Zauberberg 7a, Parois de Gramusset

Zauberberg is a Piola route on Parois de Gramusset near Annecy in the French alps. Excellent rock, and airy climbing that avoids the ledges. South east facing, so sun in the afternoon. The route tops out at about 2600 masl, so even in August it was better to climb in the sun.

Only five pitches, we'll do that quickly, we said... 🐢🐢😂. After the approach from Col des Annes, which took almost 2 hours, we decided to climb the first pitch of Sens Unik [sic] to warm up. That worked ok, but the penultimate bolt on Sens Unik's first pitch is a retarded place for climbers shorter than 165 cm (too far to the right).

P1 7a. Well tricky.

P2 7a. “Attention chute possible et pas conseillée au niveau du deuxième point” (Warning, fall possible and inadvisable at the second bolt) the description on camptocamp read... I had a hard time finding a good hold to clip the second bolt, and afterwards my head was shot and it took me forever to finish the pitch.

Julia seconding P2, which she thought was the easiest pitch of the route.

Very happy that Julia took over the leading responsibility for the third and forth pitch.

P3 6c+/7a. Thin at the start. Julia cruised this section, but I was at the limit. Then steep athletic climbing.

Julia leading...

... and me following P3.

P4 6c at least surely? Steeper still!

P5 7a. Oh my! Do not stop to think, just do it.

Overall, I am well proud of having onsighted P2 & P5 and flashed the rest seconding. The route felt a lot harder than it looks on paper.

We rapped the route clipping a few bolts on the steep/traversing parts. There were quick links on all belays and old slings between the bolts. We should have brought an adjustable spanner and a few new quick links as two of them were in a bad state. Particularly the quick link on the second belay.

Gear: 11 draws. It should be OK to haul, if needed. We just clipped a small water bottle to the harness.

Homeward bound....

Der Zauberberg (The magic mountain) is a novel by Thomas Mann.

Patent Ochsner, Pfaffenhut, Wendenstöcke, ED- 7a>6c

While sightseeing in Milan, I saw that the weather looked great in Wendenstöcke and acceptable in Tre Cime. J. has already done Comici so was not so interested in the North face of Cima Grande di Lavaredo but I was, however, unreasonably psyched on doing the Hasse-Brandler direttissima, and forced a 7 hour trip by car to the parking at the Auronzo refuge. By 11 pm we had sorted gear and thrown out the sleeping bags on the ground. Naïvely, I set the alarm for 5 am, so that by 6 am, when we were at the base of the route, there were already a German team on the route with a Catalan team waiting on the ground.

I had a very bad feeling about the first team as both leader and follower had rucksacks. (Preparing for benightment = making absolutely sure benightment happens). The first team took nearly three hours to climb the first two pitches of a seventeen pitch route, which also happens to be more-or-less the two easiest pitches on the entire three hundred meter wide North face. By 9 o'clock we decided to leave the teams in front of us to their sure fate (benightment or bailing) and bailed ourselves without having done a single move.

After another seven hours in the car we were at the parking below the fabled Wendenalp in Switzerland. Because of a reasonable forecast so were quite a few teams. From the selection in Parois de Légende Caminando, Sternschnuppe and Patent Ochsner looked like perfectly sensible options. Caminando being on the long side after two nights of rough sleeping and Sternschnuppe a bit on the runout side we opted for Patent Ochsner on the Pfaffenhut.

Patent Ochsner goes up smack in the middle of Pfaffenhut

Patent Ochsner is an absolutely amazing route. Top ten, surely. Stellar rock with perfect holds: like stacking eight of Céüse's better routes on top of each other, but with unpolished rock and in an even more beautiful setting above a small cattle far in a peaceful alpine valley.

Pitch notes

P1 6b.   The route is easily identified by a sling at waist hight at the start and the trashcan lid on the second bolt with “Patent Ochsner” stamped on it. Scary pitch, maybe mostly because we're unskilled at climbing water runnels. 

The lid on the second bolt. Pictured borrowed from here

Julia past the water runnels on pitch 1, up to normal climbing.

P2 6c+  I remember nothing of this pitch, so I assume it was not demanding.

Near the second belay.

P3 5b    After the first sling Julia went up right in the dihedral (very easy) then to the belay without any intermediate points. There is a bolt straight above the first sling forcing a slightly harder pitch on better rock. Whatever. Very comfortable belay. 

P4 7a.   From the belay, slightly to the right and up to the first bolt (far, pretty easy - around 6a) then with increasing difficulties to a crux at the roof. Then easier climbing to the comfortable belay. 

P5 6c.   Magic! Slightly overhanging start, then vertical climbing on the best limestone imaginable. Belay in a small cave to the right. 

Patent Ochsner, pitch 5. The best 6c pitch I have ever climbed? Maybe.

Near the fifth belay

P6 7a.   Start with a somewhat demanding and exciting traverse back out to the left, then three bolts of technical climbing on very small crimps indeed. Be you still, trembling heart, and all will be fine. Then slightly easier to the top of the pitch. Took more effort than usual for the grade.

Pitch 6.

P7 6c+   Keep something in reserve for this pitch: it is somewhat tricky to find the easiest way up the steep part. I ended up doing some big slaps, and my second did not find a better way either. A sandbag, surely? 

P8 6a+ Another steep pitch, overhangs a few meters on mostly good crimps. The route book should be on the belay but the box was empty.

There was a fast German team on our heals all day, i.e. we held them up pretty badly. But they were super chill, so it was cool

P9-P12 A traversing 3a pitch followed by three more pitches at around 6a up Sternschnuppe

Descent: We were told that the rest (P9-P12) is a bit nondescript, pretty wet and that the cable down to the second rap of the standard descent was missing (making it necessary to rap down Stars away) so we rapped the route from here. Not ideal. With 2x60m it should be possible to rap directly down to R6. I didn't have the cojones to try as I wasn't absolutely sure that the belay was were I thought it was (it was). Rapping from R7 to R6 involves quite a bit of traversing. Rapping from R6 to R5 or R4 requires clipping the top two bolts (steeply traversing, some freeclimbing required to reach the bolts, big pendeldums for the second on the rappel). With 2x60m you reach the R4 from R6 (the Germans did this). From R5 you easily reach R3, and from R3 you reach the ground with a metre to spare. (All this assumes 2x60 m rope)

With 2x60 m rope, rapping down Transoceane seems like a nice option.

Practical stuff

Guide book/web sites

The guide book Schweiz Extreme Ost covers Wenden and other areas in Central/Eastern Switzerland. The Extreme West covers Rätikon and other areas in western Switzerland. There are also Plaisir Ost/West for easier areas.

If you can read German, Marcel Dettling's blog has a lot of very useful info. Start here

Camp to camp has some coverage (in French), but less than in more classical French destinations.

