We're in a pattern of strong afternoon westerlies / north-westerlies blowing up around lunchtime at the moment. 
These winds have been present for the past week and show no signs of abating. The mornings are fine but then early afternoons, strong winds develop.
Incredibly dusty in the towns as sand is picked up and mini sandstorms batter their way across the Moroccan countryside.
Entire industries have been born because of high mountains.
Ever since Whymper's (eventually successful but tragic) attempts to climb the Matterhorn in the Alps, the small Alpine village of Zermatt has mushroomed to what it is now. Similarly for Mont Blanc and Chamonix (and to a lesser extent Courmayeur on the Italian side).
That is the Alps and Europe. High peaks in developing countries generally tend to be in more remote situations and so don't influence one particular town as such but have a more general widesrpread effect. Take Aconcagua in Argentina. Whilst the city of Mendoza is a famous wine growing area and a commercially successful town without mountain twinning, there is no doubt that it has benefited hugely from its proximity to the highest peak in the world outside of the Himalaya.
All this as an introduction to study the effects of Jebel Toubkal 4167, the highest peak in the Moroccan High Atlas and all of North Africa. Marrakech certainly is not dependant on Toubkal but does benefit from trekkers passing through.
Ten years ago, the small Berber village of Imlil was serviced by a dirt track. Now a tarmac road (albeit narrow and subject to rockfall and erosion with every winters rains) brings coachloads of tourists up to this kick-off point for climbing Toubkal or trekking around it. Sir Richard Branson has built an exclusive kashbah / hotel not too far away, whilst a British company have renovated the kasbah overlooking Imlil and turned it into an expensive hotel. Marketing and mountains are not new companions but in this honeypot of the High Atlas, they are indeed very comfortable bedfellows.
Some books have called Imlil the "Chamonix of the Atlas". Hopefully it will never get to that stage of development but it certainly has gone past the point of no-return in committing itself to the fortunes of a mountain just out of sight up the valley. Hotels, guides, mule owners, porters, cafés, shops, tourist boutiques, internet facilities - all within a couple of hundred metres from beginning to end. Most hotels on the main strip are building sites at the moment - extensions, new facilities, complete overhauls.
A few kilometres up the valley, terraced fields are full of crops, almond and cherry trees are blossoming. Life here still seems to be rural, unaffected by the increasingly mass tourism just down the road. The same situation prevailed in Zanskar, north-west India up to 30 years ago. Now all the terraced fields are disintegrating and falling down the hillside as entire villages are or have already become, dependant on trekking and mountaineering tourism. Destroying the very scenery and rural life that many trekkers came to this region to experience.
Let not Imlil and the people of the Mizane valley follow this lead in blindly bowing down to the commercial spirits and euro notes fluttering in the breeze coming from the high mountain, Jebel Toubkal.
An excellent item by moroccanmaryam on her blog about Alan Keohane - the photographer / author of The Berbers of Morocco we continually recommend on our News page.
If you're planning on trekking or visiting the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, get this book to whet your appetite!
Above 3000m's in the Moroccan High Atlas, snow remains in good conditions on N, NE & NW facing slopes and gullies. Any slope aspect with south in it is virtually devoid of snow now. Is this the end of the winter and any more snowfall? Probably, unless the weather turns dramatically which it has shown no sign of doing!
This winter (in other words, snow) has been reasonably ok for climbing, walking and skiing but nothing like the winters of 2004-05 and 2005-06. So - some photos of High Atlas mountaineering and walking in the winter just finished with nomadicmorocco.com
The Neltner (or Toubkal!) refuge, owned and managed by the Moroccan section of Club Alpin Francais (CAF) at the foot of Jebel Toubkal 4167m (the highest peak in the Moroccan High Atlas and all of North Africa), is now facing competition!
The original Neltner refuge which was much the same size as the current Lepiney one, was knocked and replaced by a big modern structure in time for the 21st century (renamed as the Toubkal refuge – see yesterday’s blog) and now generates significant revenue for CAF year-round.
The refuge officially sleeps 120 although I can tell you that even with 50% occupancy, the refuge feels full – especially so in the winter months when the small lounge with the fireplace (the only source of heating in the entire refuge!) is crammed with people competing for such basics as aluminium cups! The two toilets and two “showers” (a trickle of hot water) are under constant pressure.
