Taghia

Overview

InSeptember 2009, I went to Morocco with my friends from the "Scoiattoli diCortina" group (the Squirrel Group, one of the most famous climbing clubsin Italy). The purpose of our trip was to open a new route on one of theincredible walls of the Taghia area. The group arranged the trip to celebratethe 70th anniversary of the founding of the Scoiattoli.

Getting There

Our base toreach our goal is Marrakech which is an approximately 4 hour flight from Italy.The city is in the center-south of the country, about 150 km from the AtlanticOcean coast. We spent our first afternoon in Africa here, visiting the oldcity, the medina enclosed within the walls, to the west of which the new cityrises. We could not miss a visit to the labyrinthine souk (market) and famousDjemaa el Fna Square which the old town fans out from and it is the bustlingand absolutely characteristic center of Marrakesh.

The nextday, after loading luggage and material onto our off road vehicles, we beganour journey to Zaouia Ahansal (there are about a dozen different ways to spellthis – it is pronounced zaa-we-ah), the last village with road access. Thistransfer took about 6 hours, the first two on paved roads and the rest on dirtroads, mainly through desert.

In ZaouiaAhansal some men with mules were waiting for us and these were indispensable fortransporting the heavy load of ropes,bolts, climbing gear, food and clothing we needed. After many hours in the jeepwe were all looking forward to being able to walk around a bit and stretch ourlegs and we moved briskly toward Taghia whose spartan shelter we were to stayin for a dozen days.

The ZouîatAhansal valley is the entranceway to the Taghia circus where the small village ofthe same name with its 400 inhabitants, located at 1900 meters above sea leveland accessible only on foot, is to be found. Thanks to an intelligent networkof irrigation canals, the valley’s spectacular and abundant water sources offerrelative prosperity to the village’s residents.

The villageis surrounded by amazing rock faces and located in the heart of one of the mostisolated regions of the Atlas mountains, the great limestone plateau of Azilalwhich is crossed by three major canyons: n'Tazart Akka, Akka and n'Taghia Akkan'Tafrawt with some peaks over 3000 metres in altitude. The canyons are just ashort stroll from the village with walls varying in height from 300 to 900meters.

Rock climbing in Taghia

The firstroutes in the area were opened in 1975 by a group of French climbers includingBernard Domenech (currently one of the top experts on Africa mountaineering)and Erik Dechamp.
In the 80s and 90s the area was mainly popular with Spaniards who opened up anumber of big walls and stayed on them as long as a week at a time.

Someexcellent routes were then opened by another group of French climbers led byRemi Thivel and Christian Ravier. These climbs are difficult and have very fewbolts, all of which are on walls between 400 and 600 metres in height.

The firstmodern routes were opened by Spaniard Toni Arbones and, in May 2003, by thetrio Michel Piola, Benoit Robert and Arnaud Petit. The latter have left Taghia sometrue climbing gems including some beautiful climbs. I like to remember"Les rivieres pourpres" - 600 m - max 7b +.

In recentyears many modern, fully equipped routes have been opened. The rock is afantastic, highly abrasive limestone which can consume even the toughestcalluses in a few days.
Despite this Taghia is unknown to almost all European mountaineers.

There is agreat guidebook to Taghia’s climbs: "Taghia Montagnes Berbères" byChristian Ravier (mail: cravier [at] club-internet.fr).
In the Tawjdathut (Gïte) there is also a big book containing handwritten sketches and reportsof the most recent routes.

Our route

As theterritory is very vast offering a host of possibilities to those who want toopen new routes, we devoted our first few days to looking for a mountain totrace our new route on.
Obviously there is no lack of rock in the area, but aesthetics, the timerequired to approach the wall and the beauty of the line of the ascent play animportant role in a successful enterprise too.

After searchingthe area carefully, we opted for the south face of Mount Oujdad which can bereached in less than two hours from the village.

At this pointit was necessary to find a base to set up camp in because walking to the rockface from the village every day would have been a great waste of time and energy.

After some research we found a cave that was well suited to our purpose. It wasa short distance from the start of the route and a stream provided us with thenecessary water.

Thefollowing days were dedicated to our new route.
The main architects of theclimb were Massimo Da Pozzo, Luigi Majoni, Federico Michielli and BrunoSartorelli but obviously all the others ‘Squirrels’ contributed to the successof the enterprise as well.

The opening of the new route, dedicated to ScoiattoloLuigi Ghedina "Bibi", took a week and the result was excellent. Theline traced a leftwards route from the "Barracuda" route which itjoins and has a last pitch in common with it.

The rock is exceptional and extremely difficult. Ashort section of the 5th pitch was not a "free" climb and itsdifficulty level has been estimated at 8a + / 8b.

Details of the route

ROUTE

P1: 6c – 55m
P2: 7A – 45m
P3: 7B/7b+ – 35m
P4: 7c – 25m
P5: 7C+/A1 – 30m
P6: 6C+ – 25M
P7: 6C – 40m
P8: 7B – 35m
P9: 6B – 40m
P10: 6A – 40m
P11: 6b – 50m (last pitch of "Barracuda")

DOWNLOAD PDF

DESCENT
Two options:
1 - Rappelling along the route
2 - Along the Mount Oujdad normal route: to reach thetop you have to climb the last four lengths of the "Baraka" route (IV- V + - + 6a - 6b).

GEAR
The climb is fully equipped with bolts. Trad gearcan be helpful if you are going to ride the last part of the "Baraka"route.

Climbers team

Marco Alberti - Massimo Da Pozzo - Paolo Da Pozzo - Stefano Dimai - Davide Gaspari -Simone Girardi - Enrico Maioni - Luigi Majoni - Samuele Majoni - Alessandro Menardi -  Marcello Menardi Demai - Federico Michielli - Bruno Sartorelli - Monica Zardini - Ruggero Zardini

Accomodation

TAGHIA:
Saïd Messaoudi – Rifugio Gïte Tawjdat
00212 (0)68246536

Youssef – Hmad Rezki
“La Maison de Taghia”
00212 (0)23459608 / Fax:00212 (0)459608

ZAOUIA AHANESAL:

Ahmed Amahdar
00212 (0)23459393 / 00212 (0)78538882

Both Gitesoffer meals. It is recommended that you sterilise all water before drinking –even 'drinking' water - as severe stomach upsets have been commonly reported byvisiting climbers. We used a substantial amount of ciprofloxacin to keep ourhealth problems at bay – it may be worthwhile stocking up on this or otherantibiotics.

External links

More photos on my site: www.guidedolomiti.com
Useful info: www.lanochedelloro.com
Useful info: www.remi-thivel.com

Images

View Taghia Image Gallery - 1 Images