Issue 27 June 2005
FEATURES
This issue included the Climb Through History article West Face Direct, Knights Peak by Des Rubens TREKKING IN THE SUNHamish Brown takes us back to Morocco's Atlas Mountains and friends who offer outstanding trekking for both exploratory areas and popular Jbel Toubkal 4167m., the highest peak in North Africa. We had come down from the Western Atlas 'Lost World' of the Tichka Plateau, down to Ali's village in the Medlawa valley and were sitting replete with tagine (real mutton, not western flabby lamb) and piles of fresh fruit, mint tea and walnuts. The bright stars of Africa were bold above the houses, a gas lamp purred quietly in the guest room - and then I heard it - a Gaelic song, faint but unmistakable. My hair stood on end. This was impossible! There were no electronics around. Could one pick some thought out of the air? Was I going bonkers? (Don't answer that.) I sat utterly bemused but glancing along, in a dark comer, sat Ali, quietly singing the song I heard. He'd been given a Runrig cassette the year before. Ali speaks his local Berber tongue, Arabic, English and French fluently, enough to crack puns and discuss abstract matters, and also good Spanish and German. When a Czechoslovakia bus drew up a few years ago I grinned, "You can't speak that," and the reply was only half joking as he shot back, "Not yet". Besides his linguistic skills he is a natural mountain man, lithe and fit, expert at leading others, route-finding, organising camp, cooking good food (and baking on the trail), careful of the landscape, brilliant at meeting new people in villages on trek and handling animals. (Baggage mules make trekking an unencumbered joy.) A paragon indeed. I've known him since he was 18. Now in his thirties, married, with a wee Ali, he needs all the work he can get, particularly as my own regular contribution must soon ease off. More of this later. Ali was the vital component of our 1995 first ever end-to-end trek of the Atlas Mountains: 1400km over 96 days, taking in about 30 peaks. He enrolled another lad to help with our two mules, Taza and Tamri (named after the starting and finishing towns), and the fourth was Charles Knowles from Sheffield, my long-term partner in many ranges and with many Atlas seasons already. (The Atlas is catching!) We agreed if either of us broke a leg, or whatever, the other would carry on; if Ali had had to drop out the attempt would simply have failed. He was that important. To borrow a word, Ali has been my sirdar on nearly every trek since he started so he knows Morocco like no other guide. He came on a similar style traverse of the Anti Atlas in 2002. I first went to the Atlas to rock/winter climb back in the mid Sixties so the climbing article in The Scottish Mountaineer (summer 2004) made me quite jealous but even in the Sixties I was soon hooked on the trekking aspect. Moving on day by day. Exploring. The Atlas is perfection for this, with endless mule tracks, an exotic and varied landscape and, as Guy Robertson mentioned, lovely people. And a kindly sun. The greatest joy for me has been the element of exploration, utterly missing now in Europe, and many other ranges. From some good peak a group will see another and declare "Let's do that next year!" So we do. People come back and back as a result. We may take Land Rovers into some remote comer to rendezvous with Ali and the mules and then trek to find and, hopefully, climb the virtually unknown summits. Many must have been first ascents by British alpinists. There are incalculable hundreds of 3000m summits. About 50 top 3500m (all of which I've climbed, most with Ali) and of these a cluster or two top 4000m, Toubkal the highest in NW Africa, 4I67m. The rock climbing potential is a daily wonder. But just as the good news about climbing has been 'leaked' I feel almost duty bound to mention this companion aspect of trekking, one which gives the best of all worlds. There are guides a-plenty in the one or two honey pot areas, many excellent, but they tend to operate locally (a bit like alpine guides in earlier times) or may be tied to commercial trekking operators who tread well-known trails over and over and are a bit of a mixed blessing. The Western Atlas above Taroudant remains largely unknown, apart from Ali groups, so the kids have not become beggars or the campsites polluted, yet the area abounds in harder peaks, long routes, hotter Cuillins (an Ali pun) and demanding passes. I make a two/three week sortie each year there with Ali and the experience becomes better and better. There are some great unexploited rock areas. Within my groups I'm always happy to welcome newcomers or, for groups wanting novelty, point them in the right direction, as long as they employ Ali. I'm a non profit-making service! Ali had limited schooling and this prevents him from obtaining full guides papers - exactly what happened in the Alps when the original mountain-dwelling guides were overtaken by outside officialdom. Guides now tend to be from better-off families, well-educated - and having to be trained from scratch. Ali should be training them! He has the inborn instinct of what is his natural world after all. So use him. Look at his website. Phone him. Often people said to me after our big traverse in 1995, “Well, does that wrap up Morocco then? You'll have done everything now ...” Far from it; all that journey did was discover many new areas all of which demanded – and continue to have - return visits. The scope and variety is quite astonishing. In 2004 alone we found a couple of dramatic areas about which nothing has been written. Had they been in Europe they'd have their own guide-books. By being well-organised we can enjoy plenty of freedom of action - "Meets on the move" as someone suggested. I'm now busy with two very