Part II: PERSONAL NOTES ON ROUTESÀ boire ou je tue le chien ** (A drink or I kill the dog) 280m 6c (6b+ obligatory)
Nice climbing on excellent rock. A bit engaged in places. Has been onsight soloed (Alex Honnhold). Possible to combine with Au nom de la reform if you rap after pitch six. The sun hits the wall around noon beginning of September.
12 quick draws, a few wires (Wallnuts #2-#7). Four cams if continuing to the top after pitch 7.
Approach: From Taghia to Taojdad. Go up in the channel between Taoujdad & Oujdad. 30 min after the village, pass a big block on the left. Continue up until a path (cairns) left lead to the two obvious ramps that mark the start of Au nom de la réforme and À boire respectively.
P1 5c. Climb the crack (4) protected by wires or small friends. Then a mixture of wires and bolts to the belay. A bit engaged. Many teams report that this is at least 6a, but if you’re used to climb low-angle cracks 5c is probably fair.
P2 6c. Really good climbing, morpho.
P3 6c. I did something wrong on the start of this pitch. Did a 7a-sequence straight up between the first and second bolt, where a fall would have been unpleasant. My second told me it was easier more to the right rather than straight up, probably closer to 6c, but still engaging.
P4. 6a+ Nice face climbing.
P5. 6b+ Steep and awkward dihedral. Don’t worry, a bolt will appear.
P6. 5c. Reasonably well bolted face climbing. This is the last steep pitch and the last independent pitch as well.
To climb to the top of Taoujdad, change to your approach shoes and climb the top pitches of La Reform:
P7. 4+ Trekking along the ridge. Then some face climbing past a bolt (4+), then some trekking again past a big tree to the last steep face. (75 m or so)
P8. 5a. Two or three bolts. Two-three finger sized cams useful (40 m)
Decent from Taoujdad. From the top, head south-east on a path (plenty of cairns), diagonally skier’s right. Find a tree with slings and rap 40 m to a col, or 55 m down skiers right. Diagonally left and cross the ridge, then follow cairns down and left. Aim for the white water streak in the intermittent creek. Close to this, carefully follow the switchbacks on the right side of the coulouir. About 1 hour down to the point where you took off towards the start of the routes and 2 hours down to the village.
Belle et Berbère *** (The Beauty and The Berber) 300 m, 6b+ (6a+ obligatory)
Very good climbing on a contrived line. Extraordinarily sustained 6b climbing, with most pitches around vertical on good to excellent rock. Very fingery throughout. Probably the most frequently climbed route in Taghia beside La Réforme. The sun hit the face around 12.30 in September.
13 draws. (And a finger sized friend to protect grade 3 scrambling if necessary)
Approach on the left side of the creek to Parois des Sources. Two ledges on top of each other, climb up to the lower ledge further to the right with cairns on top of it (3+). There is a route (bolt) starting on the right side of the ledge, Belle et Berber start further right, just around the corner. 15 min from the village if you find the route straight away…
P1. 6b Traverse right (thee bolts) into a right-facing overhanging dihedral with tufas-in-the-process of growth.
P2. 6b Follow the bolts. Hard slab boulder in the start, then easier. Mind the rope drag.
P3. 6b Sustained low-angle face climbing
P4. 6b+ Sustained 6b climbing with a boulder move in the middle.
P5 6a+. Short easy pitch, very contrived line where the bolts are placed to force you away from the natural line.
P6. 6b+. Long pitch. Vertical climbing, just when you think it is over, there is a slab crux then face climbing to the top.
P7 6b. Walk across the ledge and then climb a bolted face. The careful climber move the belay to under the face, or just don’t fall. Belay with one bolt and a tree.
P8. 3. One bolt, then hiking diagonally right and scramble up (3b, unprotected or bring a finger sized friend) right to a red big face. Belay in one bolt or stretch up and clip the first bolt on the next pitch as well.
P9. 6b+ A crux on slopers off the first bolt, then easier climbing diagonally right to a steep finish.
P10. 6b+ Hard sequence across the fin, the rest is easier.
Decent from Parois des Sources. Scramble diagonally up left until you see the cairns on the ledge system to the left of the top. Follow the well marked path on the ledges for a few hundred meters, and then track back towards the village along the path. (45 min)
Zebda *****, 260 m, 7b+ (6c obligatory)
Second of the top the line. Better than The holy War in Wadi Rum, and slightly worse than Alix, punk of the Vergons in Verdon. Steep climbing on immaculate rock for 280 sustained meters. One of the most popular and recommended routes in Wadi Rum. Deservedly so.
The sun hit the route at around 13:00.
14 draws + belays.
Approach: Walk to Parois des Sources, past the sources and cross the river and track back. The name of the route is written in big letters at the base. 20 min from the village.
P1. 7b+ Tough warm up. Well bolted face climbing (7a) with decent rests up to a short crux at the tufa.
