It was the multi-pitches, especially the bolted ones, that drew me to Morocco. I consider the trip to be very successful, although we had some surprises and the bolting is quite diverse ;)
I included general information about climbing in this area in the article Climbing in Morocco: Todra Gorge. Here you can read about my experience with multi-pitch climbing.
During our trip we did four multi-pitch routes, with 4 (actually 2) to 13 pitches. All marked in the topo (Oxford Alpine Club publications) as fully bolted.
Aiguille des Palmeraies – multi-pitch route Berbertraum (5c)
340 m long route leading to the top of Aiguille des Palmeraies, composed of 13 pitches (4a, 5b, 5c, 4b, 4b, 4c, 3, 4a, 5b, 4a, 5b, 5c, 4a). The longest pitch (graded 3) is 45 m long. The way down you make on foot, and if you need to retreat, you can do it after the 6th pitch, but I don’t know exactly how. There are rappels marked on the topo, but they do not go along the route, but next to it. I’m afraid that finding the first rappel anchor might be troublesome.
According to the information in the guidebook, the route is in the sun all day, but in fact, in the afternoon, shadows begin to appear on the upper pitches. We started climbing at approx. 10 am and from the 7th pitch we were already in the shade.
Here’s the first pitch:
The route from start to finish is very well bolted. Of course, on easy fragments less often, but on most of the route the bolts are as dense as on a well-bolted sport climbing route. The only place with a long run-out is the second half of the 10th pitch. The pitch itself is graded at 4a, but that fragment is grade one. However, the lack of bolts meant that we had a problem with spotting the anchor. We finally found it – it’s under a bush.
The anchors after the 2nd and 6th pitches are placed on the large ledge. You can relax there and look around the nice area :) The lower rock on the photo is Aiguille du Gue, which we climbed a few days later.
The last pitch is a walk, after which you reach a few-meter-high rock. On this rock the peak of the Aiguille des Palmeraies is located.
Time to enjoy the views…
… and down. First, a few meters rappel from this rock…
… and than walk down.
The descent route goes around the mountain of Aiguille des Palmeraies, roughly as in my track on Strava:
Multi-pitch route Arete Nord (5+)
According to the guidebook, Arete Nord is 465 m long and has 12 pitches (5+, 4, 4, 4+, 5, 5, 4+, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3). It also says that it was a popular trad route for many years, but has recently been fully bolted.
Here it is (the whole route is not visible from below, because a large part of it leads along the ridge). On a hot day, it’s worth starting early, while the route is in the shade.
The first, most difficult pitch is really well bolted.
Climbing was very pleasant and as always, the higher the more beautiful.
Here, however, apart from the fact that it is getting more and more beautiful, I had the impression that there are less and less bolts along with the height. First every few meters… then it became every dozen or so. In two more difficult places, you risk falling from several meters onto the ground.
For safety, it is worth having trad equipment. There are plenty of places to place protection.
But an even bigger problem turned out to be the length of the last few pitches. According to the guidebook, the longest pitches were supposed to be 50 m long and that’s how long our rope was. Twice, however, it turned out to be a few meters too short, once on the pitch, which was supposed to be 40 m long. And here, by the way, I will mention the equipment that, in my opinion, should be treated as mandatory in the mountain area – walkie-talkies. We wouldn’t have had a chance to communicate on what to do in this situation without walkie-talkies, because we hadn’t seen each other and we certainly wouldn’t have heard each other.
Another surprise was waiting for us after the 12th pitch. According to the guidebook, it was supposed to be only a descent, and it turned out that we still had about 120 m ahead of us on a ridge graded about II, not bolted at all.
We belayed as much as we could using several slings and finally reached the top.
We didn’t have time to rest and admire the views, because it was already late, and the way down, according to the guidebook, was “not obvious”. And here the author of the guidebook did not make a mistake. There is a verbal description of the descent in the guidebook, but it didn’t help us much, so I won’t describe it, because it probably won’t help you much either. Anyway, I don’t remember much, except that in two places we had to go down a few meters after a kind of dihedral / chimney, the difficulty was more or less II. It’s good that we had contact with friends who managed to come down before sunset and gave us some information (again, thanks to walkie-talkies, because there is no phone reach there).
Generally, you have to follow the rock cairns.
If you don’t see any for several dozen meters, you probably went wrong. In such a situation, it is best to go back to the last one and look for the next one in a different direction. I don’t recommend just going straight ahead, because you can get to an area that you can’t go down.
Here’s our track, but GPS gets lost in places like this, so treat it as very approximate. There in the middle, where it leads back and forth, we got a little lost, already in the dark ;)
Pieds Dans l’Eau – multi-pitch route Smoufond (6a+)
The guidebook does not specify how many meters this route has or what are the lengths of the pitches, we only knew that there are four (5+, 6a+, 6a, 4+). The route leads to the top of Pieds Dans l’Eau rock. I think it’s about 150 meters.
To get under the rock, you have to cross the river.
On the other shore there is a small place from which you can belay. Or at least it was with the level of water we found. My guess is that after heavy rainfall the route may be inaccessible.
There are bolts every 3-5 meters all the way. The crux, at least for me, was the overhang at the beginning of the second pitch.
However later in the dihedral it also wasn’t easy for me. But overall I really enjoyed this route. Interesting varied climbing, and beautiful views of the gorge :)
Once you reach the top, head down to the descent anchor.
