In order to achieve this challenge, the young mountaineer has chosen to measure himself against the highest peaks in Morocco and North Africa, which exceed 4,000 meters in height. Thus, he will climb in the space of six days the Toubkal (4,165 meters), Timzguida (4,089 meters), Ras Ouanoukrim (4,083 meters), M’Goun (4,071 meters), Afella (4,043 meters), Akioud (4,030 meters), Toubkal West (4,020 meters), Imouzzer (4,010 meters), Biquinoussene (4,002 meters) and Iferouane (4,001 meters).
This challenge chosen by the young man was approved by the Guinness Book of Records Committee, after proving that no mountaineer had ever undertaken such an adventure. The main motivation is to make the surrounding areas of these mountains known to benefit the local population from the income generated by tourism.
In an interview with MAP, Zyad Bendourou indicated that he set himself the challenge of climbing 10 peaks in 6 days after noticing that everyone who thinks of climbing a Moroccan peak comes directly to Mount Toubkal, given that it is the highest in Morocco and North Africa.
According to him, this passion for mountaineering increased after the success of an ascent of Toubkal, hence the idea of climbing ten Moroccan peaks in order to establish social and human relations with the local population.
This 26-year-old, passionate about trekking and hiking and holder of a master’s degree in international trade from a French university, visited more than 70 countries during his period of study, to decide, after having carried out his final year research, to go on a major tour that began in January 2020, which included many Asian countries.
This tour had a trigger effect on his passion for summits, after a stay of around 9 months in Laos due to the closure of the country’s borders due to the Covid-19 crisis.
This forced stay allowed the young Moroccan to discover the nature of the country and to have his first experiences of mountain climbing, benefiting like the other people who remained stuck from the absence of quarantine measures with only the closure of the borders.
For Zyad, the main motivation to take on the challenge of climbing 10 peaks in 6 days, after having previously climbed them at different times, is the improvement of his physical condition following a strict sports and diet program. Thus his weight went from 100 to 66 kg in a year and a half.
According to him, change does not require much time, it is enough only to have the will, determination and dedication to work in order to achieve the set goals. For this climber of the peaks, the development of physical condition is automatically accompanied by a change in mentality, which helps to acquire great self-confidence.
However, the young mountaineer who has mobilized his financial resources for the mental and physical preparation with his Team for this adventure rich in challenges, is looking for sponsors to make more resources available to support this sporting and human experience which will be immortalized in a documentary recounting the main moments of this event and all of its details.
For this mountain adventurer, young people must get out of their comfort zone, seek new challenges every day, learn from their failures and set big long-term goals.
On the professional level, and after choosing to settle in Morocco, Zyad created an academic orientation office in Rabat to allow students to find out about opportunities to continue their academic and university studies after their baccalaureate in Morocco and abroad, and to help them choose orientations that are in line with their training.
2024-09-07 15:52:02