Morocco Summer Trip

From late August to mid-September, a group of 15 UBESters hiked, scrambled, swam and haggled in the incredibly beautiful and arid High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. After Arriving in Marrakech, we spent the first week hiking in a loop around the area north of Imlil (a large valley town in the centre of the Toubkal region) taking in the remote, non-motorised town of Tacheddirt and the high ski-resort of Oukaimeden. Sleeping in a combination of refuges and tents, we use this period to acclimatise to the altitude by slowly increasing our sleeping height day to day, and to tackle some beautiful peaks – Adrar Tamalaroute (2724m) which dominates the Imlil valley and the spectacular yet terrifying peak of Adrar Angour (3616m), all in preparation for the ascent of Mt Toubkal (4167m) and others the next week. The hot weather didn’t dampen our spirits and in fact the dryness of the air meant that it wasn’t all that unpleasant (mostly!), however finishing walking before 2pm was desirable.

  

The second week saw us at a higher average altitude, and as well as climbing Toubklal and Ouanoukrim (4083) in spectacular wall to wall sunshine, we visited a lake and another beautiful partly terraced valley in a demanding three day loop finishing back in Imlil. The valleys cultivated and terraced by the local Berbers provided a welcome break from the rocky, arid and exceedingly steep landscape higher up. After returning to Marrakech we explored the world famous Place De Jema (main square), visited some of the city’s lovely gardens (full of wildly different types of cacti) and haggled ferociously for gifts from the bustling, colourful, and seemingly never ending souks.

Highlights of the trip included experiencing an out of this world view from the Toubkal summit along the Spine of the 1000km Atlas and to the Sahara and beyond, climbing the two highest mountains in North Africa, meeting some very hospitable and helpful locals, and a hilariously fun evening by Lac D’ifni which included a limbo competition and some seriously hard core night-time photography!

A full trip report will be posted soon, but in the meantime, if anyone is thinking about going to the High Atlas, I couldn’t recommend it more highly! The area is very cheap and easily accessible from Marrakech and the UK for that matter, and with some of the highest mountains in Africa and landscapes, culture and weather different to anything European, this has to be a prime location for any keen expeditioner wishing to venture out of the continent.

Alpine Adventures–Conville Course

This summer I travelled out to the French Alps for my first ever foray into the world of slightly higher altitude mountaineering. I was lucky enough to be able to take part in a Conville course. The Jonathon Conville Trust was set up in memory of the young mountaineer who it was named after, who died on the Matterhorn in 1979. They provide subsidised courses in the Alps, among other things, which are aimed at helping young mountaineers start their alpine career safely, with knowledge of techniques such as crevasse rescue and safe rope work over technical ground.

So I packed up my bags and headed out to Chamonix, to live off a diet of tinned food and cheese, and far too few showers, for my first alpine season.

On the first day of the course, after a quick briefing and kit check, we caught the Montenvers railway up onto the Mer de Glace, to practise crevasse rescue technique and roping up. The day started with the descent of over 250m ladders, to get us down to the level the glacier had retreated to. We watched with envy as groups of school kids marched out with us. Why didn’t my school do that! We were greeted at the bottom by the cool breeze off the glacier, and the smell of ice. Crevasse rescue turned out to be fairly fiddly and tiring work. We split into teams, three Convillers to a guide. Our guide taught us how to improve the system to make it efficient as possible, but I still reckon I’d have a hard time pulling someone out. As one of the lightest, it seems likely I’ll fall into the role of crevasse poodle (literally).

The second day we caught the amazing Midi lift (the third most visited tourist attraction in the world), up to the grand height of 3800m at the top of the Aiguille du Midi. We started by roping up in the famous ice cave entrance, and then slowly tiptoeing our way down the thoroughly exposed Midi arête. The day was spend applying the previous day’s learning, doing the first two points on Pointe Lachenale (one of them is definitely more of a bump), and slowly acclimatising to working at altitude.  

The third day we made our first attempt at a route, in the slightly lower Aiguilles Rouges. The three of us moved together, along the Traverse of the Crochues, a PD+ ridge, while our guide soloed alongside us, cajoling us along, so as not to turn the trip into a faffalanche. It turned out at the abseil that two of us had taken the motto ‘fast and light’ too far, and our guide was not impressed by the lack of belay plates, so we were plied with his and told to be snappy. Climbing in big boots turned out to be a lot of fun, and also surprisingly practical, in stark contrast to my pre-Alps practice in the gorge, which as by all accounts, traumatic. All in all, it was a fantastic route, covering lots of interesting ground, surrounded by amazing views of the Mont Blanc Massif. To top it all off, there was enough snow for a speedy descent, practising both our skiing, and more often than not, our bumsliding. 

Over the next few days I spent plenty of time watching the rain gush down the windows of the refuge, and studying various ambitious routes. When the sun was shining, I did manage to fit in the Cosmiques Arete, an exciting variation on Pointe Lachenal, some long mountain sport, an epic valley level ‘grade 3’ scramble, and some ice climbing on the Mer de Glace. I had a great time and I can’t wait to get out there next year.

 

More information about the Jonathon Conville Mountaineering Trust: http://www.jcmt.org.uk/

If you want to see how little it has changed, this is an article my friend wrote 11 years ago (Midnight Express has been a thing for that long, and you still can’t get it in every café in Wales?!!): http://www.jcmt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Summit_37.pdf

 

Rebecca Millington

Romania Summer Trip Returns

As of yesterday, all eleven UBESters who went to Romania are safely back on British soil, after two weeks of exploring a diverse and beautiful country. Truly a place where East meets West and old meets new, the busy fortnight saw them take in the wild, remote expanse of the Fagaras Moutnains inlcuding Romania's highest peak, Moldeveanu (2544m), the picturesque and precipitous limestone ridge of the Piatra Craiului, the ancient and bustling transylvanian market town of Sibiu, the famous gothic castle at Bran and the fascinating city of Bucharest, where faded baroque splendour rubs cheeks with Caeucescu era concrete and modern glass. Some of the trip also visited the Black Sea.

The group found themselves on a cultural journey as well as a physical one, experiencing at first hand the lonely lives of mountain shepherds and the traditions of small villages, where donkey carts share the roads with modern cars, the mountaineering heritage represented by some of the cabanas and the vast amounts of history represented by the walled city of Sibiu and Bran castle protected the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia. Bucharest is a country within a country in its own right, giving a picture of every historical period and way of life.

A key theme throughout the trip was the biodiversity of the Transylvanian highlands, whose vast tracts of virgin beech and mixed forest and rolling alpine meadows provided a home for a vast array of flora and fauna which added hugely to the natural beauty of the area.

A full trip report will follow in due course, but in the mean time, Transylvania comes very highly recommended indeed.