Oh hey there Supertopo, long time no see.

A friend of mine and I decided to take a break from grad school and meet up in Morocco for some climbing and camel-riding.


I flew in from the States, she flew in from France, and we met in the middle. Clearly Africa was the logical choice for a girls-only spring break trip.
The trip was a mixture of adventure travel and climbing. Often a combination of the two in order to get to our climbing destination: Todra Gorge.

If you're thinking to yourself: "how good can the climbing be in the middle of a village in Morocco", well you have it all wrong. The climbing was spectacular. Think Red Rocks, but the approaches are shorter, the camping is cheaper and there are a lot more goats.


Todra climbing is a mixture of well-bolted sport, not-so-well bolted sport, mixed routes that should just be called trad routes and trad. The rock is sharp and volcanic-looking, but not brittle or 'sandy' like typical sandstone. I'm not the geologist here (my partner 'A' is), so you can ask her what the geology was like.


So the logistics: I flew into Marrakech a few days earlier and explored on my own. I don't speak Arabic or French, so communication was a mixture of English, Spanish and surprisingly even some Russian with some Czech guys I met.

Marrakech is a wandering city and Morocco is a wandering kind of country. I didn't have an itinerary and things worked out day by day. The markets were filled with spices, dates, sweets and all sorts of carpets and other goods to be traded from all across Africa. The best way to experience this country is to just wake up and see where the day takes you.


Morocco is a trading city and has been for thousands of years. The Berber people were the ones crossing the Sahara desert to trade with the Sub-Saharan people and then coming back over the Atlas Mountains.


Carpets of all kinds of patterns (that tell stories) and colors were offered at every corner.
Now if you're like me, then you would've been as surprised as I was to see snowfields as I was crossing the Atlas Mountains on my way to the Sahara Desert.


Morocco has lots of microclimates and different landscapes from brushy forests to sand dunes and gorges filled with oases.




Several goals for the trip were a) to ride a camel in the Sahara b) go to a hammam spa c) find some wall climbing d) avoid snakes


I was successful in all of these pursuits (except part d, turns out cobras are a thing in Morocco).

If you ever looked at a camel and thought 'that looks comfortable to ride', you'd be sorely mistaken. My camel, I named Josef, was super tall and bleached white and was very keen on both stooping down to eat grass as well as do his best to throw me off.

Here is a shot of Josef in all his mischievous glory:


I rode Josef for over a few days and we had an understanding relationship. To ride a camel without getting awkward bruises, I took a leaf from the book of the Berber locals I was traveling with and sat with one leg crossed in front of me. This was a precarious position, but was more comfortable in the long run. Also Josef seemed to prefer this method to the typical 'horse saddle'.


Waking up at dawn to watch the sunrise bleed away the milky way and the stars in the desert is something else. Here is a poor photo, because I'm not a photographer, but I'm sure you can imagine what the whole sky looked like:


I spent time on the border with Algeria on the tip of the Sahara Desert expanse. No electricity or wifi, so I spent time with the Berber locals to keep myself entertained.


Now a word about the turbans and the face scarves and the headscarves that you see in all these photos. I did NOT have to wear one, however, after a day trekking across the desert with the wind and the sand blowing around, the clothing was the only thing keeping the sand from my eyes and my hair from getting caked up and stiff.


There's a reason people adopted looser clothing in this area. The skirts and flowy dresses keep air circulating and are much more comfortable than say, jeans. The sun is so hot and baking at times, that the only way to keep yourself protected is with a scarf. A baseball hat does nothing to shield you from the sun's rays.

That's why I climbed a lot of the time with a scarf draped over my shoulders to prevent sunburn. Makes for a great cover-up at belays.


So now on to the climbing. A and I climbed primarily in a place called the Todra Gorge. Gorgeous canyon gorge with a river running through it (no idea where the water comes from) and an oasis where we stayed in a beautiful hostel for $15/night.


For $15, we had our own room overlooking the oasis date palms and almond trees blossoming, breakfast and dinner, wifi and our own bathroom+shower. The only thing not included was lunch, and we didn't need any since we spent the days up on the walls climbing. Unbelievable. I could live here for months and do work remotely.


I had my corner where I would get up at 7am and watch the village awaken, while scanning the guidebook, drinking many refills of my mint green tea and Moroccan coffee, and waiting for A to wake up and join me for freshly cooked, homemade breakfast.


I'm not one to take photos of my food, but this was too good not to share.


The climbing was spectacular. Relaxed. We had plenty of time in the day. No rush. The perfect spring break climbing location. We would walk up to the cliffs (with thousands of routes) we fancied alongside the goats in the morning, and take our cue from the goats leaving back into the hills when it would be time to go home.



There's a story behind the henna drawn on A's hand below. She didn't want it, especially after I remarked that it looked like a tree root growing on her hand. She got accosted by a local woman in the Marrakech market on her first day. The lady pulled her hand from her pocket, and before A could say anything else, started drawing the symbol. By then it was too late.


A and I were psyched pretty much the whole time, especially since we only saw maybe two other climbing parties the entire time we were there, so we had all the classics to ourselves.



Rappelling in the new climbing fashion: scarves



We had a couple mishaps with ropes getting stuck and not being long enough. This involved shenanigans with rappelling, but nothing that an engineer and a geologist couldn't figure out.


There was this moment when I left A by herself in-direct to an anchor, prompting the comment of 'Chick on Ice, we're friends right? Please don't leave me here on this 500' ledge.'


All's well that ends well. My biggest recommendation is to wear sunscreen and bring lots of water and drink water before the climb like a camel would.


We met some local nomads that lived in caves in the hills and shared our athletic tape, so they could fix up some of their shoes.


I became friends with a little girl named Fatima that was very serious.


Also climbing in a skirt and chaco sandals is hard and I wouldn't recommend it, even if you see a bail 'biner not too far off the ground on an easy 5.8. What can I say, I can't resist shiny things.


All in all, a grand adventure in Africa and definitely not my last. Now I just need to decide where to hang the carpet that I'm now the owner of.