Mountaineering in the Moroccan High Atlas. Des Clark
going to prepare your lunch?
Are you prepared to be flexible as regards transport availability?
How much interaction do you anticipate having with locals in the mountains, and can you adjust to their timescale?
Are you prepared to travel in public transport without drinking or smoking?
If you're hiring a car and driving around the country, are you prepared for all cafés and restaurants in non-tourist areas to be closed?
There are some other aspects to be aware of during Ramadan.
Banks will open an hour later in the morning and close mid-afternoon.
Alcohol is not available in supermarkets, and off-licences are closed from three days before Ramadan until three days after the Eid (celebrations at the end of Ramadan). It is available to foreigners in licensed restaurants, but sometimes the bar or restaurant might run out of some drinks.
The Djemaa-el-Fna in Marrakech really comes alive after sundown, and everyone will be out and about eating and enjoying themselves. Sounds great, but not if you're trying to get somewhere by a certain time!
It will be almost impossible to get a taxi after about 5pm until after f'tour (the breaking of the fast meal at sundown), as everyone will be rushing to get home.
The celebration at the end of Ramadan, Eid el-Fitr, is the second biggest event in the Islamic calendar (after Eid el-Kbir). Eid el-Fitr lasts around three days, and most shops, banks and offices will be closed. Obtaining mule support or organising the start of a trip during this time may be difficult.
In summary, if you are prepared to adapt, be really sensitive to local culture (and particularly in the conservative countryside) and be flexible with regard to transport times and so on, then this can be a very rewarding time to visit.
Eid al-Adha
The ‘big Eid’, in Morocco called Eid el-Kbir or Tafaska (Berber), commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, and the fact that he was instead able to sacrifice a ram. It varies from country to country as to how it is celebrated, but in Morocco this is a time for family. Each household will sacrifice a ram or a male goat, or possibly both depending on the family's ability to afford the animals.
Except in the most touristy areas of Marrakech, everything else will come to a standstill for the first day at least. In some towns it can take up to a week for things to return to normal. Starting a trip that is reliant on local staffing to any degree during this time will be fraught with difficulty and probable time delays. Organising a trip that runs either side of Eid el-Kbir will need careful consideration and prior discussion with any locals involved as to what your mutual expectations are.
Depending on your relationship with locals, you may be invited to join them in the sacrifice or for a meal at this time. If you are, feel privileged, and honour your hosts by joining them and relaxing with them for the day or two. The mountains can wait! It is a fascinating time.
Money
The local currency is the Dirham (dh). It is impossible to obtain (legally) outside the country. Euros, sterling, US dollars and Swiss francs (notes only) are changed readily in banks, bureaus de change and some hotels. There is one official exchange rate, and this varies little from place to place, even in hotels. You will not benefit from changing money in the street, and may in fact lose out, in addition to the security issues involved. There are also ATMs, which accept all major cards, in the main towns and cities.
This is a cash society in the main. Credit cards are accepted in the larger hotel chains in tourist areas, but away from these you will find them difficult to use. So calculate your cash needs before your trip, and if possible withdraw from an ATM as you go, so that you don't have to carry relatively large amounts with you. Personal security should be observed, but not any more so than normal.
The biggest denomination is the 200dh note (approximately €20 euros or slightly less). This may prove impossible to break for purchases of less than 50dh. When you are travelling to the mountains, make sure you have a lot of 20dh and 50dh notes. Be aware of the similarities in the €20 note and the 200dh note, and (worse still) the 100dh and €50 note. It has happened that people have paid their taxi driver €50, thinking they were paying 100dh, only to find that their taxi quickly speeds away!
On Akioud's north-north-west ridge in autumn (Route 20)
Visas and Permits
EU, other European, Australian, Canadian and USA passport holders do not need a visa. Passports are stamped for a 90-day stay on arrival. South African passport holders do require a visa. Other nationalities should check with their relevant embassy, consulate or on line. If you are intending to stay more than 90 days, you will either need to get authorisation from a police station or exit to Spain and then re-enter after a period of a few days. This can often be the easier option, and is one sure way of seeing the country as you travel north to Tangier. Note that although the cities of Ceuta and Melilla are legally Spanish, the Moroccan border guards take very unkindly to people exiting and then re-entering from these enclaves.
Although they have been suggested, there are no permits or official trekking fees to be negotiated for the High Atlas. The only tax is one charged by your accommodation provider, but this is often included in the stated price and you will not see any extras charged as such. Long may this situation continue.
Planning and Maps
As for all mountain trips, planning is vital before you leave your home country. There is a world of difference, however, between planning an excursion to the High Atlas and the Alps, where you can expect reliable travel timetables, the presence of hut guardians, accurate avalanche warnings and weather forecasts, and easily available high quality maps. In addition, other than in the developing Toubkal and Mgoun regions, in the High Atlas there is little in the way of mountaineering tradition or developed trekking routes such as one encounters in many parts of the Himalaya and in some parts of the Andes, for instance. Easy access from Europe can belie the fact that the High Atlas is a range of mountains still largely undeveloped for climbing or trekking, apart from in those areas already mentioned.
Although all the High Atlas has been mapped by the French at both 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 scale, the maps are difficult to get hold of. Exceptions to this are a set of four maps at 1:100,000 scale for the region around Toubkal.
There is a Spanish 1:50,000 (Orientazion) map of the Toubkal area (without any cliff markings whatsoever!) and a 1:100,000 sketch-type map of the Mgoun massif published by West Col.
There is also a series of Russian maps at 1:100,000, but all the place names are in Cyrillic. In addition there is a series of 1:160,000 scale maps based on another Russian survey published by EWP, but these are difficult to work off to any degree of accuracy due to their scale. However, they do give an overall impression of an area.
On the whole, the French 1:50,000 series is the most reliable for the whole range, but casual visitors stand almost no chance of obtaining copies as access to them is, in theory, restricted to the military. In some gites and CAF refuges there is often a single map for the local area on public display, but over time these maps have faded, and so trying to pick out contour detail is often impossible.
Maps of the region are rare (Photo: Bernie Rowlands)
The set of four maps at 1:100,000 scale for the general Toubkal area gives a reasonable idea of ridge and valley systems, place names and the like, but don't try micro-navigating from them!
The Mgoun map published by West Col is a sketch-type map covering main ridges, some mule tracks and the like. This gives a good general feel for the area, but, again, navigating to any useful degree from this is out of the question.
Another source of map copies