Yalla Taghia! Support Young Climbers in Morocco

Aim: Kids in Taghia are held back from climbing simply because gear is expensive. Help us fix this and put the future of climbing in their hands!

Project Yalla Taghia, (“Let’s Go” in Arabic) aims to provide much-needed climbing equipment for kids in the Taghia Gorge, a remote climbing oasis situated in the high Atlas Mountains. 

While local guides are working hard to nurture young people into the sport, a lack of accessible equipment makes it harder to introduce kids to climbing and allow the passionate ones to pursue it further. 

At a time when Taghia is becoming a more popular climbing destination than ever, the potential for Taghia’s youth to shape the future of Taghia’s climbing community and participate in its growing adventure economy remains diminished.

We’re using our upcoming climbing trip in September to purchase and donate enough equipment for our partner Saïd Zouhairi, a local guide and Gîte (guesthouse) owner, to run regular climbing events and loan out equipment for kids to climb. 

 We ask with gratitude and humility for your help inspiring the next generation of Moroccan climbers. 

In the process, together we can imagine a more thoughtful and impactful form of climbing tourism.

Yalla!!!!!

Ilyass, Saïd, Chris

P.S Follow Us on Insta Here

The Magic of Taghia 

Nestled in the High Atlas Mountains, Taghia’s steep limestone cliffs, remote location, and immeasurable hospitality has made it one of the most sought-after climbing destinations in the world. 

The Amazigh (“free people”), or Berbers as they are commonly known, have climbed here for hundreds of years looking after livestock and collecting firewood. However, the development of climbing as a sport has largely been done by French and Spanish climbers since the 60s. 

 Today it attracts everyone from the world's best climbers to weekend warriors such as your humble authors.

Giving Back Through Climbing Tourism

In the early stages of planning our trip, we saw the potential to do something a little extra to give back to Taghia’s climbing community. It’s a remote region (full electricity only arrived in the 2000s) and most of the climbing is done by comparatively well-off foreigners instead of people from the area. 

We were particularly inspired by films like Patagonia’s Rock Al Kasbah, featuring climbers and guides like Said Belhaj and Mohamed Messaoudi who represent a new generation of Moroccans writing the next chapter of Taghia’s climbing story and inviting the world to be a part of it.  

Over a few Guinness 0.0s at the Brownswood Pub in Finsbury Park, we agreed supporting the next generation of local climbers inspired us the most as way to contribute.

This is of particular significance to Ilyass, who grew up on Morocco’s coast in Agadir, but was only introduced to climbing later when living in the UK. More kids deserve to have the chance to fall in love with the beauty that surrounds them!

Supporting the Local Guiding Community

(Saïd Zouhairi)

To understand the best way to be helpful, we reached out to the popular local guide and Gîte (guesthouse) owner Saïd Zouhairi. 

Guides like Saïd are primarily responsible for getting young people into climbing. With the lack of formal opportunities and resources, they step in to provide climbing sessions with the local schools whenever they can. 

Saïd explained that kids from the surrounding areas want to climb and how they light up as soon as they get on the rock! 

Nurturing this excitement and passion around climbing has the potential to blossom into to the next generation of climbers and guides.

The Cost of Equipment Is a Big Barrier to Youth Participation

While there is no shortage of interest, climbing equipment is harder to come by. Families from surrounding areas do not have the resources for expensive climbing equipment, and even for the few guides, accessing enough surplus equipment to loan out is difficult. 

We recognise growing climbing in the area is a multi-faceted issue, providing basic equipment is a relatively simple yet impactful way to create more opportunities for kids to get onto the rock.

The Equipment We Will Provide

Our aim is to provide enough equipment for Saïd and other guides to regularly run community climbing sessions on a more regular basis. 

Currently only a handful of harnesses, shoes are available, which means:

• It takes a lot of time to constantly swap a limited number of shoes, harnesses, chalk bags, etc. 
• Equipment wears down faster
• Sizing for different ages and genders is an issue, especially with shoes

Typical climbing days bring about 20 kids to the crag, so our fundraising goal reflects the costs of purchasing and transporting enough shoes, harnesses, chalk bags, and quickdraws to be regularly loaned out to local children and for organised climbing events through local schools.  (Note all kids climb with helmets, but those are in greater availability already).

We have chosen to purchase Simond equipment from Decathlon Morocco because of its affordable quality, and our ability to support a business operating in Morocco versus importing equipment from abroad. 

The Project Plan

We will raise the money over the summer, then in September purchase the equipment from Decathlon in Marrakesh before transporting it to Taghia. 

To celebrate the new equipment, Saïd is organising a day for children and teens interested in climbing from Taghia and neighbouring Zaouiat. The whole day will offer chances to climb no matter what level, in fun, safe environment.

Afterwards, Saïd will keep the equipment at his Gîte (guest house) for security and maintenance. This will be the hub through which he coordinates both organised climbing days and ad-hoc loans for kids to borrow equipment in their own time.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 8th September 2025 at 4:33pm