HOGGAR, ALGERIA
TISSALATINE
LE POIDS ET LA MESURE
One day, wake up and wish to
be somewhere else. Discover a new world, an ancient world. Deep in the Sahara, the Hoggar, stronghold
of the Touareg (the mysterious ‘blue men’ of the desert), holds many a dream of travel
and climbing.
Granite domes or basalt needles sown here and there amongst the dunes, in the bend
of a wadi, solitary climbs lost out in the desert - the stuff of adventure and pure friction
climbing.Don’t wait. Start climbing and go beyond your imagination. Play with the rock. Try
bouldering at the start of LE POIDS ET LA MESURE, on a 12 metre block, poised in equilibrium
as if by a miracle. Improvise the descent. Share tea back in the bivvy. Algeria or another country.
It’s up to you. It’s up to you.
KEY INFORMATION
GET THE FULL STORY FROM:
Climbing on the north face of a granite domeGPS reference (WGS 84 mode / North reference true) at the foot of the climb are as follows: 22°58,492’ N and 5°22, 502’E. For more on the rest of the Hoggar mountains read “Escalade et randonnées au Hoggar et dans les Tassilis”
(Climbing and walking the Hoggar in the Tassilis), by Bernard Pierre and Claude Aulard, published by
Arthaud.
Departure:
Tamanrasset.
34 kms of piste(have some de-sanding plates ready), lead to the north of Tissalatine, to a group
of granite domeswhere five routes have been opened up of various lengths from 4 to 6c+.
Difficulty: 6b.
Height: 160 metres, 4 routes.
Time of year: preferably winter (northern hemisphere…).
Time: a few hours.
Equipment: 10 mm bolts. Take a 50 m half-rope.
First
climbed by: Thomas Dulac and Peggy Touvet 27 and 28 January 2003.
Map: map of Tamanrasset, 1/200,000.