Gear etc.

We had eleven draws and one green camalot (#0.75) and wires 4-8 as recommended in the guidebook. Only ever used the draws, the gear might be needed for pitch 9-12, but if you manage to place any of those on the first eight pitches: well done you.

Hauling was easy.

The route is well protected by bolts. On the easiest parts of the routes the distances between the bolts are significant. The rock is bomber, and has high friction, so falls on easy terrain are very unlikely for solid climbers. The principal leader should be able to lead 6c obligatory without problems, and it is a good idea to have some solid margin on 7a as well. For pitches 1, 3, 5 and 8 being able to climb 6b obligatory suffices.

The treads were generally in excellent condition as of August 2020. The bolts as well.

A thread in worse condition. Found on the ground on the approach... Psyche!

Approach

Approach from the parking

The guide book gave 1 h 40 min. We are less than average hikers, but fairly decent on steep grass and required 1 h 41 min. From a pure fitness perspective, the approach should take about 80% longer than the normal approach to Céüse. 

From the parking take an ill-defined path on the east (or left, facing towards he crag) of the creek. The path quickly becomes well trodden as you approach the first small grassy knoll, where it leads right towards the second knoll (big cairn on top of the knoll) were it splits. Take the left fork and continue up on switchbacks, then left just below the cliff band and up in the notch. Keep high below the second cliff band. When we were there there was a running stream were we filled up water along the cliff band. Cross the steep scree (a bit exposed) and find cairns leading up the steep grassy slope on switch backs. Very little scrambling, I used the hands a handful of times at most.

Getting there

Gadmen > Obermaad > Small concrete access road, first road on the mountain (left) side after the campsite to Wendenalp (cattle farm). Park on the large parking before the cattle farm.

Coordinates for the parking: North 46°44'58", East: 008°23'10" (46.749539, 8.386166)

For ten Swiss francs you can access the road and are allowed to park for 24 hours. For twenty you can stay a week. The parking meter where the road starts only accepts 5-CHF coins. The cattle farmer regularly checks the parking tickets!

Staying there

The camping in Obermaad, ten minutes from the parking is very affordable for being in Switzerland. https://www.camping-gadmen.ch/camping/

It is illegal to camp at the parking. Many do, either in vans or by putting up a small tent for the night only. Needless to say, squatting would be pretty catastrophic. If you break the law, do be discrete about it.

More useful information

A descent in rain should be well epic. Count on rock fall, water falls and walking down unstable grassy steep slopes. Do not put yourself in a position where you would have to do this. I don't particularly think you can count on helicopter rescue either as it is often foggy.

Wine bottles that are sealed at sea level and left in a car in hot weather at high altitude can achieve such a high pressure differential that the cork spontaneously pops, spraying wine all over.

Les Gillardes: Sous la griffe de Lucifer, Miroir Tectonique, Les premiers pas d'Elsa

Routes described:

Sous la griffe de Lucifer 6c+

Miroir Tectonique 7b

Les Premiere pas d'Elsa 7a+

Getting there

Are you in Céüse and bored with hiking for an hour to go and climb the same pitch over and over again? Bring down a few draws from your stash at the crag, get yourself two 50 m ropes, two shoulder length slings and something for belays, and drive 50 min to Les Gillardes in Dévoluy and climb something completely different on the “Petite Roche”. You can get three Parois de Légende ticks, and two Itinéraires d'un grimpeur gâté ticks as well!

Petite Roche is west-northwest facing and perfect for warm days. Start early and climb in the shade until 2pm-4pm, depending on the route. The climbing is generally steep, and the rock is featured with plenty of holds and feet. The routes described here are sustained, and harder than what a cursory glance at the topo would perhaps make you think.

The routes should be avoided on days when thunderstorms threaten as after a certain point it would be quite difficult, not to mention expensive, to bail by rappeling. Count on having to get to the top even in case of bad weather.

The start of the routes

My topo for the three routes we did

Topo as pdf here

Sous la griffe de Lucifer, 450m ED-, 6c+>6b+, 14 pitches 

Gear: 11 draws max for the pitches plus something for belays. Two 50 m ropes. I would avoid hauling. Climb with a small backpack or clip water and shoes to the harness.

FA: Bruno Béatrix & Bruno Martel, 1987. Rebolted in 2013, and a few bolts added at the same time.

Unusually sustained and steep face climbing for 13 pitches. No cracks or any rock that touches the back of the hand. In the shade until around 2.30pm.

The route starts at the memorial plaque to Bruno Martel that his daughters put in place: “You who passes by, remember Bruno Martel and his love for The Gillards. To our dad, with eternal love” 

Memorial Plaque at the base of Elsa and Lucifer

The first pitch has some average rock but not many bolts so it pays to be careful. Overall the bolting is minimalistic. Count on having to climb up to six meters between the bolts if the climbing is 6a or easier.

Sometimes the next bolt is hidden behind a feature, and if it is far away you will not always spot it from below. As it is possible to climb more or less everywhere, put yourself in Bruno and Bruno's shoes and try to find the easiest climbing and the next bolt will appear eventually.

Here's J. on the 6th pitch

Pitch 5 to 11 were very good. We found the ninth pitch (6c) the hardest. A good pitch on a leftward slanting traverse. Pitch eleven is nominally the crux pitch (6c+), with lots of silica bands on grey limestone giving small crimps everywhere that are a pleasure to climb on. Pitch eleven is fairly slabby and can be climbed mostly on the feets, something that is quite welcome after ten pitches of sustained climbing!

Near the belay of pitch eleven.

Pitch 12 and parts of pitch 13 goes through what in the vernacular is called “pouding”, i.e. conglomerate. Neither are particularly sustained which is a nice change from the limestone and flint lower on the route.

The descent is a leisurely stroll down along a single footpath that starts at directly at the top of the route and leads down the shoulder to the hamlet of Jouves. A 2 km hike along the main road leads back to the parking.

From the decent towards Jouves. The impressive looking wall on the horizon is Pic de Bure

Miroir Tectonique 450 m, ED, 7b>6c A0

Gear: 14 draws max for the pitches plus something for belays. Two 50 m ropes. Hauling a bag is easy.

FA: Bruno Béatrix & Martin Hurtaj, 2018

After having climbed Lucifer, we were still keen on more. A friend of Julia recommended the newer route Miroir Tectonique. I couldn't find any topo for the route, but there was a written description on camptocamp.org, which more than sufficed as it doesn't cross any route. So really it is just a question of following the plentiful bolts.

Come to think about it Miroir Tectonique could be an easier route than Sous la griffe de Lucifer for many visitors to Céüse. Miroir has a lot more bolts than Lucifer, and the hard parts are overhanging with pretty good holds. The only thing that requires a bigger tool set than normal sport climbing is that the route goes through some questionable rock; on almost every pitch some holds were moving and we broke a few footholds along the route. Take care to choose solid holds over good holds.

