Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Guides
However much trekking and map-reading experience you have, we strongly recommend
that you hire a qualified guide - if for no other reason than to be your translator (how is
your Tashelhit?), chaperone (
faux guides
- unofficial guides - won't come near you if
you are with a guide), deal-getter and vocal guidebook.
A good guide will also enhance your cultural experience. They will know local people,
which will undoubtedly result in invitations for tea and food, and richer experiences of
Berber life.
If something goes wrong, a local guide will be the quickest route to getting help. Every
year foreigners die in the Moroccan mountains. Whatever the cause - a freak storm, an
unlucky slip, a rock slide - the presence of a guide would invariably have increased their
chances of survival. So however confident you feel, we recommend that you never walk
into the mountains unguided.
Choosing a Guide
A flash-looking, English-speaking
faux guide
from Marrakesh is no substitute
for a gnarled, old, local mountain guide who knows the area like the back of his hand.
Official guides carry photo-identity cards. Guides should be authorised by the Fédéra-
tion Royale Marocaine de Ski et Montagne or l'Association Nationale des Guides et Ac-
compagnateurs en Montagne du Maroc. They should be credited as
guides de montagne
(mountain guides), which requires study for at least six months at the Centre de Formation
aux Métiers de Montagne, a school for mountain guides at Tabant in the Aït Bougomez
valley.
Accompagnateurs
(escorts) will have had only one week's training, and will not be in-
sured to lead mountain trips;
guides de tourisme
(tourist guides) are not qualified to lead
treks.
Official mountain guides, who can always show an identity card as proof of their status,
have been trained in mountain craft, including first aid. In times of uncertain weather or in
an emergency, they will be infinitely more efficient than a cheaper guide lacking proper
training. If a guide is reluctant to show a photo card, it probably means he/she either
doesn't have one or it has expired (they should be renewed every three years).
Some
guides de montagne
have additional training in rock climbing, canyoning and
mountaineering. All guides speak French, and some also speak English, Spanish or Ger-
