Adrar Bou Nasser - p600.org

Three planned Moroccan ultrapeaks have been climbed, leaving two to go. So, we’re doing a big Northeasterly loop along the Atlas Mountains, and Adrar Bou Nasser is the most suitable mountain for the next climb. We get up early, drive to the trailhead, and leave the car at the end of the unpaved road.

Villages near the bottom of the mountain

The path is very gradual to begin with, but there’s no point in driving a car either

The road continues for several hundred meters, followed by a walk along the riverbed. Later, we turn toward the gully. Strange as it may seem, a shepherd’s path winds through the gully.

We climb steep gully and the layered mountains remind me of the Faroe Islands

The gully is quite steep in a few places, but nothing to worry about

Closer to the top of the ridge, the scree trail is steep. Ah, there is a black plastic pipe going from the valley bottom to the top plateau. It works as a good trail marker that can be followed. After climbing up to the ridge, it is now quite a flat walk.

Following the pipe, the apex plateau can be reached

The whole top is a large and more or less flat field of stones

We need to remember where we’ve come from; it will come in handy on the way back. Although we have GPS tracks,

This is a South summit, if I’m not mistaken

We move fast on a stony surface and soon reach the West peak. Rockinstraw and Said stopped here; I moved on, first towards the N, then to the S peak. My measurements with the phone show that the W peak is the highest, followed by N, and then by S. Of course, these are phone measurements, so they could be off. I believe I’ve seen every possible high point.

Rockinstraw (left) and me (right) It would be good to remember why we have such “big smiles” on our faces..

The North summit as seen from the W peak. I took a detour to the North summit on the way down

If I’m not mistaken, that’s what it looked like—the South summit. I also detoured to the South summit on the way down

On the way down, we decide to follow the same path. However, initially we were planning to descend a longer, less steep gully in the West. I’m only guessing, but I believe both trails would be very similar.

At the same gully, we descend, shortening the trail where it seems logical

There is little vegetation, and most of it has dried up

The road we came from and at the end of which we left the car

Another beautiful day in Morocco, and the fourth of five ultra-summits planned. Now a bit of driving to the North, towards the Mediterranean Sea, and we will try Jebel Tidirhine tomorrow or maybe the day after.

Adrar Bou Nasser	3340 m altitude	1642 m prominence 147.59 km isolation
Ranges	Atlas Mountains - Northwestern Atlas
Countries/regions	Morocco - Fez-Meknes
Distance	6.10 km up	7.10 km down
Elevation	1224 m gain	1224 m loss
Time	4h05 up 0h10 other	2h55 down 7h10 total
Trailhead	2115 m altitude	33.5241389, -3.8992500
Route	We began at the gigantic bowl-shaped plateau in the south. The former was a gradual trail in the river bed, while the latter was a steeper trail via gully to the top plateau. The trail is not always obvious, but thanks to the plastic water pipe, it is easy to follow. Once we reach the top plateau, it's a simple, flat walk through the stone fields to the summit. It's better to refer to all three or four summits because it is not clear which one is higher. We descended the same path.
Links	GPX trail