The route starts 50 m to the right of the common first pitch of Elsa and Lucifer. The first pitch is easily identified by the large roofs that caps the 2nd pitch. Start on the plumb line straight down from the left edge of the roof.

Pitch 1 of Miroir

The first two pitches were nothing remarkable, but the very short 3rd pitch is easy and fun in a spectacular position.

Pitch 3 of Miroir. Around the roof and up right.

The fifth pitch is fairly long, at least 40m, and goes through slightly overhanging yellow rock. Sustained climbing, but a bit easier than the 7a+ given in the description we had — more like 7a I think.

Pitch 5 7a/+. Note the haul rope.

After the fifth pitch there is an easy-ish pitch leading up to a rotten terrass, traversing the terrass was not as terrifying as I though it would be, as there were a few bolts placed along the pitch. Protection on a super-easy pitch? Modern times indeed!

If we found the fifth pitch easy, the eight pitch felt hard for its grade. There is an aid-point on the pitch (the only point of aid on the entire route) consisting of a fixed sling above the small roof. I had a quick look around and I am pretty sure that it is possible to free climb past the sling at a grade below 8a. So those who can afford to fire off 7c+ one-move wonders onsight in the middle of a long day, and admittedly there should be many of those, should definitely refrain from pulling on the sling.

The 10th pitch ends with a traverse, so haul to the last bolt.

After the tough but short eight pitch there are four 6c/+ pitches in a row completely free of easy parts. The tenth pitch had a rather mandatory move near the belay, and the twelfth pitch was particularly steep and good but watch out for loose holds. At this time the air really started to heat up as well, with temperatures in the high twenties, no wind and high humidity. Stupidly we had only one-and-a-half litre of water between the two of us. That would likely had been ok a normal day, but it was a hot as the weather forecast had promised.

In the sun on pitch 12

The upper parts of the route doesn't get into the sun until just before 4pm, by which time most normal team should be on the top. Not us though. We were on the twelfth belay.

It was loose holds on the thirteenth pitch that ended the dream of a clean onsight for me. I broke off half a crimp on the fingery climbing at the start, but managed to hold on. That was all for nothing as I fell on the last hard move of the pitch when breaking a foothold... At least, that is what I'm telling myself. If I had a smidgen more margin it would have been fine.

I was totally broken by this point. Luckily Julia cheated her way up the pitch and thus had some energy left to lead the last 6c-pitch in full sun and temperature around 30 degrees. I somehow managed to also follow clean.

Les premiers pas d'Elsa 430 m, ED, 7a+>6c

Gear: 12 draws max for the pitches plus something for belays. Two 50 m ropes. Hauling a bag is easy.

FA: Catherine Boroch & Bruno Martel, 1999

After two routes on the Gillardes, my better half had it with the wall. Suffering from a bit of monomania I wanted to do Premier pas d'Elsa as well as it is included in both Parois de Légende and Mussato's book Itinéraires d'un grimpeur gâté. A Dutch climber I know was in the area and I suspected that he could be convinced; alas, he had already moved on to more proper alps, but luckily he knew Erik, a Belgian climber who was in the area and was keen.

Of the three routes I did on Petite Roche, this was the hardest overall. The crux pitch on Elsa is quite a bit easier than the crux on Miroir, and not harder than the second hardest pitch on Miroir, but Elsa has a lot more volume of hard climbing. For a team willing to pull on a draw or two, Miroir must be miles easier to climb. Miroir also a lot more bolts to actually pull on.

I met Erik in the morning 7.15AM at the parking, and after spending half a minute on discussing the rack we went off.

The route starts with the same first pitch and a half as Sous la griffe de Lucifer, but then continue straight up with a second pitch that was closer to 6c than 6b. Pretty demanding climbing with some runouts early in the morning as well.

After pitch 2, we were already awake

The French climbing establishment insist on this slightly quixotic fight against dissemination of information outside of local topos. After having had Rockfax and Tmms Verlag's topos in the cross hairs, their new pet hate seems to be camptocamp.org. As Mistral is for noobs and Rockfax tends to have errors like having the wrong number of pitches on routes, having the pitches in wrong order, or simply drawing routes on a pic of the wrong mountain I never considered using them for information and thus never really cared either way. Camptocamp, on the other hand, is a real gold mine with up-to-date user generated information about routes on the Continent, the Maghreb and the Levant. Specifically I learned from comments on there that there were four hangers missing along the route, so I went to Approach in Gap and bought 5 hangers the day before climbing.

The fourth anchor was the first that missed a hanger, and since the hanger in place had a small hole with a sling already threaded through it I could not get any of our crabs to fit, so I was quite happy to have a wrench and a hanger in the harness and nuts in the shirt pocket...

Erik near the fourth belay. A team on Miroir's yellow rock in the background

The fifth pitch had also a missing hanger, on the crux bit. Luckily Erik had margin and put in in place from a free climbing stance. Luckily it was also quite easy for the grade. One of only two pitches I felt was on the easy side. Most pitches felt quite hard for their given grade...

Erik just about to add a hanger to a bolt on pitch five

Starting on pitch 5 the climbing got very good as well. Basically everything from pitch 5 to pitch 13 is brilliant. Pretty solid rock as well.

Erik towards the end of the sixth pitch.

The eight (crux) pitch was particularly good... Overall I think that a good level of endurance is needed for the route. There are no slab pitches and almost everything from pitch 6 and onwards is either vertical or slightly overhanging (this part of the crag was the site of France's biggest rope-jump in 2019) with very few easy sections.

The ninth pitch was a piece of cake, but I struggled a lot on the tenth pitch, and close to the belay I was pretty close to falling on the section here:

Tricky traverse on pitch ten.

The eleventh pitch goes through the overhang just above Erik in the pic above. In my experience it is exceedingly rare to climb steeply overhanging rock with 300+ meter of pure air beneath the feet at such an amiable grade (7a). Partly explained by the fact that it is not a very long section.

The route finishes with some brilliant but confusing climbing on a band of conglomerate. Take care not to end up on the belay of Lucifer after the 6c+ conglomerate on pitch 12. Even though I had done Lucifer a week earlier I managed to end up there, before I realised where I was. The real belay after pitch 12 consists of a bolt and a piton, and is not in a small cave, if you are wondering.

Overall a brilliant route that is harder to link than a cursory glance at the topo would suggest. Most pitches are very sustained, and the easier parts are quite runout. In my opinion, the global grade of ED is well deserved.

