The Samazar Valley runs parallel and to the north of the Anammer Valley, which contains many of the more frequented crags such as Ksar Rock and Eagle Crag. Strictly speaking, Icebox Canyon is in the Samazar, even though it’s much easier to access it by hopping over the top from south. Until recently, the route through the Samazar / Tamdkrt Valley was a perilous dirt road, with grave warnings of the hazard of losing your sump an hour’s drive from civilisation, with no phone signal and little passing traffic. Happily there’s now a shiny new strip of black-top, giving access to some fantastic crags in only 30mins from the Kasbah (and a new phone mast also means you can pick up a whif of signal too!)

Dragon Rock is perhaps the centrepiece of the area, although you can’t actually see the main attraction of Dragon Buttress from the parking spot, even though it’s only a 20mins or so approach (not 10 as in the guide), as it’s hidden around the back.

Here’s the approach path taken on the way out, with Dragon Rock on the left.

Hint – resist the temptation to traverse too close to the base of the crag, there’s a decent path a little further away. Here’s a pic of the collapsing mud /stone brown house mentioned on the approach description.

There are a bunch of 3* routes in the HVS to E2 range, and Paul and I did Firesword, E1 5b, whilst Andy and Graham did Fantasia at the same grade. Firesword’s 4 pitches are all 5b and all the best part of a full rope length, steadily ramping up in quality from excellent to sublime. P1 tackles a hard-to-enter crack on the right edge of the Golden Pillar…

P2 follows more cracks to a magnificent stance on the edge of the pillar, overlooking the righthand side of the crag.

Here’s a shot of Jayne on one of the VSs to the right, and the hinterland beyond.

This eyrie gives a comfortable stance from which to eyeball the evil-looking offwidth start to P3 (#4 Camalot useful). This guards a left-then-right zigzag crack followed by thin wall climbing to beneath the final overhanging corner.

P4 avoids a direct confrontation with this via a steep flake on the left,

… before a pumpy traverse into the corner and great climbing in an exhilarating position brings you to the top of the crag. Superb, another 4* outing and probably borderline E1/E2.

Here’s Paul following P4

Part way up P4 I got a couple of shots of Tony on the final pitch of Brisinger, the 3* HVS that runs parallel to Firesword.

Quite a complex descent takes you up over a pinnacle before a feint path with an occasional cairn leads west before looping back to the base of the crag – be careful not to go too low.

Magnificent views of the Golden Pillar with the lines of Firesword and Brisinger clearly visible. Despite being on a NW facing wall, the pillar is angled more to the west so is pretty sunny from midday – in fact most of the so-called shady crags see quite a lot of sun, simply because it’s so high given the southerly latitude.

So much more rock to go at around the tiny hamlet of Tamdakrt.

… and fine views of Icebox Canyon from below on the drive out.

Back down in tip to cool off in this pool beneath a dry waterfall…

… and a celebratory mint tea on the terrace.

The Flat Iron is another major crag in the Samazar / Tamdkrt Valley, and the striking profile has a clear resemblance to its Colorado namesake when seen approaching from the East.

Andy and I had been attracted by the description of Asgard, E3 5c, on Valhalla Wall: “a great adventure with lots of good pitches ascending the full height of the cliff” With a height of 375m it would certainly be a great adventure. The promised 10mins approach proved to be a complete fiction, and after spending 20 mins grappling with impenetrable jungle on the suggested route, we bailed back to the road to access the wall more directly from below – easier, but still a prickly 20mins plus.

Valhalla Wall, when you finally reach it, is quite impressive…

… as is the view down from the start…

The line of the route is fairly obvious, though the supposed 4b approach pitch (Hard Very Vegetated!) gave an indication of the amount of traffic the route has seen.

P2 climbs a flake “until forced rightwards” but Andy is not easily “forced” anywhere and ploughed on upwards (almost literally given the state of the vegetation), not having found an obvious point to head right.

It turned out that this circumvented half of P2 and P3, but a bonus was that I was able to run the second half of P3 into P4 with a full 60m run out (and a pretty decent pitch).

Great views up the Samazar zigzags and down to Dragon Rock (with the approach skirting it’s base clearly visible)

P5 was a bit rambling after a steep start…

… but P6 took an impressive line up the centre of the huge while tower, with a couple of thin thought-provoking moves to a hidden “alp” about 100m below the top of the crag. This was an idyllic verdant oasis of flowers and butterflies until the thrumming sound of a swarm of bees, sounding like a badly-tuned Hartley-Davidson, disturbed the peace. Luckily they swarmed past!

Andy powered up the long 5c crux pitch 7, battling more vegetation, some balancy run-out climbing and a fierce but well-protected corner, and I romped to the top up the easy final P8.

About 5hrs wasn’t too shabby and it had certainly been an adventure, though 3* would be stretching a point.

The descent gully was surprisingly benign and we were down in time to get some pics of Paul and Graham topping out on Grand Central, E2 5b. It looks stunning, but they reported a similar experience of adventure and lack of traffic, perhaps not meriting 3*. Hopefully more ascents will see both routes clean up and reach their full potential.

It’s undoubtedly a mighty fine bit of rock, especially in the setting sun.

… as is Icebox Canyon!

A final breakfast on the terrace brought an end to our stay at the Kasbah…

… but we managed to extend our Anti-Atlas Adventure for another couple of hours with a quick airport-day hit on Fire Wall, Tifghelt Col, above The Escarpment Road in Tizi North. This is only about 15mins from the Kasbah, and less than 2hrs to Agadir Airport. Throw in the northerly aspect, 10mins approach and abseil desceent, and we’d found a perfect venue for our last hurrah!

Paul and I did Kestrel Wall, E2 5b, and a full 60m. Stupendous and sustained climbing and comfortably in my top 5 pitches of the trip.

Andy and Graham did Gearleaver, a 3* 2-pitch HVS with a committing first pitch (hard for 4c!)

and a spectacular P2 taking an airy traverse before blasting upwards. Here’s Andy on this pitch.

Paul and I couldn’t resist nipping up it, despite the impending self-imposed deadline for our departure for our flight. Here’s Paul on the exposed traverse.

A great way to wrap up a memorable trip, topping off a mile or so of superb tagine-fuelled E1/2 quartzite climbing, washed down with lashings of mint tea and accompanied by much banter and laughter. Of course, the climbing is only a part of it, and the whole experience is greatly enhanced by the genuine warmth and hospitality of our Moroccan Berber hosts.