral. See Route 6 for route map.
Texts	A blank. Only the sketchiest of mentions and, surprisingly, no good pictures in the source books.
Travel to start	Goudron, then piste access from the Bin el Ouidane lake to Tamga in the Ahancal valley, or trek from further afield. Tamga, 1167m, means the summit is 700m above. Plan a day-outing – it may be needed.
Local assistance	None.

An imposing, buttressed, well-named rock tower in the grand Ahancal valley, with an unlikely route to its summit.

On the trail near the Cathedra

Many maps still give prominence to the nickname the Cathedral, bestowed on this feature by the French, and it is not a bad description of the massif tower and its buttresses. At 1872m, standing in a valley, it is surrounded by massive mountain features, yet still can stop walkers in their stride to gaze in admiration. Any mountaineer also reacts by thinking, ‘Can I climb it?’

The club party who’d been on Laqroun in 1997 went off to try and came back without having found any chink in its armour, so I was astonished later to read somewhere that goats were grazed on the summit. Not that that was entirely encouraging. I used to think that where goats could go I could follow, but not any more, not after seeing where they climbed to on Atlas crags. However, back at Tamga on the road below in autumn 1999 some of us wandered off to at least circumambulate the Cathedral and, if lucky, see how the goats and, presumably, their owners made their way up to the top.

On the ascent of the Cathedral

We received a shock on returning to where we’d camped previously. The site had been wiped out by a flash flood, leaving a tidemark two metres up the tree trunks, and the road bridge, of substantial iron girders, had been swept away and beached downstream. There are times when nature sends a shiver down the spine.

Four of us paddled across the river and went up to a piste, which we partly used, then bushwhacked for a hot hour on the south flank. (The piste actually zigzagged up and then went off over a shoulder, not to the tower’s tizi.) Nothing worked, so we shifted to the other down-valley side. There were breaks onto lower terraces, but no sign of use. We went right round back to the up-valley side and, tucked in a corner, was a ‘Berber ladder’ of logs and stones ramping up to a steep bit and then onto the start of easy but sensational ledges. After I’d had a recce, two of us went on. And on. The exposure was sensational.

The Cathedral

Caves, goat droppings, one log ladder across a drawbridge gap, another up to a big bay – and then no sign onwards, yet we had to be nearly up. Glancing overhead we looked at the undersides of a log structure attached to the cliff by faith as much as friction. Our path. This led back and soon onto easier ground, with box and oak on a rocky shambles. I built mini-cairns (to knock over on return) to make sure we found the magic doorway in the featureless scrub on the edge. There wasn’t much grazing on the tilted plateau, and we met no goats. We peered over the rim in places (why didn’t we have hang gliders?) and lounged on the top but, having told the other two we’d be gone for an hour, we set off down. The trouble with that sort of descent is that it doesn’t leave much room for imagination – it’s all too visible.

Camping at the bridge over the Bin el Ouidane reservoir’s east end

We split again, two going south, hoping to use the piste, and two of us (and the camp-friendly dog) along the connecting ridge until we found a good path down. Nearing the foot the dog raced over some screes to dive into a seguia. We had a swim beside the marooned bridge; temperatures of 38ºC deserved a splash. And so did another kind of splash to celebrate a very different Atlas experience.

The moonlight on the Cathedral was creepy and I was loathe to go to sleep. I’d just dream about the climb. When I did drop off, another dog went into a barking frenzy outside my tent, each yack echoing off the tower opposite. Unable to stand this two-for-the-price-of-one din I took the discovered remedy and gave the dog a sleeping pill. We both slept well.

My notes are hardly clear and the maps are of limited use, but there’s enough to go on, and part of the fun will be the nosying about and then finding the start. Eureka! – and all that.