Getting there

Park at 44°45'03" North and 5°53'01" East, some 2 km north of Saint-Disdier in Dévoluy, on a big pullout. Walk south across the stone bridge and descent fixed ropes on the right bank of Souoise river. Follow the footpath downstream along the river, then up right via a steep scree slope to the base of the wall.

The parking for the climbing is just a kilometer south of La source des Gillardes, the second largest spring in France (after la Fontaine de Vaucluse).

Reel Rock 11 Review

The last week I saw the eleventh edition of the “Reel Rock” climbing video compilation at a pretty full auditorium in Stanford.

Last year Big Up/Sender film's compilation got a bit of a stick for being a complete sausage-fest, and I was happy to see that the gender balance is a bit more representative of the climbing community this year.

The first film was about Kai Lightner and Ashima Shiraishi traveling to Flatanger to do some totally amazing groundbreaking accents, which didn't happen. And which would have been a stupid storyline anyway. Kai Lightner and his mother came off very well from this segment, especially his mother who seemed to be a wise woman and whose thoughts I would have liked to hear more of. Shirashi wants to be the best climber in the world, whatever that means. In particular it seems to mean that a pointless addition of some “success” in Kyushu had to be tagged on to the end of the segment.

The best-climber-in-the-world thing made me depressed and very uncomfortable, even more as the entire Flatanger trip jarred with false notes, so it was great that the next segment “Boys in the bugs” offered comic relief.

Boys in the bugs has some very old-fashioned story telling about a team (Matt Segal and Will Stanhope) trying to free a horrendously hard fingercrack in the middle of a big shield of alpine granite in the Bugaboos. The segment really celebrates the pointlessness of it all, where our heroes sacrifice relationships, comfort and money to reach some ill-defined vague notion of success. Edited to show lots of hard drinking and funny dialogue. This was the best segment out of the five.

The third segment was about some Canadian local hero. I didn't catch her name, but some time after I lost interest in the clip and was checking my twitter feed she soloed some 6b+ thing in Patagonia and talked about being completely alone on the wall, except for the camera team one supposes? Sorry, but I would have looked if I was payed instead of paying to see this. (Addendum: The climber is called Brette Harrington, she's from south of the border and you should read her account in Alpinist instead. It's amazing.)

The fourth film was called “Rad Dad” and showed a dude called Mike dancing in spectacular locations wearing funny animal masques. So that was funny. The film should have concentrated on that part. Instead, the story of the film was about Mike being mostly absent from his family while concentrating on his self realisation, which was OK because he volunteered for a lot of PTA meetings when he was home. Alas, I couldn't connect with him and his struggles at all as he seemed basically clueless. Actually, to Mike there seemed to be no struggle at all.

The conflict between realising selfish climbing goals and responsibilities as a partner or a parent has of course been unsuccessfully covered by several climbing films, e.g. “A Line Across the Sky” from last year's Reel Rock, and equally as unsuccessful by climbing literature like “Psychovertical” by Andy Kirkpatrick. There is however a large corpus of excellent literature, theatre and film by authors who have been neglected by their loved ones.

The final film was by far the funniest. “Dodo's delight” showcases Belgian humour and lots of really shitty rock on Baffin Island. Narrated by Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, who's genuinely funny, it was full of an unenforced sense of adventure in the true sense of the word. I'm not sure it is different from the web-episodes though? I saw those a while ago so I cannot really remember.

Rating: 3/5. Wait until it appears on your local torrent so you can skip segments 3 & 4. Segment 1 is probably quite good, so if you're less uncomfortable then I am by hard pressure from sponsors, choaches & parents on a 14-year old I'm sure it's quite OK

Keep cool Raoul and La 7ème Leffe in Gorge de la Jonte.

My partner has been gone since mid September, and I have had a horribly full schedule of teaching, so apart from a half-day visit to Auzat in September I have not climbed outside since August. Just a bit of bouldering in the gym, with some attempts to keep a bit of endurance by doing a few fifteen-minutes sessions on the hang board.

Just about when I was about to have a break-down I got Thursday-Tuesday free from teaching. Luckily my friends Erik & Paulina was in Gorge du Tarn for a two week trip. Unfortunately, they are both injured. Paulina so bad that she cannot climb, and Erik bad enough that he has decided not to climb anything above 6c or so.

After a short visit to the sector Zebra in Gorge du Tarn, Erik decided that it's more fun to climb easy multi-pitch routes than single-pitch moderates. I had no objections.

Keep cool. Erik on the second belay, vulture below.

Keep cool Raoul, 6c+>6b (5 pitches, 150m)

Despite having climbed quite a bit in Gorge du Tarn, this is the first route for me in the neighbouring Gorge de la Jonte. It takes a pretty direct line on the left side of the big vertical face of sector Fusée, one of the taller walls in Jonte. The route is well equipped with plenty of glue-in bolts, giving the route a low mandatory grade. On the other hand, the pitch-grades are not at all generous, and the climbing is very sustained and technical.

1. 6c. Start on a bit crumbly rock up to a vague grove that is climbed at surprisingly great difficulty using all available techniques for thin face climbing. Not to be underestimated. Take your time.
2. 6b. Another sustained pitch. No fluff.
3. 6c+. A short and difficult boulder problem followed by very nice climbing up and across a grove. Belay out to the right of the line after about 35m. I had maybe 13 draws or so, and had to skip two bolts to get to the belay, so bring plenty of draws for this slightly meandering pitch.
4. 6c. Good climbing on terrain similar to the very best pitches in Tarn. Up the overhang and the arête to a reasonably comfortable belay. This pitch is also sustained.
5. 6b+. Start easy on a juggy traverse leading rightwards up to an overhanging grove with a short but pumpy crux. After the steep groove, there should be a belay up and to the left, according to the topo.
6. 2. A short pitch of easy climbing leads to the top.

I did not pay much attention to the topo and missed the bit after the crux on the fifth pitch, and all of sixth pitch. Instead I went straight up after the crux, climbing about 15-20m of crumbly rock at around 5a or so, directly up to the top ledge. Not at all recommended.

Descend by rappel. There is a rap-route on the left side of the face. You have to lean out to clip the first rap, then three fairly long raps lead to the ground (we had 2x60m of rope). According to camp-to-camp it is possible to rap the route on a single 80m, using intermediate belays.

Erik close to the end of the third pitch of Keep cool Raoul.

As both members of the team were in pretty bad shape for long routes our opinions probably don't count for much, but the route took much longer to climb than expected judging from the pitch-by-pitch grades. This was down to the route being incredibly sustained and technical thorough. Well worth doing.

Lesson learned: check the topo even if the route is fully bolted. Failing that, “Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end”

La 7ème Leffe 7a+>6b+/A0 (5 pitches, 120m)

The second route we did was another three star choice. La 7ème Leffe (The seventh Leffe), wrongly called La 8ème Leffe in the Rockfax guidebook, climbs the steep Roch Decollée. Good bolts all the way. Very generously bolted also. More sport-climbing over several pitches then multi-pitch that is on fixed gear, if you get my drift.

