UKC

I plan on booking flights to Morocco with one of my friends for the end of October .
He has been there for two 5 week periods over the last two years , while there he never done
any climbing , only hiking . He has a good idea of the way of the land but no clue about climbing destinations.

What I'm looking to find out is the best places to visit for two S/HS/VS warriors .

I have looking through many trip reports and threads on here but its too much information to take in when I
don't really know were to start

I also don't under stand the sports routes grading system , and it seems alot of the sports routes people talk about are of a harder grade than we couldnt climb at the moment .

Where are the best area's to visit for single pitch and easy mulitpitch routes at the end of October?

What are the best guide books to buy ?

Cheers

In reply to discosucks:
Jebel el Kest, Anti-Atlas. Morocco Rock by Emma Alsford and Paul Donnithorne. Flights to Agadir and accommodation in Tafroute and the Kasbah Tizourgane. If your mate was hiking it's more likely he was in the North of the country around Marrakesh.

Be warned this is trad climbing at the adventurous end of the adventurous spectrum. Easy access but with a very remote feel, no rescue, not many other climbers, poisonous snakes and scorpions but the climbing is superb.

Al

In reply to discosucks:

GridNorth has got it in one and is spot on regarding quality, venue, one of the guidebooks (though you might want to download their latest update as well) and seriousness, but don't be too put off by his "spiders and snakes" warning, though they are around and some of 'em are deadly. I've been there 12 times totalling maybe 20 weeks, always in March April October or November and I've seen no more than four or five snakes and only one scorpion. I understand it might be a different story when the weather gets really hot.

There's a limited amount of sport climbing in the region, on the granite to the West of Tafraoutre but it's not great and anyway it's not sport climbing you'd go there for - the good climbing is on the quartzite of Jebel el Kest and is British developed and our stiff-upper-lip attitude prevails, thankfully. There is much sport climbing to be had in Morocco at Todra Gorge (a day's drive East of Tafraoute) and Taghia (in the North of the coutry). I haven't been to either but especially at the latter I understand the climbing is generally much harder.

In reply to Martin Bennett:

Sweet , thanks for the reply lads .

to be honest I'm more interested in the trad anyways , I'm based in Ireland and we have little sport
climbing so was planning to get some in when away . But lots of dry trad would do me

how ever iv never climbed on quartzite rock , is it a generally hard rock? what kinda gear should we bring?

Flights seem to be much cheaper into Marrakesh so we'll prob go with that .

In reply to discosucks:
We take a standard UK rack with maybe a bias toward bigger stuff - cams and hexes often work well, as well as nuts. Quartzite is a metamorphosed sandstone and so is for the most part very hard in texture much like volcanic rock. It varies a lot in colour, texture and quality (!). Incidentally the crags at Holyhead, Anglesey (eg Gogarth, Holyhead Mountain) are a type of quartzite but there's not that much similarity between it and The Anti-Atlas variety).

Flying to Marrakesh leaves you with (probably) an overnight each way in Marrakesh plus a 5 or 6 hour (rather tedious as far as Agadir) drive to Tafraoute as opposed to a leisurely couple of hours interesting driving from Agadir airport, so it depends what your priorities are. Mind you there's something to be said for a night in Marrakesh - we enjoyed it the one time we did it, but haven't repeated the exercise.

Whatever happens you're more or less guaranteed a great trip - I've met very few who've been there and didn't want to go back. One such was the group we met in the bar after climbing one day and as we enthused about the fantastic adventure we'd had that day in the back of beyond, they responded with: "Adventure? We don't want any of them"! I don't think they went back for more,

In reply to discosucks:

There's a massive amount of information on the area at Climb Tafraoute. The new maps and miniguides are available there too - sadly the definitive guide is currently out of stock, but for a first trip the miniguides might well do the job.

https://www.climb-tafraout.com/

In reply to Martin Bennett:

They sound like a nice bunch haha .

great thanks for the info .

In reply to Jamie Wakeham:

great ill grab the 3 of them once i book my flights tomorrow .

does the definitive guide have much more info than the mini's?

In reply to discosucks:



In a word - yes.

In reply to discosucks:

The three pocket guides have about 1000 routes between them; the two-volume definitive has more than 2000. But, as I said, the definitive is currently out of stock and I don't think it'll be back by the time you go (though you could always email Steve and check).

In reply to Jamie Wakeham:

Nice one for the help lads

Just booked the flights , gonna be there from the 26th of October to the 3rd of November

If anyone is around dont hesitate to give us a bell via email .