The Love That Is The Atlas Mountains [Morocco]

In January my sister, Shola, and I traveled to Marrakech, Morocco to celebrate her birthday. We had a great time in Marrakech and enjoyed staying in the Medina where we loved the feeling of the vibrant market, witnessing the beauty of the red clay architecture, as well as the hospitality of the Moroccan people. One of our days we ventured out of Marrakech to the Atlas Mountains. The Atlas Mountains run across North West Morocco. Although it was about 64 degrees (18 Celsius) in Marrakech we were told it would be cold in the mountains. And it was, after climbing a few feet we were met by snow, as you can see in the video above.

According to our guide, who was a local from the village on the Atlas mountains — we started at about 1,400 kilometers and climbed up to 1,800 kilometers. Before we took the trip to the Atlas mountains we were told we only needed a jacket and sneakers and that is was a hike upwards. What we found as we started to climb was that it was actually a climb up

wards without a carved out path. For much of the way up we had to use both hand and two feet along with our guide standing on the rocks above us and pulling us up through and over the rocks. I was in Vans (slip-ons) and Shola was also in shoes without any grip so it was definitely an adventure. We both agreed we were not aware of how intense the climb was because we were focusing on not slipping off of a cliff.

The part of the mountain we were going up featured two waterfalls, one big and one small. The smaller one was not very high up, but getting to the bigger one is when the climbing really started.

Throughout the mountains locals had created little tea shops and gift shops sitting, ever so gently, on the edge of cliffs with only a border made of branches or thin rope. As we began to climb we couldn’t believe how these young men and women were able to climb up the mountain with supplies to build and fill a store, but it was done. Our guide said he was like a mountain goat, which he was, so I’m sure others who have grown up there have found their rhythm with getting up and down the mountain. He would jump over me onto a big rock, mount each of his feet on two opposite rocks and pull me over his leg onto another rock, after which he would pull my sister up through the rocks onto a stable one. He was great, since our shoes were not.

After we reached the peak and saw the views we climbed around the mountain and started heading down the mountain from the other side. On the way down the mountain was a combination of ice, since it had rained and the snow froze over, snow, and mud. It was very slippery and since there wasn’t really any delineated path we had to be very careful. At one point the guide was holding my arm and back as I shuffled down the path to make sure I didn’t slip too much. At one point the snow turned to ice complexly and I slid down the side of the mountain right after making a joke about “ice-skating” down it.

After the sliding stopped, we all laughed and the guide was very attentive to me the rest of the way down. I thought it was exhilarating and told my sister it’s much more interesting for her to say: “my little sister died after sliding down a mountain off of a cliff in Morocco,” rather than “my little sister died because she got hit by a car in San Francisco.” I did not die, alas I am still here and able to tell the story.

The views and landscape of the Atlas Mountains and the town underneath and within the mountains was beautiful and diverse. There was a river leading to the mountain, surrounded by leafless trees and rocks. There were mountains made of red clay. There were mountains that were dry and covered in brown grass. As I said earlier there were two waterfalls as well as snow. Some parts of the trip to the Atlas Mountains felt like we were in a forest in North Carolina, other parts felt like we were looking at mountains in a desert, and the peak was like we were in a cold mountain in the Midwest. It was all Morocco and all beautiful.

The day after my sister’s birthday we climbed a mountain, slid down a mountain, drank tea on a mountain, saw two waterfalls in the mountains, and loved every bit of it. Marrakech is amazing and the Atlas Mountains were a great break from the bustling of the Medina. If you ever go to Morocco, climb the Atlas Mountains and see what we saw.

(P.S. Wear hiking boots.)