So – some time ago an enterprising local man bought a parcel of land directly in front of the CAF refuge from the government (being the landowners of the mountainside) and built a modern large refuge virtually adjoining the CAF refuge on the north side (this is the apex roofed building in the photo). The building was completed a year ago but since then has remained closed and dormant save for a few campers using the flat terraces surrounding the building as convenient camp spots.
Rumour has it though that the this entrepreneur has approached the family who run the Neltner refuge on behalf of CAF to see if they would like to manage the new one with profits going into their pockets instead of CAF’s. This family it appears don’t want trouble with CAF with whom they have had a longstanding relationship and so the entrepreneur is searching round for a buyer for the refuge – asking price reputed to be around €1m! A purchase price of this size would mean substantial profits over the building costs for the entrepreneur but it would also just mean a potential 5 year payback on the investment for the buyer.
Needless to say CAF would not be pleased but like most competition, the winner would be the mountaineering customer who wouldn’t need to suffer queues for just 2 toilets, fight for cups and congratulate themselves on climbing Toubkal with a cup of mint tea instead of a time honoured beer or a bottle of a good Moroccan red!
Somewhere along the line, these 2 CAF refuges in the Moroccan High Atlas mountains seem to have had a name change!
The Lepiney refuge is now called the Tazaghart refuge and the Neltner refuge is now officially named the Toubkal refuge. Less history behind the "new" names and more emphasis on the physical location - personally I prefer history!
Here's a very brief overview of the these 2 famous climbers whose names have been quietly dropped over the years by officialdom.......
Louis Léon Charles Neltner (1903 - 1985) was a geologist & mountaineer and was awarded the French Légion d'honneur for his achievements in WW1. He was the geologist in the first French expedition to the Karakoram (Hidden Peak) in 1936. He spent more than 20 years exploring the Moroccan High Atlas & Anti-Atlas in both guises as geologist and mountaineer. The first refuge at the foot of Toubkal was named after him but it seems that since the larger one was built a few years back, his name has been dropped by CAF Maroc.
Jacques de Lépiney was one of the leading French Alpinists and climbers in the early 1900's. A founding member of the French GHM (Groupe de Haute Montagne) later joined by other famous climbers such as Pierre Allain, Lépiney made first ascents in the Mont Blanc massif, bouldering in Fontainebleau, Moroccan High Atlas and was instrumental in establishing CAF Maroc.
He wrote the definitive topo guide for the Toubkal region in 1938 which still remains to this day the best guide there is.
It is fitting that the Lépiney refuge is still a preserve for independent mountaineers and skiers in the winter months unlike the Neltner (Toubkal) refuge.
More to follow....
The only place I have seen Lammergeier (apart from the Pyrenees) in the High Atlas have all been around the Mgoun region. There are a few breeding pairs there and it is a great sight to see them soaring above you when you are traversing along the narrow 4000m ridge to Mgoun!
However climbing the snow gully from the Lepiney refuge to the Neltner refuge last week via the Tadat Col (Tizi Tadat) in the Moroccan High Atlas, I spotted a single Lammergeier soaring at around 4000m's near to the Tazaghart plateau. When I arrived at the Neltner refuge, I learnt that (presumably the same bird?) a lammergeier had been circling low over the refuge and the guardian had been trying to tempt with some food which it ultimately refused!
It would be interesting to know if anyone else has seen lammergeiers in this region at all recently.....
For more information on the (EU) protection programme for these rare birds, visit this link
Doing a tour of the Western High Atlas over the last few days (driving from our home in Taroudant up over the Tizi 'n Test to Marrakech and then back along the main Agadir drag - the "most dangerous road in Morocco" according to the UK FCO); we noticed a huge flock of Black Kites (Milvus migrans) soaring and gliding over the plains south of Tinergwet near Taroudant. Also a few loners to-day much lower looking for prey. The storks of course are back in the trees nesting and so the Black Kites are ready for their young.
There is a marked difference in snow levels between the north and south side of the Atlas Mountains. The south side has some patches of snow at around 3250m but on the north side the snow is down to the car park of the Hotel Soleil in Imlil which is at 1740m! From the Ourika / Setti Fadma road the mountains look great in the early morning light.
Easy to see the attractions of living / visting Marrakech for these views. Marrakech however reminds me of Dublin 15 years ago - cranes on every horizon as the city is one big building site. Every square metre or so it seems is being developed for the potential overseas investor.
Morocco may be looking for 10 million tourists by 2010 but is it selling its soul in the process?.......
