The High Atlas. Hamish Brown
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.
MGOUN RANGES
Azella-Timghazine and the Tagia akka (Route 9)
ROUTE NINE
Aroudane (formerly Aioui) 3359m
| Commitment | A mountain offering serious rock climbing but, nevertheless, an easy walk to its summit from a camp, after a day or two’s driving to reach the area. |
| Maps | 100: Zawyat Ahancal, 50: Zawyat Ahancal. MM adequate and quite possible without a map. |
| Texts | BD lists and illustrates many of the rock climbs. HB describes the ascent fully, and AFC is comprehensive. |
| Travel to start | The easiest way in is goudron, then piste from Azilal through Aït Mhammed towards the Bou Guemez, but then flanking Azurki to descend to Assemsouk. Alternatively from the Bin el Ouidane lake in to Tamga and the Ahancal valley to Zawyat Ahancal from which a piste zigzags up and over to Assemsouk. But trekking to reach Aroudane |