Hiking the High Atlas

With the backpacking tour I fulfilled a little dream:
Hiking in the Atlas Mountains.
The barren, rugged rocks, the remoteness - it all had a fascination for me.

We try to find the Berber Passage, a path carved into the rock by the local hill tribes deep inside the valley.
We meet a group of young Moroccan hikers and join them to find the passage.

The road leads us to the last village of the valley, from where we set off into the mountains.
We reach some waterfalls that spring directly from the rock and from where the nearby village draws its water.
The scramble begins at an embrasure between two mountains. The first metres are already quite steep and are increasingly blocked by large stones and boulders, which make the climb even more difficult. Every now and then there are small climbing passages that require short planning of the steps and a sure footing.

After a long ascent, we stop at a particularly piquant spot and discuss what to do. This doesn't seem to be the right way and there are concerns about safety.
I realise now that the others don't know where the way to the passage is any more than I do and only know a coordinate, but not the way there. 🤨
I show the boys a map of the area, which doesn't give us any more information than that we have to go to the other side of the mountain.
A discussion ensues about whether we should go further. Everyone is asked, then a decision is made by scissors and rock paper🫣😳. The decision is made to go back.

Ilyass goes on alone to prove that the path is manageable. The rest of the group waits.
He finally manages to climb the next difficult section and waves and calls out to us. Because of the distance and the echo, nothing can be understood.
Ilyass waits at the top for us to follow him. We wait too, as we had decided as a group to go down. Stalemate.

So we wait for each other for about 20 minutes.
In order not to extend the waiting game into infinity, I suggest we split up. It was decided that the others should descend and since Ilyass will not come back to us, I will climb up to Ilyass to let him know.
In the end, everyone comes along and we continue to ascend.

It gets more and more difficult. There are some climbing passages that fall into the category of 'point of no return' for me, because they are already really tricky on the ascent.

Almost at the highest point, we finally have to admit that the path is not getting any easier and that it is better to turn back now than to venture further into the unknown.
So we finally start the way back. Most of the passages on the way down are easier to do with concentration and climbing techniques than I had thought and we eventually overcome even the most difficult sections.Meer informatie