Tahat – Algeria Highpoint

Tahat (9,541 ft)  – Highpoint of Algeria

March 20, 2024

Eric, Serge, Markus, Michel

I had a week off for spring break from school and Serge and I wanted to bag some country highpoints. My to-do list for countries is getting smaller now, but I have a handful left in Africa that are in season during late March (meaning dry season and not too hot).

After iterating through flight possibilities we settled on doing the Algeria highpoint, Tahat. Adding on other countries like Niger sounded appealing, but was too tight with my timeframe. I’ve found in Africa trips never go exactly as planned and buffer time always needs to be built in.

Tahat is located in southern Algeria, and that region had been closed off to tourists between 2010-2022 due to activity from AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Magreb). In early 2023 the area became safer, though the US State department still cautions against visiting the area within about 200km of he Niger border on the south. Tahat is a bit farther away than this.

In February 2023, Lars Holmes was one of the first foreigners in to climb Tahat, and he was followed by other groups in October 2023 and Feb 2024. Serge and I decided to get on the bandwaggon and climb Tahat before the safe window closed again. The other groups reported they needed police and military escorts for the whole trip, so the area still sounded potentially volatile. In order to arrange the escorts we would do exactly what they did, which was have a local tour operator coordinate logistics. We went with their same operator, Mouflon Tours.

The primary languages in southern Algeria are French and Arabic, and Serge speaks fluent French. So Serge coordinated with Mouflon tours.

I simply needed to get a visa for Algeria and a flight. But, surprisingly, these two seemingly trivial tasks would turn out to be the crux of the trip for me. This is why I refer to this trip as the Murphey’s Law trip. So many things that could go wrong did go wrong. It was like a perfect storm of fiascos. The next section of this trip report should be one sentence, like “I got the visa, took my flight, and arrived in Tamanrasset as scheduled.” But, instead, perhaps the most interesting part of the trip was that section.

I first paid Visahq for visa services and mailed my passport in to the Algeria Embassy in Washington DC. The embassy then called me back and said I didn’t need a visa. As long as I was visiting the southern region of Algeria and Mouflon gave me a “Boarding Authorization” document, then I could present this in Algiers and it would count. The embassy then mailed me back my passport. (Incidentally, visahq refused to reimburse for the visa fee I’d paid them even though I got no visa). That’s when the trouble started.

The tracking website showed my passport had arrived at my mailbox, but my mailbox was empty. Coincidentally I had just applied for a new bank card and credit card that had been delivered, but they also weren’t in the mailbox. Someone had stolen my mail and taken it all. I remembered a few months ago a postal worker had been robbed of their keys, and the locks never switched, so it is probably the same thieves. (Incidentally, I’ve now moved to a safer suburb outside of Seattle).

I soon got an alert that my bank and credit cards had been used at a nearby ATM and a bunch of money withdrawn before the bank locked the cards. This was troubling because the thieves would have needed my social security number and phone number to activate those cards. Maybe they somehow used my passport to get this information. Or maybe they got it from the Equifax breach a few years ago.

I called the Seattle police but they didn’t want to do anything. They told me they’d file my report in a database but not investigate. But there was security camera footage at the ATM and I knew the exact 5-minute time window when the card was used! Still, they didn’t want to investigate. Apparently the Seattle Police department would rather citizens perform vigilante justice than the police department actually do its job.

I told them I would personally contact the bank and get the security camera footage and send it to the police. They said if they got that then maybe they would take a look if they got around to it, but no guarantees. This was extremely frustrating, but I got a hold of the bank and they said they would send it to the police. They didn’t want to send it to me directly. So the police now have the footage, but I have zero confidence they will do anything.

I then went through the identity theft resources from the government websites and put the appropriate alerts on all my accounts.

Next, I needed a new passport for Algeria. This happened about 2 weeks before my flight, so it was too tight a window to apply for a passport online (that takes 3 weeks). I would have to do it in person. I had already gotten the Boarding Authorization document from Mouflon, but that was specific to my passport, so I would need a new one. That process is a 2-week process.

Timing was very tight, but fortunately there is a passport processing center in Seattle. I scheduled an appointment, and walked over there after class on Friday morning. After filling out all the paperwork they told me they could print a passport by Tuesday. I pleaded with them if they could expedite it and they said the best they could do was Monday.

By Monday I got the new passport as promised and immediately sent a picture to Serge, who sent it to Mouflon. They said there was a special rush service to get the authorization document in 10 days, which would barely work.

Indeed, Mouflon pulled through and got me the document before my flight. So I thought everything was finally in order. But I was in store for even bigger problems.

I had purchased my round trip flight to Algiers through a new third-party agency ly.com. This is a chinese-based company similar to Expedia that offers incredible deals on flights. It was 40% cheaper to purchase the flight through them than directly through the airlines. I would be connecting in Istanbul flying on Turkish Airlines. As I’ve discovered, though, this kind of deal is not worth the risk. If anything non-standard happens with a flight and you’ve booked through a third-party agency, you basically lose all your money, and maybe need to abandon the trip.