Erik on the second pitch of La Septième Leffe

1. 5+. Start on a detached black pillar to the left of a big crack line, via a bolt to a crack leading up to a niche above a roof. Quite polished at the crux.
2. 7a+ Climb the right-slanting crack with increasing difficulties, very cool climbing in a good position on slightly overhanging but not totally bullet rock. At least 15 draws, if you for some reason want to clip every bolt.
3. 6a+. A fantastic pitch up black rock. Still steep.
4. 6c. Would be a three star classic on any single-pitch crag in the world. Steep and very sustained. Technical as well.
5. 6b+. Another magnificent pitch. Traverse right, around the arête and out in space... Exposure straight out of Verdon. Some tricky crack-climbing finish off this spectacular pitch and route.

Descend by walking across to the north face and rap down from a big tree with slings. A 20m rap takes you down to a ledge, where a path with fixed ropes takes you down to a second rap. I doubt thee second rap is more than 32-33 m, and quite possible to do on a 60m rope with some easy down climbing (we had a single 80m). 

On top of the third pitch of La 7ème Leffe

Season

Spring and autumn. Most of the climbing is on south facing or south-west facing walls.

Getting there

Gorge de la Jonte is found north of Millau within walking distance from Rozier. If you get to Rozier by public transport you can probably do quite well without a car, but then you wouldn't be able to visit the close by climbing areas like Gorge du Tarn, Boffi, Cantobre etc.

Guidebook

The local guidebook is quite expensive, considering the low production values, but some of the proceeds goes toward bolting. Gorge de la Jonte is also covered by the Rockfax Languedoc-Roussillon guide. On the two routes we did, the Rockfax was an obvious copy of the local guidebook, with some novel errors. So the Rockfax has better photos but showed the belays in the wrong place for the first route we did, and was totally wrong on the rap for the second route. None of the guidebooks has descriptions of individual pitches.

Verdon, various routes

Série Limitée, 250 m, 6c+ (6b/+ obligatory)
A good but unfortunately very-very popular route on the north facing Duc. The route goes up on north-west-facing side of the big cleft on the right side of the north face proper, thus the sun hit the upper pitches around 2-3 in the afternoon. Good route for the summer if you can be up before the sun hit it, which, given its popularity might be a problem, if you're not also a morning person.

A climber on the penultimate pitch of Série Limitée

The route is not as good as Alix, punk de Vergons (7b) on the same wall, but almost nothing is. However, it offer some of the same style of climbing in a easier setting.  The climbing differ quite a lot from the classical routes on l'Escales, with much more user-friendly climbing for the modern sport climber: densely bolted, fairly steep climbing on good holds. The first four pitches all have mediocre climbing – but the top is steep and varied, without being too airy or exposed.

Approach from the Samson parking lot by walking to the first tunnel on the path downstream along the river, then walk down an across the river on a Tyrolian. Hike up to the crag. Total 15-20 min.

Tyrolian across the Verdon river

Pitch notes
P1. 6b. Easy slab climbing. Good warm up. The best of the first four pitches.
P2. 6b+. More slabclimbing up the corner. A few tricky moves at the end. Apparently quite reachy.
P3. 6a+. Easy climbing, a bit awkward to reach a bolt above a ledge on the top.
P4. 6a+. Cross the big dihedral. Nothing special.
P5. 6c. Nice tufa-climbing. Short but sweet (the tufa part)
P6. 6c. A short tricky overhanging bulge close to the belay, then easier climbing to the top. Another good pitch.
P7. 6c+ going on 7a. Off balance dihedral leads to a good overhanging corner with some blind moves. A bit engaged after the final small roof (and before as well if the long sling [chasse d'eau] is not in place). This part is the 6b+ obligatory. Hang in there: you'll be fine. Consider hauling the backpack on this pitch.

P8. 6b+/c. Short but physical climbing on positive holds.

Another shot of the second to last pitch of Série Limitée

Decent. Follow the path to the rappel on the other side of the big cleft. The first rap is either down to a cave (40 m) or down to a sloping ledge with slings around a tree (55m down to the ledge). From the tree you either do a 20 m rap to some chains or a 60 m rap down to a single bolt 3 m above the next chain (the 3rd belay on Série Limitée), clip in and wait for your second to rescue you...  A short 25 rap to the next belay, and then either one more rap or a 60 m rap followed by some down climbing.

Les Caquous 200 m, 6c A0 (6b+ obligatory)
A forgotten classic. Steep climbing on good holds. No pied-main on this one. If you pass l'Escales and all the classic sectors on the scenic route along the rim, almost all the way to la Malin you get to Grand Eycharme, just across from the new Ramirole sector. The route Les Caquous is on the east face, so it's a great option for some afternoon shade. Great climbing, mostly following crack systems and dihedrals up a very impressive wall.

Rapping in to the East Face

Approach. Follow a path and cairns (marked Cac) to a big cairn at the rappels. Apparently it's possible to hike in on skiers left as well. Which I think I'll do if I go there again to do the very classy looking 7b just to the right (Surface), because the raps are freaking scary, even for Verdon! No skimping on the prussik for this rappel... The first rap is either 30-40 m down and slightly climbers left to a big chain – or 55 m straight down where big pendeldums take you down to a tree that you can toe-hook and reach across to two bolts under an overhang. There are no routes coming up here so if you take this option you will need to prussik up 20 m if your swings are not big enough. Luckily some Italian climbers below yelled up to me, advising to do a lot of “ballant”. From the correct chain it is 50 m down to the next chain, from the lower rap I ended up on it's just 30 m maybe. Anyway its freehanging most of the way, and again you need to swing into the rap station. The next rap is 45 m and also mostly freehanging. From this station is possible to get down to the ledge below the big roof with 60 m ropes. Otherwise a 15 m rap leads to another station from which you can rap down to the ledge. If you don't want to climb the pitch through the roof (aid-climbing) you can rap down and diagonally climber's right to a double bolt belay (no chain) above the roof.

Julia on P2, Les Caquous

Pitch notes
P1. (Second pitch if approaching on foot from below). 5c A0. Loose climbing up to the roof, then a traverse right-wards to a bolt-ladder through the roof up to a crack. Easy to lead without ladders, but seconding can be tricky for shorter climbers. I'm 1.80 and could unclip from the bolts below without any trouble, but shorter climbers would be well advised to double a long sling in the first bolt hanger, lower themselves out and then prussik up the rope to the second bolt in the roof. Poor suckers.

The leader in green helmet on P2 of Les Caquous. The belayer in yellow on Surface.

