Morocco Ski Mountaineering

Morocco Ski Mountaineering: Arriving in Marrakech

                After 25 hours of travel, we have finally arrived in Marrakech, Morocco.  We had a driver meet us at the airport and shuttle us to our hotel.  Once we got ourselves and all of our baggage situated in the room, we headed out onto the streets of Marrakech.   The main open-air market, named the Djemaa el-Fna, is only a few minutes from our hotel and was the first place we checked out.  During the day time there is all sorts of craziness going on in the market.  There is everything from snake charmers, to guys with monkeys, to guys in traditional dress doing traditional songs and dances.  We strolled around the open markets for a while before venturing into the winding alleyway of the souqs.  You can purchase pretty much anything in the souqs from tourist trinkets, to food items, and more than a few shady characters asking if we wanted to buy some hash.  Another fun pastime in the narrow, winding alley ways is the dodging of other pedestrians, bicyclists, motorbikes, and the occasional mule drawn carriage.  Walking through the souqs is truly a feast for the senses; food cooking, music playing, people talking, motor bikes whizzing by with their smell of exhaust fumes, mules clomping by.

                It has also been raining quite a bit in the day and half that we have been here.  However, this is a good thing for us, as rain down here in the city means that it is probably snowing up high in the mountains.  We have come to Morocco to climb and ski mountains.  I’m not sure skiing mountains is the first thing that comes to most people’s mind when they think of Morocco.  However, the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco look amazing and go up to an elevation of over 13,ooo ft.  We just hope there is plenty of snow up there to be able to ski down these peaks.  The plan is simple: arrive in Marrakech, take a taxi to the small mountain town of Imlil 2 ½ hours away, hire a mule to take our gear into the Lepiney Refuge, climb steep couloirs, and ski down them.

                We have also ventured to the Djemaa el-Fna in the evenings as well.  The open market turns in to something entirely different at night.  Food stalls are lined up and the smell of delicious Moroccan food fills the air.  There is a hustle and bustle surrounding the stalls and every food proprietor is trying to get you to sit at one of their tables.  We even passed a few of the stalls that had goat’s heads and brains prominently displayed.  Apparently, the head and the brain are quite the delicacy.  I tried to snap a few pictures of the heads and brains, but just like everything around here, that came with a price.  We passed on those and instead dined on some tasty tagine and couscous.  The food thus far has been amazing.

                Tomorrow we head out to the mountain town of Imlil where we will spend the night and arrange a mule to take our gear up the Refuge.  Hopefully, these storms have laid down a fresh layer of powder for our first turns in Africa.