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I know of people who have refused to visit the Atlas ‘because it is all so barren’. The summits indeed can be, but trekking, camping, village life and cultivation takes place or exists in the valleys, and they are intensely green or ablaze with blossom in spring – and it is that we happily recall. At the end of our big 96-day trek, against the list of our camps I put a symbol to mark the more memorable spots. I found I’d marked nearly all the sites. Being there and travelling through was every bit as important as success on any mountain. You can, of course, trek happily through the Atlas without going up any mountain – you may prefer this after reading some of the escapades described in this book!
The Tichka Plateau, with Imaradene top right (Route 44)
If you can cope with snow climbs, winter into spring is a good time to visit. I’d much rather plod up Toubkal on skis or using crampons than fight its summer waste of scree. Spring is the perfection, with blossom and life awakening, and as late as June alpine flowers will still be colouring high ground. By July the temperature is soaring and tends to stay so until the autumn equinox. Autumn has its attractions too – it is harvest time, and storms are less likely, but you’ll find a burnt-up landscape. November, December and January are the least good months, yet Christmas–Hogmanay in the Anti-Atlas or Jbel Sarho can be attractive. All the same, I’ve sat at a table in the Todra gorge with disconsolate climbers, looking out at the snow piling up on the palm trees. The weather seems to have become as erratic in Morocco as everywhere else. For years, early on, we did things on snow slopes (afoot or on skis) which we would never have done in the Alps. There were never any avalanches – until one year there was nothing else. Likewise, we never saw a flash flood – then, in the last years of the past century, they occurred again and again. Sensitivity to risk is vital, and is another reason for having locals along. Meld with the mountains and they mostly bless us.