P2. 5c/6a. 15 m.
P3. 6a 40 m. The timid might want a small rack on this pitch, as the bolts are 7-8 m apart on 5b/c terrain. The climbing is fairly secure though. I guess grey, purple and green camalot or a set of wires would do? P2 & P3 can be done in one very long pitch.
P4. 6b? Or so they say. I found this to be the hardest pitch with a powerful boulder right of the belay. Take the right branch of the corner then downclimb and traverse to the right (easier down low–very low).
P5 6b+. Scramble up and to the right and up the corner. Leave the corner and go up and to the left on a really nice face. The bolts straight up the corner are on another route (Surface).
P6. 6c. Up and get into a committing layback.  Definitely not 6a as in the topo in Grimper...

Julia on top of P6.

P7 6a. More nice layback climbing.

Julia starting up P7

P8 6b. Some powerpulls around an overlap. Really cool steep climbing on jugs on this pitch. Topping out where the rappels starts.

Démon, 160m 7a+ (7a obligatory)
Well of course not, either 7a+ or 7a obligatory is wrong.

Classic Verdon style. A clean onsight of this route was beyond me and I'm well impressed by climbers who manage that. Quite polished on the first pitches, both hands and feet. The climbing is very demanding on the fingers, and often steep. Definitely haul the bag on most if not all pitches. Count on taking a small break on some of the belays (if you don't have a lot of power to waste at this grade on l'Escales).

Approach. Very mellow approach down the Dalle Gris rappels, then a short hike down the hanging garden to the start. Gets into the shade around 2-3 which should give you enough time both winter and summer.

P1. "6a". 25m. Start to the left of the big corner system. Belay on a sloping lede.
P2. 7a+ 25m. Wall climbing on pockets. Very sustained on the fingers up the overhang.

It's basically over. Julia on top of P2.

P3. 6b+ 25m. Another good pitch.

Yey, that's me on P3! Another great pitch

P4. "7a". 35m. Another very good pitch. Really hard for the grade, even for the area. The second half in particular has some really out there climbing. Excellent. Did I mention that I found this hard? Oh well, ignore me, I'm probably just full of crap.

Not a happy customer on P4

P5. 6b+ 40 m. Jikes! This is airy! Traverse up right in a superb position, then up a crack to a belay just below a hanging nose. No polish on this one.
P6 6a+ 50m. Around the corner to the right. Steep. Unrelenting. Major.

Taghia Valley Marocko. Various Routes

TAGHIA: The limestone valley

Team on Zebda, 7b+.

The climbing

It is the world class multi pitch limestone climbing, from 7 to 20 pitches that make climbers travel all the way to Taghia. Some routes have no bolts, most are partly bolted, and some are fully or almost fully bolted. 

Some of the older routes follow ridges and are lower in the grades, but they are rarely repeated. To get most out of a one week stay, climbing the easy popular routes, you’d have to be at least a 6c climber, in the sense that seeing the 6c-grade (or 6b obligatory) on a big multi pitch route do not strike fear into you. There is nothing much harder than 8a/+ (or 7b obligatory) in the valley (One 8b and one 8c afaik).

The climbing is technical, steep and fingery throughout. The grades felt in line with Verdon, maybe a tad more generous. Bring good shoes. Unfortunately your good shoes will not last long as the rock is very abrasive.

There is also some single pitch climbing around Taghia, one crag with some 4s and 5s, one with 7s, and one rather nice looking tufa wall with some low eights. Kris Erickson, an american guide living in Zaouia Ahanesal, has bolted a number of sport routes around Zaouia Ahanesal with grades from the low sixes to mid eights.

Taghia Valley

When we went we were the only climbers in the valley, possibly due to the perceived terrorism threat after this summer’s spectacular strike in neighbouring Algeria. (Talking to the Taxi-driver in Marrakesh and to people in Taghia, the consequences for Moroccan tourism has been catastrophic) . There was in other words no hope of rescue if things went bad. Even if there are other climbers in the valley, who are likely to be competent, I would not count on timely rescues being possible—and how would you call on rescue in the first place? Yosemite or the Alps it isn’t.

The trekking

The hiking in the High Atlas in general, and around Zaouia Ahanesal in particular, is spectacular. There are donkey trails that criss cross the mountain range between the villages, but very few roads. Some valleys and canyons can be accessed by “Berber ferratas”, where a certain trust in goat-herder’s engineering skills is required.

Kris Erickson in Zaouia Ahanesal can arrange everything around a trekking trip.

On the path across ... Photo: Julia Sni

Gear

Depending on what you wish to do of course. We went for a sport climbing trip and brought 19 draws, of which 5 where tripled 60 cm draws, one set of wires and one set of camalots from #0.3 to #2. Those who want to do the longest and most serious sport routes probably wish to bring a #3 and doubles in #.75-2. To repeat the less bolted routes a normal mountain rack is necessary, and possibly a handfull of pitons as well.

If the bolts can be accessed by grade 3-4 scrambling, the Berber might find better use for the nuts and hangers than being protection for climbing tourists: thus there are reports of missing bolt hangers on the first belay of some routes on Parois de Cascade. Bring a hanger or two and some M10 nuts, or M10 nuts, washers and some wires to thread the bolts.

Two ropes, at least 50 m. Most teams probably wish to haul the pack on the harder pitches.

Guidebook

The only printed guidebook is Christian Revier’s beautiful 2009 book “Taghia, Montagnes Berbères” (French) available directly from the author, or through internet retailers. An update would be more than welcome, considering the amount of routes put up since the publication.

A print-out of the topos from Taghia on Luichys site is an almost complete Spanish language guidebook for the routes in the area (up to ≈ 2009 or so) http://lanochedelloro.com/monografs/taghia/index.htm (Spanish)

There are also topos for some of the popular routes on Remi Thivel’s site http://www.remi-thivel.com/topos/topos.html (French)

Parois de Legende, (Bodet & Petit) (french) also list a number of routes with topos and some useful info. 

A few of the new hard routes put up after the publication of Revier’s book have topos on planetmountain.com, (French and Italian) but generally speaking, for routes put up after 2009, the new route book and guest book in Said’s gite is the best bet.

Camptocamp.com (French) has some information of course.

Staying there

There are a number of gites in Taghia offering half pension. Said’s and Youssef’s Gite among them. Said was the first to cater to climbers, and his Gite has a new-route book and guest book full of impressive stories by climbers of all abilities, from 6c-punters to some of the biggest names in European multi-pitch climbing. Said's gite has consistently good reputation, and I have never heard of anyone having a bad experience.

