4 Day Trek in the Western Atlas Mountains

You will be picked up from your hotel in Marrakech at 0900h (09:00 am). You will travel in a private car accompanied by an English-speaking guide. The route we take will be to the south, winding our way up through the Moulay Brahim Gorge and Upper Valleys to arrive at the higher foothills of the Western High Atlas mountains and our trailhead of Imi Ourghlad (1430m).

Here we alight from our vehicle and meet up with our Berber muleteer crew. We set off for a 2 hour acclimatisation hike up mule tracks, passing by cornfields woods of pine and juniper to the Tizi n'Tacht (2000m), where we shall stop to look back down on the Imlil and n'AÏt Ouissadene Valleys. From here we carry on for another 30 minutes to Imi n'lfri. A slow hike for about 3 hours south-west down along a dirt track will take us through Assif n'AÏt Ouissadene and the red clay terraced village of Tizziane (1730m) for our accommodation in a gîte d'étape.

Today we set off on our hike up along the Assif n'Ouissadene Valley, passing through almond groves and several Berber villages, up to the Tizi n'Tkhrhkhourte (1995m) and through to a rare almost flat stretch to arrive at the Assaka Spring. Our afternoon's hike takes us down along the edges of the forest until we reach the Berber village of D'Knt (1870m). We'll spend the night in a Berber family's home.

This morning’s 3 hour hike takes us through groves of almond and walnut trees, fields of corn and barley. We traverse the Tizi Taghdalt (1998m) to descend amongst juniper and pine trees until we come to a small spring set amongst the trees, where we'll stop for our field picnic. Once refreshed, we're off down winding tracks of the upper slopes for some 3 hours to a small river at the beginning of the Valley of the Assif Ouissadene. We enter the village of Tissi Oussem (1850m). Overnight accommodation in a mountain refuge.

We strike out up through pine and juniper trees to traverse the Tizi M'Zik and descend slowly to the hamlet of M'Zik (1806m). This afternoon, we set off down to the Berber trailhead village of Imlil, where we may take a welcome hot shower in the gîte d'étape of our senior guide, Mohamed AÏt Idar. The journey to Marrakech starts at around 1430h (2.30pm) via passes and alongside gorges.