P2. 6a+ for the tall. Morpho. Worst pitch on the route.
P3. 6c+ A fantastic pitch. Steep face climbing.
P4. 7b Sustained climbing straight off the belay. Then a bit easier to the roof. The mantel shelf move above the roof is OK. The belay is hanging and in the middle of a non-trivial sequence. Strong climbers with good ethics are advised to bring plenty of quick draws and a 70 m rope and link it with the next pitch.
P5. 7a+ Another mind blowing pitch. Steep crimpy face climbing. Engaged and not trivial (6c-ish) near the belay.
P6 6c. I found this very hard for the grade. Hard face climbing straight from the belay, and than a tricky traverse on good holds but mediocre feet.
P7 6c+ Steep climbing. At least a grade easier than previous pitch.
P8 6b (50m). Major pitch. Steep stemming up the corner. Belay on a single bolt + a tree.
Scramble 5-10 min to the top and descend as for The beauty and the Berbere
Approach to Canyon Apache/North face of Taojdad
Walk past Parois des Sources, and access the canyon to the left by scrambling up on its right side. A bolt around the corner is used to make the passage 4/A0 (expo). Keep walking up-river with a short passage of scrambling.
After a while you come to a narrow passage where there are two options: either an exposed slab traverse to the left (5, one bolt) supposedly leads to a Berber bridge at a delicate river crossing (this bridge was either under water or gone when we where there) or three bolts on a bulge can be aided and then a short passage of 4+ climbing (one bolt) lead to a glue-in bolt (belay). From this traverse left and up and scramble along ledges until the river can be accessed again-
Further upstream there are some gigantic boulders blocking the canyon. If the water level is very low it is apparently possible to walk up to these and climb up and under them (very exposed) to approach the north face of Taojdad. Again we had to high water for this to be possible, instead we did the more common approach by way of the first pitch of Canyon Apache. Climb up three bolts on the left side of the canyon (the third was really loose) then traverse right 30 m to a delicate passage (6a) leads to a ledge. On the right side of the ledge the second pitch of Canyon Apache can be found.
To approach the north face of Taojdad downclimb from the start of the second pitch of Canyon Apache to the riverbed.
To get from the north face of Taojdad back to the village it is supposedly possible to rap down the passage with the gigantic boulders mentioned above. The water was to high for us and we had to reverse the first pitch of Canyon Apache.
Classe Montagne Épinal **, 185 m, 6c+ (6b obligatory)
Approach: Scramble up the ledge system from right. The route follows a big pillar system.
P1 6b+. A very good vertical pitch
P2 6b. Another good pitch
P3 5+
P4 6c+ Good vertical face climbing with a hard sequence straight up from the belay.
P5 6a+ dihedral. Not so good. A shoulder length sling can be used around a tree at the top of the pitch
P6 6b Straight up to a ledge, then traverse far right on the ledge then straight up. Two ropes useful
P7 6a+ Many bolts. Finish on the ledge with belay on one bolt + tree.
Untie and scramble up diagonally to the right to the ledge system that traverse the mountain on the south east side. Follow the cairns.
Fat guides ***** 250 m, 7b+ (7a obi)
Start to the right of Zebda
For the grade it does not get much better. Dead vertical wall of perfect limestone. Will only improve as a few more ascents clean it up further.
P1 7b+ Hard start for the first few bolts, then steady climbing until a physical traverse out left. Finish up a very thin slab. This pitch probably sees some seepage as it was quite dirty. Felt like 7c/+ in the conditions we had, but it's very hard to guess what it would feel like if its clean.
P2 6c+ Nice short pitch.
P3 6c The same. The 3rd bolt is quite tricky to clip for short climbers
P4 7a+. Magnificent pitch, not alway totally obvious to find the best sequence. Semi-hanging belay. Felt like 7b/+ to me.
P5 7b? Easy climbing up to a short two-bolt crux to a good hold, then some pumpy climbing lead to a comfortable belay. Either I missed something, or this is more like 7b+/c. A bail biner on the bolt before the hardest part told me I’m not alone finding this difficult.
P6. 6c. Another very nice, short pitch to a good belay.
P7. 7a+ An absolutely superb pitch. Might actually be 7a+ as well. The first bolt is put in a bit too high, then there are 18(!) bolts in 50 m. It’s possible to shuffle bolts in a few places, in which case 15 draws should be enough
P8. 4. 15 m. No bolts. Climb a bit to the right, than back to the left to a two-bolt belay, Two shoulder length slings can be used for tying off some shrubs.
P9 3+ Traverse straight left on the sloping ledge. A rope can be nice for the first 15-20 m.
Continue to traverse the ledge and exit like Classe Montagne Épinal, or why not finish with the last two beautiful pitches of Belle et Berbère (6b+ and 6b+), if you haven’t climbed that before.