Atlas-related books, not counting The Rough Guide which I help illustrate and for which I've written the Atlas chapters, one the story of our end-to-end traverse, a useful theme on which to hang all sorts of topics, the other the story of the early explorers (late c1900) who, surprisingly, were British: Hooker, Ball and Maw, Joseph Thomson and Cunninghame Graham. That was an extraordinary period. A mediaeval world still. They went in fear of their lives. Morocco, nearer to Europe than is Britain, was the last African country to be taken over. (Britain let France have Morocco, in a swop-swop for Egypt and Cyprus.) Toubkal was only climbed 14 yeas after the South Pole was reached. Yet pre-World War Two the French built a ski lift which was then the highest in the world (Jbel Oukaímeden, 3273m). The war kept climbers away then came the unsettled years before the French left so it was only in the Sixties that people began to trek and climb more extensively than just in the Toubkal massif. I now regret having spent so much time there (as if I'd just kept to Glen Coe and nowhere else at home) when there was such a fantastic variety of landscape. Walk coast-to-coast across Scotland and you are struck with the big variety in our wee landscape. Morocco is like that, only more so. There are vast cedar forests, great plateau, miles of gorges (up to 2000ft deep), limestone Dolomites and igneous Cuillins, coastal attractions, climbing, trekking, skiing, mountain biking, paragliding, birding, botanising, Land Rover exploring and much more. The Berber clans (so like Scotland) have settled into a tougher version of crofting. If a shepherd from Tomintoul and a shepherd from Toubkal met, in minutes they'd be talking about sheep subsidies! But they have that great additive, the sun. (And no midges.) Ninety nine point nine per cent of people coming to the Atlas do so with Toubkal their objective, often tackling it in a way that would not be dreamed of in the Alps for any 4000m summit. The Toubkal Trail however is no more real Morocco than the Tourist Track up Ben Nevis represents Scotland. Would you judge all Scotland from that? Or even Ben Nevis from that? Pity, because Toubkal, like the Ben, is many-faced, both literally and figuratively speaking. Toubkal's dominance is seen in the guidebook coverage it receives. Some of these however do go on to describe treks, albeit the popular ones, in other areas, often in great detail. Yet there are peaks just below the magic 4000m in the Toubkal massif which are very rarely climbed. When we climbed a hill, the highest between the Toubkal massif and the only other 4000-der, Mgoun, there was no sign of previous visitors. Like Scotland, you can soon find a world of singing solitude. If Toubkal however is the irresistible lure then treat it properly. Go for a warm-up, sun and altitude acclimatising trek first. This will show something of the real Atlas and allow an ascent of Toubkal with proper enjoyment. As in the Alps it is taken in stages, from trailhead 1750m Imlil to Toubkal (Neltner) Hut, 3200m, to summit 4167m. A Munro a day - quite enough. The great joy of doing anything in the Atlas is the use of mules to carry everything ("What wouldn't I give for a mule up to the CIC Hut" I've often thought) so one walks with a day pack only. For those with climbing ability there are some good routes while, in winter, hut to summit is akin to say climbing Bidean nam Bian so ice axe and crampons are essential, and the ability to use them. Toubkal is also a challenging ski ascent and, given perfection, a 6000ft run down. I've stayed with a family in Imlil for over 30 years and the guide Aít Idir Mohammed (Mohammed Beri to distinguish him from the other I0I Mohammeds) has been my reliable organiser for all activity in the Toubkal massif, as well as elsewhere. I'd recommend him for any Toubkal area ploy. The pleasure of having Mohammed or Ali along is that they organise the mules, food, communal tent and so on so all one's time is free to relish the doings of the day. The muleteers are great lads. Just get them singing after supper. Moroccan food is superb (natural production), the fruit abundant, tummy upsets rare, the whole remarkably cheap, and so easy to reach - a three hour flight south inside a time zone. Maps are a problem but a photocopied set may be obtainable from Stanfords and AMIS will produce A4 or A3 coverage of any area if given plenty warning. As something of an honorary ambassador for the Atlas I'm happy to do slide shows or give advice - and above all, see work goes the way of my friend Ali. The last TV Wilderness Walks series had an Atlas programme in which we climbed the highest peak on the Tichka Plateau. Both Mohammed and Ali helped with that. One shot showed Ali baking bread on a flat stone over a scrub fire. That took several 'takes' as we kept pinching the bread to eat! Beware on the Toubkal Trail however. As soon as it is known you are from Scotland you'll hear "You know Hamish Brown? He very good friend", which may or may not be the case. Last year I arrived at busy Imlil and after paying the taxi driver (a shared taxi from Asni) I was asked the usual by a new tout "Where you from?". "Ah, Scotland, you know Hamish Brown. Very good friend of mine" he said and wondered why everyone in earshot doubled up laughing. There was the year too when another Hamish Brown arrived at Imlil. He had a miserable time with his name denied him at every turn. The greatest joys of the Atlas I now realise are the people. They make for fun, the best of all reasons for a visit to the Atlas. I've just had my 46th season in the Atlas - and can't wait to get back. Information
Guide Books:
General Books: Exploration Books:
UK Guides:
Local Guides: Flights to Morocco: |
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