ROUTE EIGHT

Mouriq 3242m

Commitment	Remote enough to need a day or two for a drive in, Mouriq, as described here, is a straightforward ascent. A day to remember guaranteed.
Maps	100: Imilchil; AFC sketch/map. Not a problem if no maps. See Route 6 for route map.
Texts	AFC gives good coverage; AF p130 a picture of our ascent line; MP2 covers.
Travel to start	4x4 access as yet. Spectacular way in is from the Bin el Ouidane lake to Tamga and up the canyon to Anergui, then the stiff piste up to a high valley, from which Mouriq is climbed. The quickest but less interesting way in is to continue east from the lake to Taguelft, then south to drop into the Tezgui valley starting spot/camp. With about 860m of ascent from camp allow a day, as we did; too good to hurry.
Local assistance	Not relevant.

This exceptional viewpoint summit, on a mountain with a horseshoe cirque in its heart of huge proportions, is very desirable.

The great cliffs of Mouriq

We first set eyes on Mouriq, Laqroun, the Cathedral and Zawyat Ahancal in April 1995 because snow on GTAM95 had forced us to make this northern detour from Imilchil. On the second long day of walking we wended up from Tasraft to a tizi from which Mouriq appeared, a great snowy dome which became the backcloth to our camp a few hours later. By then it had gone on our list of desirable summits. Descending to Anergui (1465m) next day we saw its monumentally spectacular side – the mountain is a horseshoe cirque, with slopes and cliffs 1500m high, and five tops of 2901m, 3103m, 3193m, 3242m and 3078m encircling this aqqa down to Anergui. When we returned in October 2000 and climbed this very high-class mountain I reckon it gave as near perfect a mountain day as one can enjoy and a view which I called ‘exceptional’. And we hadn’t even planned to climb it on that occasion.

The view from camp below Mouriq

We were ‘Land Rover trekking’, so to speak, and had visited the Imi n’ Ifri (natural arch above Demnate) and the Cascades d’Ouzoud (one of the world’s most beautiful waterfalls), and wended along the big Bin el Ouidane reservoir to Ouaouizaght (Wawizart), a small town where we made a major shopping, then ended up camping at a spring where the road spans the eastern end of the lake. This tortuous road gives access to the Cathedral, Zawyat Ahancal, Aroudane and others. We took it to Tamga, below the Cathedral, and then the impressive aqqa piste up to Anergui. We had intended to tackle an amazing set of hairpin bends to get through to Imilchil, but the road was temporarily impassible. An alternative was needed – and there, as we sat in an Anergui café, loomed Mouriq’s great cirque.

The lushness of high fields

We drove up the limestone-tough piste above, backtracking as it were on GTAM95, and near the head of the Tezgui valley camped below a prominent bump (2392m) in the middle of the glen. There were many nomad tents and flocks, and they were beginning to pack up and depart for lower southern pastures before winter came in. There was a definite end-of-season feeling in the evening chill. It was dark at 18.00 and the night was cold, clear and with a shock of stars. A big toad kept trying to come in to share my tent.

The ascent went happily, making a long, gentle circling to hit the crest just east of broad 3103m (Bou Ouzuou, ‘the windy one’). We passed a rocky bulge on the way to a cone beyond, but a white line of snow indicated a path skirting on the inner rim, with just room between the cliffs and slope above. The amount of snow increased after 3193m, but it was firm and friendly. Another cone gave a view to the 3242m summit. Square ruins might have been the base for a one-time trig point. We sat for ages admiring the wall-to-wall view – from Ayyachi in the far north-east to Mgoun features in the south-west. Today we had naming of peaks. Someone joked that not only could I pick them out – I could pronounce them! (Maybe.) We backtracked and went on to 2901m Aftis on the western arm before descending to camp. It was such a relaxing, perfect day I didn’t even note times taken; just took the benison of a benign hill day.

On Mouriq

We took a piste up the western slopes (2598m) not far away from camp to exit to Taguelft back on the Bin Ouidane road, very rough but being improved. By now these road lines will all be good piste or even goudron, but a Land Rover might still be advisable – a demanding landscape.