8. Paul on the first pitch



9. Still on the first pitch


10. Steve's wife  from Salt Lake City, on a parallel route.


11. Paul near the top


12. Two old codgers on top of their route.


13. Mike Mortimer leading the first pitch of Continental Selection


14. Mike on the top pitch of Continental Selection with the village of  Dwawi below.


15. The Tizinwaylin Crag above the little school on the col between Dwawi  and Tagiadirt on the South West side. - easy 20 minute walk to the  foot of the crag and an easy descent down the gully on the left.


16. The routes.  Mike Mortimer and I first climbed the line on the right  - Tizinwalim, 4 pitches HVS 5b.  The following day we returned wioth  the Winteringhams.  Mike and I climbed the Pillar line marked on the  left - calling irt Cenrtral Pillar - 4 pitches - E1 5a - this was 
superb.  Ben and Marion climbed the line marked in the centre.  The  final day, we climbed the Groove line between Ben's route and  Tizinwalim - Paradise Regained HVS 5a, while Ben and Marion did a new 
route on the left hand sky line.

Click here to find out more about the Morocco trip>>





Anti-Atlas in Morocco


Red roads are tarmac, the brown road good dirt and the yellow rough dirt.

I'm just back from another great trip to the Anti-Atlas in Morocco -  definitely my favorite rock climbing venue.  We were there for a  fortnight and did a mass of new routes.  We stayed once again at the  Hotel Les Armendiers, the only place in town you can get beer and  wine.  It's comfortable and the prices are very reasonable.  There is  also a new route book that has all the latest routes - and there are  lots of them!!


1. The team gets bigger and bigger - seated from l to r - American  friend of Paul Ross, Margery Mortimer, Joe Brown, Marion  Winteringham, Joe (Mortimer) Smith.
standing - Chris Bonington, Claud Davies, Pete Turnbull, Andrew Ross,  Mike Mortimer, Jim Fotheringham, 2 Americans, Derek Walker, Paul  Ross, Ben Winteringham


2. Paul had his 69th birthday during the first week.


3. Crag B, where Jim Fotheringham, Derek Walker and I did a 6 pitch new  route straight up to the Pinnacle
in the centre of the crag and then trending left across the blank  slabby wall capped with overhangs.  We called it Jimnastics and gave  it HVS 5a.


4. Les Brown, Chris and Mike below a new crag on the South West side of  the range on the road to Tanalt.  Their route went up from the lowest  point of the buttress to the arete caught by the sun and finished on  a horizontal break traversing left when the angle and interest of the  climbing eased.


5. Superb slabs discovered by Ben Winteringham above the village of  Dwawi on the South West side above Tanalt.  Mike Mortimer and I made  the first ascent of the route on the right, calling it Continental  Selection - 5 pitches at HVS 4c.  The Brown team climbed the route on  the far left at VS and the one to its right up a prominent crack line  was climbed by Ben ands Marion who gave it HVS 5a.  The route to its  right was climbed by Ben, Marion and MIke at HVS 5b.  Superb rock but 
thin on protection.


6.The crags immediately round the corner as you drive to Tanalt.  Paul  Ross and I climbed a route on the brown buttress immediately below  the big banded crag just right of Centre while a big team climbed the  conspicuous arete of the upper crag on the far right.  We climbed it  on a very hot day and I had violent sun stroke half way up. It's a  long hard walk up to the crag.


7. Paul Ross, who'd come in with is son and three American friends all  the way from  Colorado and Utah on the way up to our climb on the  crag in the picture above.