Most French climbers stay at Said’s Gite. Said speaks French, his son Mohammed speaks good French and a bit of English, and should be able to help you out if you have no French. We paid 120 Dh per person per night at Said’s place (September 2015)

Chez Said Messaoudi, Douar Taghia, Zaouia Ahanesal 

22010 Azilal Maroc

Cellphone +212668246536 (intermittent coverage)

Fixed line +212523 459 290 (directly to the house)

e.mail: gitesaid@yahoo.fr (if you speak no french it is probably best to e-mail them in English. Mohammed will be able to reply)

http://www.climbingtaghia.com
https://www.facebook.com/Gite-Tawajdat-taghia-organization-of-travel-198075623567735/

Chez Youssef Rezki, Douar Taghia, Zaouia Ahanesal 

22010 Azilal Maroc. 

Tel : 00 212 668909843

Shopping

La Boutique Jamal is always open, or so they claim. Holler for them and they come. They had bottled water, Coke, threaded gas canisters (the smallest size), canned sardines, gigantic bags of couscous, some nuts, candy, soap, and internet access for sale (requires a subscription to Meditel). The woman who runs the shop has limited numeracy, so be prepared to do some addition.

There are two other shops in the village. But we only frequented this one.

La Boutique Jamal

Weather

http://www.yr.no/place/Morocco/Tadla-Azilal/Taghia~2531726/

http://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/week/31.783N-6.067E2083

Getting there

Book a gite in Taghia beforehand. Fly to Marrakesh—plenty of low cost carriers traffic Marrakesh—and let the gite arrange the transport from Marrakesh to Taghia. We took taxi all the way from Marrakesh to Zaouia Ahanesal, where the road ends (around 6-7 hours with a lunch break in Azilal) (1200 Dh, October 2015). From Zaouhia, hike in with donkey/mule (100-120 Dh per donkey). One donkey will bring up to 70 kg.

Another option is to get from Marrakesh to Azilal by public transport, than get to Zaouia with taxi.

Yet another option would be to rent a car and drive to Zaouia Ahanesal yourself.

On the donkey trail

Hygiene

More or less everyone who’s ever been has been reporting stomach bugs. We put aquatabs in all water or boiled it before drinking, including the water used for brushing the teeth. We also washed the hands and used  antiseptic spray like a couple of OCDs. Still both of us got diarrhoea. 

Season

Mid-april to end of October. July and August likely too hot (and travelling in and out of Marrakesh would be a nightmare at that time of year). May and October being the most popular months, with up to 40-50 climbers in the village. In the autumn of 2015 the gites are reporting very few bookings, and we were by ourselves in mid September, having very good conditions for climbing in the shade with daytime temperatures in the low 20s. In May it reportedly rains quite a bit.

Modern life is rubbish?

Since 2013 there is electricity in the village Taghia. There is also cell phone coverage, but only through Meditel,: no other Moroccan provider will work. There’s also intermittent 3G coverage, but even though our French sim cards could access Meditel for SMS & MMS, we could not get data roaming (which was probably for the better since they ask 3€/Mb for traffic…). We bought a code good for 800 Mb (200 Dh) in the store in Taghia and Mohammed, Said’s son, set up his phone as a wifi-router for us.

The upshot is that it is possible to get up-to-date weather forecasts. We found the one-day forecasts from meteoblue.com to be reliable.

Vaccines

Hepatitis A. Two shots, separated by six months, some protection after the first shot.

Diphtheria. A single shot protects for three years

Lockjaw/tetanus. (This is included in the vaccine program for children in most EU countries)

What to bring

Climbing gear

Two pair of shoes. The approach/decent shoes will get wet, so it is nice to change to dry shoes after returning to the village

Toilet paper

Head scarf (for women who want to pay respect to local customs)

Aquatabs

Possibly a small gas stove for tea

A small medical kit including diarea tabs, penicillin, antiseptic cream, antiseptic spray and painkillers.

PERSONAL NOTES ON ROUTES

À boire ou je tue le chien ** (A drink or I kill the dog) 280m 6c (6b+ obligatory)

Julia on À boire ou je tue le chien

Nice climbing on excellent rock. A bit engaged in places. Has been onsight soloed (Alex Honnhold). Possible to combine with Au nom de la reform for a great day out, if you rap after pitch six. The sun hits the wall around noon beginning of September. 

Gear: 12 quick draws, a few wires (Wallnuts #2-#7). Four cams if continuing to the top after pitch 7.

Approach: From Taghia to Taojdad. Go up in the channel between Taoujdad & Oujdad. 30 min after the village, pass a big block on the left. Continue up until a path (cairns) left lead to the two obvious ramps that mark the start of Au nom de la réforme and À boire respectively.

P1 5c. Climb the crack (4) protected by wires or small friends. Then a mixture of wires and bolts to the belay. A bit engaged. Many teams report that this is at least 6a, but if you’re used to climb low-angle cracks 5c is probably fair.

P2 6c. Really good climbing, morpho.

P3 6c. I did something wrong on the start of this pitch. Did a 7a-sequence straight up between the first and second bolt, where a fall would have been unpleasant. My second told me it was easier more to the right rather than straight up, probably 6c.

P4. 6a+ Nice face climbing.

P5. 6b+ Steep and awkward dihedral. Don’t worry, a bolt will appear when needed.

P6. 5c. Reasonably well bolted face climbing. This is the last steep pitch and the last independent pitch as well.

To climb to the top of Taoujdad, change to your approach shoes and climb the top pitches of La Reform:

P7. 4+ Trekking along the ridge. Then some face climbing past a bolt (4+), then some trekking again past a big tree to the last steep face. (75 m or so)

P8. 5a. Two or three bolts. Two-three finger sized cams useful (40 m)

Decent from Taoujdad: From the top, head south-east on a path (plenty of cairns), diagonally skier’s right. Find a tree with slings and rap 40 m to a col, or 55 m down skiers right. Walk diagonally left and cross the ridge, then follow cairns down and right. Aim for the white water streak in the intermittent creek. Close to this, carefully follow the switchbacks on the right side of the couloir. About 1 hour down to the point where you took off towards the start of the routes and 2 hours down to the village.

Taoujdad

Belle et Berbère *** (The Beauty and The Berber) 300 m, 6b+ (6a+ obligatory)

Very good climbing on a contrived line. Extraordinarily sustained 6b climbing, with most pitches around vertical on good to excellent rock. Very fingery throughout. Probably the most frequently climbed route in Taghia beside La Réforme. The sun hit the face around 12.30 in September.

13 draws. (And possibly a finger sized friend to protect grade 3 scrambling if necessary)

Approach on the left side of the creek to Parois des Sources. Two ledges on top of each other, climb up to the lower ledge further to the right with cairns on top of it (3+). There is a route (bolt) starting on the right side of the ledge, Belle et Berber start further right, just around the corner. 15 min from the village if you find the route straight away…

Me on Belle et Berbère

P1. 6b Traverse right (three bolts) into a right-facing overhanging dihedral with tufas-in-the-process of growth. 

