After returning from Ama Dablam (6,812m), Mélanie's body abruptly forced her to stop. Overnight, she found herself in cardiac intensive care, going from the strongest she had ever been to the greatest weakness.
Here, she recounts that aftermath.
That hazy moment when strength falters, when confidence cracks.
And when a need becomes evident: to find a new horizon for rebuilding.
Opening new routes when the body falters
Sometimes, you just have to dive back in.
Opening 14 new routes in the desert wasn't what the doctor ordered, but it was exactly what my heart needed.
The last two months have been heavy. I had just returned from Ama Dablam (6,812m) when I suddenly found myself in cardiac intensive care. Overnight, I went from the strongest I had ever been to the greatest weakness.
What followed was an endless series of tests and scans, with no results. My body had slowed down without explanation. My heart rate remained constantly high, and I was perpetually nauseous.
Eating was a daily struggle. Even in intensive care, COOKNRUN energy bars were my little lifelines. When all else failed, I still had an appetite for these small nuggets.
When I got the green light to slowly resume sports, one thing was clear:
I needed a new horizon.
A completely different world to immerse myself in.
So when Steve, a good friend from university, called me to suggest opening new routes in the Moroccan desert for his future guidebook, it became obvious.
The Anti-Atlas
Tafraoute lies in the heart of a Martian landscape of red rocks and sand. As far as the eye can see, the desert is filled with ancient, sharp, sun-baked, fire-colored granite blocks, crossed from ground to sky by a single line of weakness.
Finger cracks.
Perfect handjams.
Technical laybacks.
Offwidths that make you question all your life choices.
If you love crack climbing, the Anti-Atlas is not just a climbing site, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. Every new wall made us whisper the same thing:
"No way this line has never been climbed..."
And yet, it was.
And that, that's a whole different kind of magic.
Opening a route
Nothing compares to standing beneath a line no one has climbed yet.
It's a mix of curiosity, joy, and immense respect:
Will it go?
Is it within my capabilities?
Is the gear solid?
Opening a new route is like unwrapping a gift, one move, one cam, one breath at a time.
Sometimes the rock gives you the most glorious handjam in the world exactly when your brain is screaming "we're screwed."
Sometimes it throws a new sandbag move at you, and you just have to breathe, work with your fear, and trust that you can keep going. A trust I desperately needed to rebuild.
We respected the rock's lines, placing anchors only where no natural protection was possible or when rappels were necessary.
The rhythm of desert life
The days settled into a routine as beautiful as it was fun: choosing a new site, carrying an utterly absurd amount of gear (my "ultralight" backpack is now rated for 20kg of drill, ropes, and a set of cams ranging up to "bigger than my head"), then choosing the most beautiful line we could see.
We climbed until our fingers bled, our hands were in tatters, and every inch of our body felt like it had been put through a cheese grater. This kind of granite doesn't give itself away for free, but every line was better than the last.
“Centurion” (UK: E3 6a | Fr: 7a, ***): this epic 27m pitch became the gem of our trip. It starts with a superb handjam that makes your heart sing, continues with a technical cruxy roof, then a fist crack that opens into a slight offwidth, before finishing with a magnificent face climb to the summit.
Fueling up to keep going
All these lines were powered by my faithful COOKNRUN energy bars. It even became a running joke: every day I'd pull out a new flavor, as if I lived on nothing else, but truly, they gave me the energy and morale to keep going.
Evenings
Each day ended in the local bar, naming the day's routes over a traditional Moroccan tagine, reliving the best crack moves, before collapsing into bed, limbs aching but heart filled with the desert's magic.