Two days before the flight I learned Turkish airlines had cancelled the Istanbul-Algiers leg. I called ly.com to reschedule, but after hours on the phone and multiple requests from ly.com to Turkish airlines, it turned out ly.com had no idea what to do. The Turkish Airlines customer service department was also clueless what to do. They suggested going to the ticket counter and seeing if the ticket agent had any idea. (In restrospect, if I had simply booked directly through Turkish from the beginning, they would have put me on the next flight for free automatically).

March 15

I showed up four hours early on Friday afternoon for my flight, after finishing grading my last final exam, and talked to the agents in person. They originally said I was out of luck and only ly.com could change the ticket. I got ly.com on the phone and they said they couldn’t do anything either. After an hour of back and forth finally the ticket agent relented and manually put me on the next available Istanbul-Algiers leg a few hours later. It appears Turkish tries to make this as difficult as possible to discourage people from purchasing tickets through a third-party agency. Though, in reality, Turkish is of course capable of moving me to the next flight with a few key strokes.

Finally everything looked in order and I boarded the plane. The plane started taxiing down the runway, and I’d made it halfway through my first movie, but then it turned around and returned to the gate. The pilot said there was a technical issue (I later learned the brakes were malfunctioning and they’d need to send in engineers from Istanbul on the next available flight).

Back at the gate chaos ensued as all ~300 passengers rushed back to the ticket counter at midnight to try to salvage their plans. The ticket agents said all passengers would automatically be booked on the next available Istanbul flight, which was 24 hours after the original flight. They would have the same seats as before. Turkish would reimburse for hotels, taxis, and food purchased during the intermediate 24 hours.

Luckily I had built in a few buffer days on the trip, so it could still work out even with a 24 hour delay. It would be way too expensive to book a last minute ticket, so I reluctantly decided to go home for the night. The light rail wasn’t running that late so I took a taxi, naively trusting the agents that the fee would be reimbursed. (Incidentally, Turkish airlines has refused to reimburse that taxi fare, making up laughably ridiculous excuses, like “your receipt is not an invoice” and then “your invoice is not a receipt”). At home I purchased a new round trip ticket from Algiers to Tamanrasset, the starting town for Tahat. I had also made the mistake on that ticket of booking through a cheap third-party agency (GoToGate.com), and changes were not allowed. Since I would miss the first leg, then my return flight would be canceled and I might as well just buy a whole new ticket and lose the money I’d already spent.

March 16

Saturday afternoon I took light rail back to the airport (I was rightly skeptical about an expensive taxi fee being reimbursed). I showed up five hours early this time, but already several hundred people were in line. There were now two planes both going to Istanbul at 7:40pm – the new passengers and my group that had missed the previous flight.

Chaos again ensued as the ticket agents tried to move the new passengers to the front of the line. They also tried to give paperwork to the passengers that missed the previous flight. No passengers understood what was going on, people were trying to cut the line, and most of the ticket agents were new to the job as of that week and seemed utterly confused. It was the biggest fiasco I’ve ever witnessed in an airport. Turkish airlines would give every passenger a 600Euro voucher for our troubles, but they made us each sign a form stating we’d received the voucher, before we’d actually received the voucher. This only added to the confusion.

I eventually made it to the counter, but they told me there was a problem with my ticket and I needed to wait. Gradually all the other passengers went through until it was just me and two other people waiting. By then the flight had been delayed 3 hours to accomodate the fiasco at the counter. Finally one agent came up to me and said I could not board. He wouldn’t say why. It was 10pm by then and he brought me up to a back office. I eventually coaxed out of him that the flight had been overbooked and I was kicked off! It appeared since I had booked through a third-party agency then I got the lowest priority and was kicked off.

The agent said they could put me on the next 7:40pm flight the next day, but by then I had zero confidence in Turkish airlines. I asked for a refund for the flight but he said he couldn’t do it since it was booked through another agency. After an hour of debating we settled on cancelling the first leg but switching the ticket to be just a one way back from Algiers, so I wouldn’t lose that leg by not showing up to the first leg. Then I would buy a last minute flight to Algiers on the next available flight (definitly not Turkish and not through a third-party agency).

(Incidentally, both Turkish Airlines and ly.com have refused to reimburse for the cancelled Seattle-Algiers leg, again giving laughably ridiculous excuses like “it was abandoned so it was your fault” or “ly.com booked it so Turkish can’t give a refund” or “it’s Turkish Airline’s responsibility, so ly.com can’t give a refund”).

I found a reasonably-priced ticket on Alaska leaving 7am the next morning connecting in Paris. That would get me to Algiers in time to barely catch my flight to Tamanrasset. I quickly bought it on my phone. By then it was midnight and I decided to just sleep in the airport.

