The High Atlas
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007We’re back in Marrakesh now after spending the last three days in the High Atlas, one of the great highlights of the trip so far.
We didn’t end up doing exactly what we’d planned, as we were derailed by snow (to be explained). On Sunday, we started out from Imlil on a glorious day and walked for about four hours to the picturesque village of Tachedirt, 2314m (over 7000ft) above sea level. We spent the night at the refuge there with some English and French guys on a ‘ski touring’ trip. (Ski touring, from what I gathered, is just like regular skiiing but without all the comforts of skiing – hotels, chairlifts etc. Essentially, they climb up a mountain and then ski down it.) The refuge was pleasant and since it had solar panels on the roof, it was the only building in the village with electricity.
The next morning we hiked for about four hours uphill to the Tizi Tachedirt pass at about 3200m. This was the best part of the hike as it was another nice day and the scenery was wonderful. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground, so it was fun (for at least one of us) to trudge through it when it covered our path. At about 11:30am we got to the pass and had fantastic views in all directions. Unfortunately the other side of the pass was completely covered with snow and it was very hard to know where our path lay or whether we could continue on the 1300m descent without equipment. After much deliberation we decided to turn back, and we made it all the way back to Imlil at about 6:30pm – making it an 11-hour hike for the day, covering about 20km or so (some of it knee deep in snow!).
We were a little disappointed that we didn’t make it to our original destination of Setti Fatma, but since the pass was the highest point on the hike, we felt as though we saw the best parts and didn’t need to risk it. We were so lucky with the weather, as it was clear and sunny the whole time and not that cold at night, and I was able to take the shots I wanted. So, in all I was really happy with the experience, and not having a third day of hiking has allowed us to have a sort of ‘rest day’ here in Marrakesh today as we’re aching a fair bit.
We’ve only got a couple of places left to visit on the Atlantic coast before we leave Morocco on the 17th. Then it’s onto ‘real’ Africa…
Anyway, I’ve put up a few shots of the Atlas mountains here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jungle_boy/
Nick