Trekking in Morocco off the Tourist Trail

The Atlas Mountains extend for a distance of over 2500km across North Africa. It’s a real shame then that the majority of hikers are content to only trek up Toubkal, the highest peak. There are so many other mountains to explore here, many of them more remote and stunning than the Mount Toubkal hike. Most of the Moroccan 3000ers can go years or even decades without being climbed by anyone except local shepherds.

Just thirty kilometers West of the main High Atlas massif lies an unexplored range of mountains and valleys stretching West from the Tizi n Test, across the Anoughal valley to the high point of Jbel Erdouz. Traditional Berber life still holds sway here, and many of the villages are still without road access or electricity. The only way to visit them is by mule or by foot. The best way to explore these areas is as part of a multi-day trek. Let the mules carry your bags so that you can walk and enjoy the wild views.

Last week we took a group exploring back in the valleys behind the Anoughal. In the space of seven days walking, the only people we saw on the hills were the local shepherds. Typically they extended their traditional hospitality and offered us to drink mint tea with them! Each evening we arrived in a different village where we were made welcome with Tajine or Couscous and plenty of fresh local fruit. Everything is organic back here, the mountain people are very wary of chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. The women in our trekking group were fascinated to join the local ladies in learning to make traditional bread, whilst the guys were given lessons in the etiquette of tea making! So not only was the trek a successful walking tour, it really was a unique cultural discovery too.

Morocco Trekking to undiscovered peaks

The highlight of the week was the ascent of a little-known 3200m mountain peak called Jbel Gourza. You won’t find this in guidebooks or maps, yet the locals all know it. It towers over the Anoughal valley, 1000m higher than the surrounding hills. Throughout the winter and spring it is clothed in a mantle of white, giving it an ominous beauty as it stands guard over the villages here. In summer it is the refuge of hill shepherds, who graze their flocks on its upper slopes and make copious amounts of mint tea whilst they survey the valleys below. The busyness of the Souks and Medinas of Marrakech are so far away that it’s difficult to see in the hazy distance even on a good day. This is a landscape of tranquility and peace, where windspeeds are usually low and the weather generally good.

There are no mountain huts or refuges in this remote area. You must have local contacts and make arrangements to stay in people’s houses in the villages. This in itself is part of the adventure, and any of the several villages at the base of Jbel Gourza makes a good starting point to summit this impressive peak.

We stayed with local friends in an ancient village clinging to the mountainside, and set off early in the morning to climb the mountain. Turkeys gobbled and donkeys ee-awed as we crossed the river that flowed through the village. Women washed their clothes and rugs in the river and waved as we passed. Our plans were almost frustrated by a local official, who told us that mountains are dangerous and that tourists shouldn’t go up them. He called his boss, the civil chief in the local town. Fortunately the boss wasn’t so worried about the affair so long as we registered where we were staying each night, “for our own safety”. This security law can sometimes be a problem when staying in remote villages, as some officials in the past have informed us that we must stay in registered hotels, not people’s houses. They don’t seem to understand the attraction of these wild places where there are no hotels. “Tourists must stay in tourist places,” they say. Fortunately with the right contacts and enough local language to get by, we are still able to offer trekking holidays into the wilder unspoiled parts of Morocco.

Jbel Gourza is not a technically difficult mountain, but summit day is still a big long day with about 1900m of ascent. The effects of altitude are certainly felt on the final summit ridge. The most difficult part is actually at the beginning – all sides of this mountain rise steeply from the valleys below, and scrambling is required to climb beyond the steepest sections. As with much of the Atlas, this mountain is composed of loose scree and rubble, requiring advanced group management skills to prevent the faster people knocking rocks onto those below.

Once beyond the initial slopes however the mountain becomes a very pleasant walk along a sweeping ridgeline. This is the domain of Barbary Partridge and eagles. We even glimpsed a Lammergeier (Bearded Vulture) soaring on the midday thermals. This was a special sight as these magnificent birds seem to be dwindling in population in this area of the Atlas.

The summit is marked by several stone shelters built by local shepherds. This is where they come to drink tea. From the top, the High Atlas loomed eastwards, still covered in their mantle of snow. Spectacular views southwards revealed the Tizi n Test, one of the two roads across the Atlas Mountain chain. Hundreds of undiscovered villages lay at our feet, scattered across all the different valley systems below us. But perhaps most spectacular was the thought of how remote this mountain is. We were the first European group to summit it this year, probably the first this decade. No one comes up here, except the shepherds. What an adventure, what a priviledge. There are many other mountains like this in the Atlas Mountains, unclimbed and undiscovered by the crowds. Reminds me of a cherished poem by William Cullen Bryant:

Ay, this is freedom!–these pure skies

Were never stained with village smoke:

The fragrant wind, that through them flies,

Is breathed from wastes by plough unbroke.

Trekking and mountaineering can be so much more rewarding than simply just bagging the highest summit. For an unforgettable adventure and a real cultural experience, it is our pleasure here at Wild Goose Adventure to help you discover the real Morocco. Do get in touch if you want to experience the adventure of a lifetime!