New climbs in Algeria's Hoggar mountains

In 2023, I spent the first twenty days of November climbing in the Hoggar massif in southern Algeria with Riki Felderer and Federico Martinelli. And when I say southern Algeria, I mean deep south: to give you an idea, the nearest town with a small airport, Tamanrasset, is further from Algiers than Algiers is from Milan — and there’s really nothing else within a 600 km radius!

During our stay, accompanied — or rather, guided — by our Tuareg friends Ayub, Abdullah, and Abdullah, we explored all the main peaks of the Hoggar massif, except for the Garet El Djenoun area.

As we roamed around in a jeep, sleeping in a different spot every night, we repeated some climbs and established some of our own. The new route we’re most proud of, for the beauty of the line, the quality of the rock, and the commitment required, is undoubtedly Les Hommes Bleus. This route ascends the northwest face of the incredible Elephant formation in the Tesnou area. L'Elephant is a massive, rounded monolith of coarse-grained brown granite that juts out from the desert sands. It’s the last peak separating the rocky area to the west from the desert as we imagine it.

Most routes on this peak are friction slabs, but ours follows the only true crack system of the mountain. The two hardest pitches were climbed by Federico, who was shamelessly exploited by Riki and myself as the sacrificial leader.

The desert left a deep impression on me, as did the rhythm and lifestyle of the Tuareg people. From the moment I returned home, partly thanks to my compulsive listening to desert blues (think Tinariwen, Bombino, and Mdou Moctar), I decided I'd go back the following year. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," I said to myself. And so, in November 2024, I returned as a mountain guide with Filippo and Davide, exploring the Tesnou area and the trachyte towers in the south. We were joined by our friends Fabio De Cesero and Olaf Lovat who made us happy, between cups of desert tea, by onsighting Les Hommes Bleus and confirming, thankfully, its beauty and difficulty.