I’d been up before, but still took a while to hit a path that led round a 3059m point towards the Tizi n’ Taghighacht (2662m), a major north–south pass. At one stage we heard the bleating of new-born lambs and found them in a small protective pit roofed over with stones. In just a few days, however, they’d be coping with their inhospitable landscape. There were many cairns on the tizi and well-made zigzags down before we headed off for the red world leading to the blue lake (2270m).
From there we watched the tones of evening on Fazaz, which stood up as a blunt prow through the gap of our morning pass. We would see it again on other visits, and also many times from the twin lake of Tislit, further west, so it hangs as a very special icon in our visual memories.
The two lakes are fiancé and fiancée, derivations lying in a folktale of thwarted love, the lakes being the tears of denied happiness caused by family feuding – the Berber version of Romeo and Juliet. Apart from lapping water and the occasional sounds of a shepherd’s distant pipe there was only the tingling silence of the desert. Such stars too; and the Milky Way like a dust trail across from black horizon crest to black horizon crest.
Camels on the move
ROUTE SIX
Jbel Laqroun (Lqroun, Qroun) 3117m
| Commitment | Quite serious country, as remote and rough in places, so a 3-day round trip would allow you to best appreciate the varied landscapes. |
| Maps | 100: Beni Mellal, Imilchil. |
| Texts | MP2: descriptions, illustrations; AFC (gives Qroun spelling; erroneously on Pt 2836 on 100 map) has useful sketch map. |
| Travel to start | Goudron, then piste access from the Bin el Ouidane lake to Tamga and the valley start, or from Tamga rough piste to Anergui and beyond there trek to Tizi n’ Wanargi, allowing a more aesthetic traverse (see MP2). Tamga, below the Cathedral, is 1167m, and Laqroun summit 3117m, so a 3-day outing from Tamga is advisable, as my experiences suggest. |
| Local assistance | No local mules. We had trekked from the Bou Guemez, but mules from there could rendezvous at Tamga, if not engaged from further off. |
With beautiful approaches through woods and glen above Tamga and the Cathedral, Laqroun gives a classic Atlas experience.
Laqroun from Mouriq
Having seen Laqroun and the Cathedral on GTAM95 I was keen to return to the area – which we did in May 1997. We took in various peaks and passes from the Bou Guemez valley and down the Ahancal valley to camp at Tamga below the Cathedral. The piste in from Wawizaght and the Bin el Ouidane would be the straightforward access for Laqroun, and I’m sure I’d noted a helpful description in MP2, for we largely followed his line describing a route over the Tizi n’ Wanargi along the south flank of the mountain.
From above Tamga, the Aqqa n’ Irghis/Aqqa n’ Oufezzat runs up along under Laqroun to the 2650m Tizi n’ Wanargi, an exceptionally pleasant and varied walk. First light on the Cathedral seen through the trees rewarded an early start. The lower Irghis I compared to the Nevis gorge, with a high path wending through pines then, later, oak, ash and box. Shingles and an intermittent stream which finally disappeared made us wonder about a camp water supply, but at a gorge we found a source, the mules caught up, tents blossomed and we dined with the scent of genistas in the air.
On the track up for Laqroun
We continued up the gorge then angled off up a long ridge, snow-edged, for Ouzoua (Ouzwa)-n-Igader (3093m) on the south side of our glen, looking across to the sprawl of Laqroun. The limestone meant good flowers. We hit the crest and undulated along to the highest point of a rewarding summit. The north-east corrie was a jam roll of layered strata, and we looked right into the big cirque of Mouriq, also on the ‘shopping list’ after our 1995 walk through. The descent to the Tizi n’ Wangargi (2650m) wasn’t straightforward, with barring crags and snow gullies. (From Laqroun it was all black and white stripes.) Laqroun thereafter was really just a long plod, keeping to the edge being the most interesting line until rising onto the crest, which gave endless bumps and hollows and a confusion of final bumps for the summit, at 3117m.
Passing traveller
Camp was at c2010m, so feeling the 1000m descent hard work was justified. We simply went on and descended the corrie/valley straight to our overnight site. A relaxing end of the day would have been pleasant, but some of the party who had just ‘bagged’ Laqroun rather than making the circuit were itching to descend to Tamga (1167m) that night – another 3½ hours of descent (Morocco has such depths as well as heights!), and we arrived at dusk after a 13½-hour day. This forced descent was made because some of the party wanted to find a way up the Cathedral. They failed. The saner of us had a delectable day doing very little and resting afterwards. A cathedral, after all, calls for worship.
ROUTE SEVEN
The Cathedral (La Cathédral) / Mastfrane (Aghembo n’ Mastfran) 1872m
| Commitment | An extraordinary find, a day out from a Tamga camp – but the way up not for the faint-hearted; very exposed and decayed aids and narrow ledges. Great ‘Wow!’ factor. |
| Maps | 100: Zawyat Ahancal; 50 Zawyat Ahancal. Latter clearer, but most paths and useful detail absent; but, mapless, you can hardly miss the Cathedral. See Route 6 for route map. |
| Texts | A blank. Only the sketchiest of mentions and, surprisingly, no good pictures in the source books. |
| Travel to start | Goudron, then piste access from the Bin el Ouidane lake to Tamga in the Ahancal valley, or trek from further afield. Tamga, 1167m, means the summit is 700m above. Plan a day-outing – it may be needed. |
| Local assistance | None. |
An imposing, buttressed, well-named rock tower in the grand Ahancal valley, with an unlikely route to its summit.
On the trail near the Cathedra
Many maps still give prominence to the nickname the Cathedral, bestowed on this feature by the French, and it is not a bad description of the massif tower and its buttresses. At 1872m, standing in a valley, it is surrounded by massive mountain features, yet still can stop walkers in their stride to gaze in admiration. Any mountaineer also reacts by thinking, ‘Can I climb it?’
The club party who’d been on Laqroun in 1997 went off to try and came back without having found any chink in its armour, so I was astonished later to read somewhere that goats were grazed on the summit. Not that that was entirely encouraging. I used to think that where goats could go I could follow, but not any more, not after seeing where they climbed to on Atlas crags. However, back at Tamga on the road below in autumn 1999 some of us wandered off to at least circumambulate the Cathedral and, if lucky, see how the goats and, presumably, their owners made their way up to the top.
On the ascent of the Cathedral
We received a shock on returning to where we’d camped previously. The site had been wiped out by a flash flood, leaving a tidemark two metres up the tree trunks, and the road bridge, of substantial iron girders, had been swept away and beached downstream. There are times when nature sends a shiver down the spine.
Four of us paddled across the river and went up to a piste, which we partly used, then bushwhacked for a hot hour on the south