UKC

Taghia, Morocco

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 timmyh 12 Nov 2012
hi all

my girlfriend & i are thinking about heading to Taghia next july/august
...finding climbing info is quite difficult (guidebooks/route info/grades)
& we were hoping someone might be able to help locate websites, etc

one key question is the range of grades - is there much quality stuff 6a (sport) and below?

many thanks
tim
 Tony & Sarah 12 Nov 2012
In reply to timmyh: There is a relatively new French guidebook. There is no quality stuff below 6b. July/August will be extremely hot.Best time would be either early spring or late autumn. Most of the routes are long multi pitch or big walls but it is a brilliant place to climb. Feel free to contact us.
Tony & Sarah
 jon 12 Nov 2012
In reply to timmyh:

July/August maybe quite hot. Having said that, we were there in June a few years back and had one hot week and a second one when it snowed just above the village...

As far as I know the official guidebook is still the one by Christian Ravier: http://www.christian-ravier.com/Sites/taghia_topo.html There are new routes since the appearance of this topo. You can find quite a lot of topos on the net - probably mainly French.

There are certainly fewer easier bolted routes than harder ones. We were aiming at 6c > 7a routes and I thought that given a couple more grades we'd have had a lot more to go at. (In the event, we both got quite ill after doing three routes and were too wiped out to climb anything that hard afterwards). I think the only route we did at 6a was Rêve d'Aïsha which was great. I'm sure there are other routes in that sort of grade but I don't have my guidebook here with me. I'd think that there's probably quite a lot of trad routes at that sort of difficulty.

It's probably useless to warn you to take care with what you eat/drink there as you really don't have much choice. We both ended up very ill for about four days. Some friends who have been there quite a few times and who have put up a lot of new routes, so experienced in these things, went the following year and one by one they too fell ill!

 jon 12 Nov 2012
In reply to Tony & Sarah:

Hello Charlie!
 adamtheclimber 13 Nov 2012
In reply to timmyh:

I was there in May/June this year... I think the advice so far has been pretty spot on, but here's my tuppence worth anyway:

- I found it unpleasantly hot to climb in the sun, even in May. We did have a cold snap when it became a lot better for a week or so. Some of the time we were there we were restricted to scurrying as swiftly as we could up north(ish) facing faces. If I went again I'd go for late April/ early May

- There's really very little below 6a sport I think. Reve d'Aicha as mentioned by Jon is one of the few at that grade. If you weren't averse to pulling on bolts this might open up a few more options as the bolting isn't particularly spaced (but don't quote me on this). I don't even think that there is much easy trad there (the "mountaineering route" up one of the gulleys on the North face of Oujdad gets about grade 5 (HVS ish?) I think, but some Spanish chap who did it when we were there said it was tosh).

- The Ravier guide is still the one to get. His website has some topos on it (in French).

- Having said all that, it is a wonderful place with stunning scenery and friendly locals. (We stayed at Said's gite which is nice and comfy and we didn't get ill for a month.) So even if you only have a few routes to go at you'd like it there, I'm sure. It's just a question of whether it's worth the effort to get all the way there or instead head somewhere else (I presume Todra has plenty; or the area around Tafraoute has some decent looking trad (I've not climbed there but hiked around it and it looked nice)).

Good luck

Adam
OP timmyh 13 Nov 2012
In reply to timmyh:
thanks to everyone that's replied - really appreciate you sharing your info
... i'm going anyway as i'm taking a school group up Toubkal, but it sounds like Taghia will be
(a) too hot at that time of year &
(b) too hard!
... so i'll head home & enjoy Wales & save Taghia for next time!
thanks loads!

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...