March 17-18

Sunday morning I finally got on the flight and, amazingly, I made it all the way to Algiers by Monday afternoon on schedule. There I presented the Boarding Authorization document and the agent went to a back room. After 30 minutes he came back, stamped my passport, and I was through.

I made it on my Tamanrasset flight, and arrived a bit after midnight Tuesday morning. Someone from Mouflon met me there, and two police cruisers escorted us from the airport to town. I got in a hotel and finally crashed for the night. It had been a pretty sleepless three-day journey to get there, but finally the flying leg of the journey was over.

March 19

The next morning at 9am Adnan met me out front and we drove an hour into the desert. There two Land Cruisers pulled over and Serge, Michel, and Markus came out along with two drivers from Mouflon. They had gotten there the previous day on schedule and had spent the night camping out in the desert. Apparantly we didn’t need a military escort like the previous groups had, so it appears the area has gotten a bit safer in the past few months.

We drove a few hours north on deteriorating roads and soon entered the Hogar range. Big peaks that reminded me of Devil’s Tower stuck up out of the desert. Port de Hogar was the first big one, followed by Tezouiag Norte and Tezouiag Sur. By mid afternoon we reached Fukol, where there was a gate. It appears you need special permission to proceed farther, which we had. The plan was to spend the night there, though. There was a small monastery on a nearby peak and we could get a good view of Tahat at sunset.

We had a few hours of daylight left so we hiked up Angakli Peak to the south, then hiked over to Assekrem to the north. There we indeed had a great view of Tahat. Michel spoke to a priest up there in the monastery. The priest said he lives there all year and makes one trip to Tamanrasset per year over Easter. He said the area used to be a popular tourist destination with direct daily flights from Paris to Tamanrasset! Apparently the Assekrem area was a popular pilgramage destination. But then around 2010 the area became too unsafe and tourists didn’t come for a 12-year period. But in 2023 it became safer and tourists started returning. He also said it hadn’t rained there in the past four years!

As sunset approached we saw other people hike up to the top. In all about 20 other people, mostly from France, were up there to watch sunset. I was very surprised. Some had climbed Tahat the previous day, and others were hiking the route we were driving over a ~weeklong trip with camels.

Sunset over Tahat was spectacular, and we later descended to a refugio at Fukol to sleep inside for the night. The drivers cooked us a nice dinner of bread, cous cous, and chicken.

March 20

The next morning we contined driving west over rough roads, reaching the end of the road at the base of Tahat in 1.5 hours. There was already another group there that had camped the night and were hiking through.

We loaded up some water and food in our packs and started up. We traversed NW until we hit the south rib of Tahat, then followed that up. There was no trail but travel was straightforward. Higher up the rib we started following cairns and passed a group descending. Near the top we found some nice bivy sites, then we scrambled a short third class section. After 2 hours we reached the summit, marked by a metal pole and a big register.

There was an eastern bump along the ridge that looked of similar height, so we quickly tagged that before returning to the summit with the pole and register. Views were amazing with no signs of civilization in any direction. Illamane peak rose to the south, and looked remarkably like Devil’s Tower. That peak is technical, though it’s a bit shorter than Tahat. It looked like a fun climb.

We hung out for half an hour taking pictures, then descended. On the way down I made a detour to scramble up Talek Peak, following Rob Woodall’s beta. This had a fun exposed scramble section on the NW ridge leading to a nice small summit.

We soon all regrouped back at the road and loaded up into the Land Cruisers. Instead of heading directly back the way we’d come we made a loop. This is the standard itinerary for groups visiting Tahat, I’ve heard. It’s nice to be able to see different areas of the Hogar range.

We drove south of Illamane, then down to an old mosque structure. Nearby we found a sheltered pullout to spend the night. There were a few interesting peaks near camp, so we scrambled up one just before dinner. That night we had a small campfire (with wood brought in from Tamanrasset), and slept in tents.

March 21

The next morning we drove through Illamane village, then continued to view some 5000 year old stone carvings of giraffes and impalas. The area used to be much more lush a few thousand years ago. After lunch we scrambled up an interesting monolith peak named Tisalateen. There was no obvioius non-technical way up  from the road, but I scrambled around the back side and found a tunnel up through some boulders balanced on the steep slabs. From there a short scramble led to the summit.

That afternoon we returned to Tamanrasset and stayed at the Mouflon lodge. We caught a 3:30am flight out of Tamanrasset that evening and all made it back home on schedule.

Based on this experience, I have some recommendations on international flights:

1. Only book through a third-party agency if the plans are very flexible and can be delayed by several days if needed. Otherwise book directly through the airline. This will be more expensive, but if anything non-standard occurs the airline will take care of getting you to your destination as quickly as possible.

2. Always book two separate one-way tickets instead of a round trip. This might be more expensive, but if one leg gets missed this avoids the problem of the return leg getting automatically cancelled. In general, if you miss the first leg of a round trip flight the return leg is automatically cancelled.

 

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