Oukaimeden
The Best Known Ski Station In Africa, On A High Atlas Plateau At Roughly 2,600 M With Lifts Running When The Snow Holds, And Prehistoric Rock Carvings On The Plateau That Are Visible Once It Has Gone · Oukaimeden, Marrakesh-Safi
Oukaimeden is the ski station on a High Atlas plateau at roughly 2,600 m, about two hours south of Marrakesh, and the hook is obvious: ski in Africa in the morning and be in a souk by evening. Be honest about what it is. A handful of runs, old lifts including a long chairlift that climbs toward about 3,250 m, hire kit of mixed vintage, and a season that depends entirely on snow that has become unreliable - in a poor year there is no skiing at all. Nobody who has skied in Europe should come here for the skiing. Come for the oddity, the altitude and the view, and treat a bad snow year as a reason to come in summer instead, when the plateau is arguably better: cool open walking, trailheads into the mountains, paragliding off the ridge, high pasture full of flowers and birds, and a scatter of prehistoric rock carvings pecked into the plateau slabs which are among the more interesting things in the range and are visible only once the snow has gone.
Ski station on the plateau at roughly 2,600 m, about 75 km south of Marrakesh by the Ourika road, Oukaimeden, Marrakesh-Safi, Morocco
The plateau, the road and the rock carvings are open at all hours and cost nothing; what has hours is the ski operation, and it only has them when there is snow. Lifts run through the day in the snow season, roughly January to early March in a decent winter, typically from mid-morning until mid-afternoon and only while cover and weather allow - there is no published season you can rely on, and in a poor year they may not turn at all. Hire stands, lesson arrangements, sledge and mule men appear alongside them and disappear with the snow. A few lodges and cafes stay open year round, several close out of season. Getting there: it is roughly 75 km from Marrakesh, about two hours, by the Ourika valley road and then a branch that climbs in hairpins to the plateau; there is no bus or train, so take a grand taxi or a private car and driver arranged the evening before. Beds should be booked ahead for a snowy weekend.