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La Reve d’Aicha.
The following morning, after a leisurely breakfast (hey, it’s only 6ish pitches), we made the short hike to the Sources Wall just above the village. We had our eye on the easiest of the well-traveled routes called La Reve d’Aicha, a 7-pitch 6a+ affair. There we found a party nearing the top of pitch 1 and another one gearing up at the base. We looked around for alternatives but did not like the look of the harder option nearby and so we also queued up. We chatted a bit with the belayer who turned out to be a friendly Catalan named Rafa. We would run into him and his friends a few days later on our long hike out of Taghia. The first few pitches were quite nice (faces, dihedrals, some wide cracks even) and then the sun hit us. We went from comfortable conditions to baking in temperatures exceeding 35 Celsius. The heat made the upper half of the route quite miserable and we also discovered what the French meant. Even the 6a+ pitches seemed quite hard – certainly the heat did not help but the ratings seemed stiff. We finally topped out and did the hour long hike back down to the village totally parched. Warm-up route turned out to be something else.
Photos
Views of Taghia village from the patio of Said’s gite (May 2017).
Something we’d experience at every meal in Morocco – the amount of food that is served is way above what can be consumed. By the way, coffee at Said’s was very good (May 2017).
On approach to our first climb. Paroi des Sources is the wall on the left and home to La Reve d’Aicha route (May 2017).
Views up canyon from the base of La Reve d’Aicha (May 2017).
Shirley topping out on pitch 1 of La Reve d’Aicha (May 2017).
Leading pitch 2 of La Reve d’Aicha (May 2017).
Pitch 2 follows a large, right-facing dihedral (May 2017).
Shirley finishing up pitch 2 of La Reve d’Aicha (May 2017).
Looking back towards the village form high on La Reve d’Aicha (May 2017).
Pitch 3 (May 2017).
Leading the 4th pitch of La Reve d’Aicha (May 2017).
Shirley topping out on pitch 4 or 5 of La Reve d’Aicha (May 2017).
Route top out (May 2017).
The scenic hike down (May 2017).
Taoujdad (left), Oujdad, and Tagoujimt (right) above Taghia. The village school is on the left and Said’s gite is the structure at the center (May 2017).
The hour-long hike off from the top of La Reve d’Aicha route. Oujdad is visible in the background (May 2017).
Village wildlife (May 2017).
Pretty poppies in Taghia (May 2017).
Village kids in Taghia (May 2017).
Taoujdad (left) and Oujdad (May 2017).
Shared area in Said’s gite (May 2017).
Dinner at Said’s with the man himself in the photo (May 2017).
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