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On the track up for Laqroun

We continued up the gorge then angled off up a long ridge, snow-edged, for Ouzoua (Ouzwa)-n-Igader (3093m) on the south side of our glen, looking across to the sprawl of Laqroun. The limestone meant good flowers. We hit the crest and undulated along to the highest point of a rewarding summit. The north-east corrie was a jam roll of layered strata, and we looked right into the big cirque of Mouriq, also on the ‘shopping list’ after our 1995 walk through. The descent to the Tizi n’ Wangargi (2650m) wasn’t straightforward, with barring crags and snow gullies. (From Laqroun it was all black and white stripes.) Laqroun thereafter was really just a long plod, keeping to the edge being the most interesting line until rising onto the crest, which gave endless bumps and hollows and a confusion of final bumps for the summit, at 3117m.

Passing traveller

Camp was at c2010m, so feeling the 1000m descent hard work was justified. We simply went on and descended the corrie/valley straight to our overnight site. A relaxing end of the day would have been pleasant, but some of the party who had just ‘bagged’ Laqroun rather than making the circuit were itching to descend to Tamga (1167m) that night – another 3½ hours of descent (Morocco has such depths as well as heights!), and we arrived at dusk after a 13½-hour day. This forced descent was made because some of the party wanted to find a way up the Cathedral. They failed. The saner of us had a delectable day doing very little and resting afterwards. A cathedral, after all, calls for worship.