You can hire tents from tour operators and guides, and at trailheads.
If you would rather not carry a tent, in most regions you can stay in the villages (Click here ).Sleeping Bags
Whether you are camping or staying in houses, a four-season sleeping bag is essential for the
High Atlas and Jebel Sarhro from September to early April, when temperatures as low as
-10°C are not unknown.
In lower ranges, even in high summer, a bag comfortable at 0°C is recommended. A thick
sleeping mat or thin foam mattress is a good idea since the ground is extremely rocky. Guides
can usually supply these.
Stoves
Many gîtes have cooking facilities, but you may want to bring a stove if you are camping.
Multifuel stoves that burn anything from aviation fuel to diesel are ideal.
Methylated spirits is hard to get hold of, but kerosene is available. Pierce-type butane gas
canisters are also available, but not recommended for environmental reasons.
Your guide will be able to advise you on this.Other Equipment
Bring a basic medical kit as well as water-purification tablets or iodine drops or a mechanical
purifier. All water should be treated unless you take it directly from the source.
To go above 3000m between November and May, as well as having experience in winter
mountaineering, you will need essentials including crampons, ice axes and snow shovels. Again,
this equipment is available for hire.
If you are combining trekking with visits to urban areas, consider storing extra luggage before
your trek rather than lugging around unwanted gear. Most hotels will let you leave luggage,
sometimes for a small fee. Train stations in larger cities have secure left-luggage facilities (
Click here ).
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 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 (unofficial 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 Fédération