P2. 6b Follow the bolts. Hard slab boulder in the start, then easier. Mind the rope drag.

P3. 6b Sustained low-angle face climbing

P4. 6b+ Sustained 6b climbing with a boulder move in the middle. 

P5 6a+  Short easy pitch, very contrived line where the bolts are placed to force you away from the natural line.

P6. 6b+  Long pitch. Vertical climbing, just when you think it is over, there is a slab crux, then face climbing to the top.

P7 6b  Walk across the ledge and then climb a bolted face. The careful climber move the belay to under the face, or just don’t fall. Belay with one bolt and a tree.

P8. 3. One bolt, then hiking diagonally right and scramble up (3b, unprotected or bring a finger sized friend) right to a red big face. Belay in one bolt or stretch up and clip the first bolt on the next pitch as well.

P9. 6b+ A crux on slopers off the first bolt, then easier climbing diagonally right to a steep finish.

P10. 6b+ Hard sequence across the fin, the rest is easier.

Decent from Parois des Sources. Scramble diagonally up left until you see the cairns on the ledge system to the left of the top. Follow the well marked path on the ledges for a few hundred meters, and then track back towards the village along the path. (45 min). Sticks or  stones might be useful to fend off aggressive dogs on this side of the village.

Zebda *****, 260 m, 7b+ (6c obligatory)

Second of the top the line. Better than The holy War in Wadi Rum, and slightly worse than Alix, punk of the Vergons in Verdon. Steep climbing on immaculate rock for 280 sustained meters. One of the most popular and recommended routes in Wadi Rum. Deservedly so.

The sun hit the route at around 13:00.

14 draws + belays.

Approach: Walk to Parois des Sources, past the sources and cross the river and track back. The name of the route is written in big letters at the base. 20 min from the village.

Julia on Zebda

P1. 7b+ Tough warm up. Well bolted face climbing (7a) with decent rests up to a short boulder crux at the tufa.

P2. 6a+ for the tall. Morpho. Worst pitch on the route.

P3. 6c+ A fantastic pitch. Steep face climbing.

P4. 7b Sustained climbing straight off the belay. Then a bit easier to the roof. The mantel shelf move above the roof is OK. The belay is hanging and in the middle of a non-trivial sequence. Strong climbers with good ethics are advised to bring plenty of quick draws and a 70 m rope and link it with the next pitch.

P5. 7a+ Another mind blowing pitch. Steep crimpy face climbing. Engaged and not trivial (6c-ish) near the belay.

P6 6c. Face climbing straight from the belay, and than a tricky traverse on good holds but mediocre feet.

P7 6c+ Steep climbing. At least a grade easier than previous pitch.

P8 6b (50m). Major pitch. Steep stemming up the corner. Belay on a single bolt + a tree.

Scramble 5-10 min to the top and descend as for The beauty and the Berbere

Approach to Canyon Apache/North face of Taojdad

Walk past Parois des Sources, and access the canyon to the left by scrambling up on its right side. A bolt around the corner is used to make the passage 4/A0 (expo). Keep walking up-river with a short passage of scrambling. 

After a while you come to a narrow passage where there are two options: either an exposed slab traverse to the left (5, one bolt) supposedly leads to a Berber bridge at a delicate river crossing (this bridge was either under water or gone when we where there) or three bolts on a bulge can be aided and then a short passage of 4+ climbing (one bolt) lead to a glue-in bolt (belay). From this traverse left and up and scramble along ledges until the river can be accessed again-

Further upstream there are some gigantic boulders blocking the canyon. If the water level is very low it is apparently possible to walk up to these and climb up and under them (very exposed) to approach the north face of Taojdad. Again we had to high water for this to be possible, instead we did the more common approach by way of the first pitch of Canyon Apache. Climb up three bolts on the left side of the canyon (the third was really loose) then traverse right 30 m to a delicate passage (6a) leads to a ledge. On the right side of the ledge the second pitch of Canyon Apache can be found.

To approach the north face of Taojdad downclimb from the start of the second pitch of Canyon Apache to the riverbed.

To get from the north face of Taojdad back to the village it is supposedly possible to rap down the passage with the gigantic boulders mentioned above. The water was to high for us and we had to reverse the first pitch of Canyon Apache.

The Canyon, not accessible from the village side without one and a half pitch of climbing

Classe Montagne Épinal **, 185 m, 6c+ (6b obligatory)

Approach: Scramble up the ledge system from right. The route follows a big pillar system.

P1 6b+. A very good vertical pitch

P2 6b.  Another good pitch

P3 5+

P4 6c+ Good vertical face climbing with a hard sequence straight up from the belay.

P5 6a+ dihedral. Not so good. A shoulder length sling can be used around a tree at the top of the pitch

P6 6b Straight up to a ledge, then traverse far right on the ledge then straight up. Two ropes useful

P7 6a+ Many bolts. Finish on the ledge with belay on one bolt + tree.

Untie and scramble up diagonally to the left to the ledge system that traverse the mountain on the south east side. Follow the cairns.

Julia on Classe Montagne 

Fat guides ***** 250 m, 7b+ (7a obligatory)

Start to the left of Zebda

For the grade it does not get much better. Dead vertical wall of perfect limestone. Will only improve as a few more ascents clean it up further.

P1 7b+ Hard start for the first few bolts, then steady climbing until a physical traverse out left. Finish up a very thin slab. This pitch probably sees some seepage as it was quite dirty. Felt like 7c/+ in the conditions we had.

P2 6c+ Nice short pitch.

P3 6c The same. The 3rd bolt is quite tricky to clip for short climbers (bring a stiff draw or a medium sized climbing partner).

P4 7a+. Magnificent pitch, not alway totally obvious to find the best sequence. Semi-hanging belay. Felt like 7b/+ to me.

P5 7b? Easy climbing up to a short two-bolt crux to a good hold, then some pumpy climbing lead to a comfortable belay. Either I missed something, or this is more like 7b+/c. A bail biner on the bolt before the hardest part told me I’m not alone finding this difficult.

P6. 6c. Another very nice, short pitch to a good belay.

P7. 7a+  An absolutely superb pitch. The first bolt is put in a bit too high, then there are 18(!) bolts in 50 m. It’s possible to shuffle draws in a few places, in which case 15 draws should be enough

P8. 4. 15 m. No bolts. Climb a bit to the right, than back to the left to a two-bolt belay, Two shoulder length slings can be used for protection, tying off some shrubs.

P9 3+ Traverse straight left on the sloping ledge. A rope can be nice for the first 15-20 m. 

Continue to traverse the ledge and exit like Classe Montagne Épinal, or why not finish with the last two beautiful pitches of Belle et Berbère (6b+ and 6b+), if you haven’t climbed that before.