Short ski-touring possibilities

May I ask you for a little advice:

We will rent our own car in Marrakesh and just want to get a short ski tour. Anything is fine, as we understand that the snow situation is poor. We are experienced mountaineers holding an Austrian Mountain Guide degree. Where would you recommend to go at the moment - Ilmil or Oukaimeden or somewhere else? We just want to do a day tour and a short ski run (and know how to behave in mountains....).

A short answer would be highly appreciated. Thank you very much and please let me know if you should ever need help in Europe.
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Oukiameden is obviously easily accessible by car from Marrakech and being NE facing does hold the snow - however as you know the snow cover at the moment is thin and the summit of Ouki is not hugely high at 3273m - compared to the two Toubkal refuges which are at 3200m. Furthermore there are some lifts there and it isn't really a "touring" mountain.


You could however trek up to the Toubkal refuges and get some touring in on the big cwm SW of the 2 refuges which is also NE facing. This cwm is called Amrharas-n-Iglioua and is higher than Ouki as the top of the cwm is around 3900m
As you can see from the attached photo, the terrain is much more a "touring" area and you can find many route possibilities.

Hope this helps somewhat.

map of the 4000m peaks around the Neltner refuge

I spent couple of last weeks trying to find a map which I could use to climb in High Atlas without result. Could you please advice me where to get the map from? I already found old Russian military map (the best one yet as it\'s got not only contours but also cliffs and rocks), but is it possible to get anything more detailed? I bought the Spanish map but only contours again. I will be very grateful for the answer!
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Hi - you've basically summarised all the options available to you in terms of mapping that are readily available - i.e. a Spanish 1:50,000 map with contours but no cliff markings and a Russian one with names in cryllic.
See our review of the Spanish map at:-
http://nomadicmorocco.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-map-of-toubkal.html

However it has to be said that you would need a 1:10,000 or 1:15,000 scale map to adequately show all the cliff markings for the area which is not available.

There is a Spanish topo guidebook for the area though detailing the climbing routes for all the peaks in the valley as well as our own one which is available from the 15th Feb.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountaineering-Moroccan-High-Atlas-Clark/dp/1852846119/

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot for your help....

On 11/01/2011 09:16, steve wrote:
hello people at nomadic morocco,

thanks a lot for your helpfull, ubiased information which was necessary for our trip.

there was 20cm snow on norhtern slopes, from 2500m on, for which we needed crampons.
the other slopes were practical snow free!

grts,

steve and katrijn
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This referred to a trip in the Mgoun / Tarkeddit plateau area

Springtime!

But this is January! Nevertheless the southern western valleys of the Moroccan High Atlas mountains are green, white and pink! Green with young barley shoots and white & pink with the beautiful almond blossom.

Although we haven't been recently - this is a great time to visit Tafraoute in the Anti-Atlas with all the almond blossom.

Back to winter mountaineering.....!