Ed Leigh's snowboard journey

Ski Sunday: Ed Leigh in Morocco

As part of the new revamped Ski Sunday show presenter Ed Leigh is taking on a series of fascinating snowboard adventures around the world.

In his fifth escapade he takes a look at snowboarding in Morocco.

This follows his voyages to Siberia, Japan and Australia and Kashmir.

Ed Leigh's trip to Siberia

Ed Leigh's trip to Japan

Ed Leigh's trip to Australia

Ed Leigh's trip to Kashmir

Watch the film of Ed's trip during the show on Sunday 24 February from 1900-2000 on BBC Two and the BBC Sport website (UK users only).

By Ed Leigh
Ski Sunday presenter

There is no way that Morocco can be considered a serious alpine destination, in fact after the rant I had about Australia, Morocco is probably even further down the list.

But in exactly the same vein as Australia, that is absolutely no reason to write it off.

The Atlas Mountains may not be the highest in Africa - the solitary Mt Kilimanjaro holds that distinction.

But they are without question the most dramatic and engaging mountains in Africa and for that reason alone they deserve a visit.

Founded in the 11th century, Marrakesh is a city with a lot of stories to tell.

Maybe it was me that was at fault, after three months of back-to-back travel with hardly a day off I was starting to run low on energy.

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I was having trouble finding any of that authentic city that has been labelled a collision of Europe and Africa, a trading post that has shared cultures, wares and ideas for more than a thousand years.

Instead of searching out this city I became jaded.

The savvy Moroccans have capitalised on western fascinations with their culture and the constantly heaving Djemma El Fna square is the easy Moroccan experience for lazy tourists looking for a quick fix.

Despite it's colour and energy I came away with a feeling of having been ripped off left, right and centre.

To be fair, the camera played a large part in this as we gathered a perma-crowd searching for Hollywood dollars.

After trying to look around I made an executive decision to eat only in restaurants where people didn't hassle us to sit down. Using this rule we found a low-key stall and ate like kings for a tenner.

Things were starting to look up.

The next day we were setting off on a five-day round trip that would take us from the peaks of the Atlas to the desolation of the Sahara and this would not only require a serious vehicle, but a talented driver.

Enter Hassan.

A squat man with a square head and pinched features, I liked Hassan straight away. He eyed me with a playful air of suspicion, which I always respect in someone, not least because I am a terminal exaggerator.

Ed tucks into some local cuisine on the slopes

Both having a basic grasp of French meant that we were able to converse and make fun of each other before we'd even reached our first stop Oukaimeden.

This is the jewel in Morocco's crown of Atlas ski resorts and its chair lift is one of only two in the country.

Thinking about it now, it is really Africa's jewel because there isn't anything else like it anywhere else on the continent.

There were no two ways about it, though, despite the town's altitude of 2219m the snow was sheet ice and even in the low teens the temperatures were showing no signs of melting the concrete-like base.

In acknowledgement of this fact, the chairlift was yet to open as if everyone was waiting for things to at least soften up a touch before they took to the mountain.

When things did finally get going, and we were on our way to the 3232m peak, it was clear that in a similar vein to Gulmarg in the Himalayas, the locals treat the mountain as a sight-seeing destination, while only the tourists and craziest locals take on the task of skiing.

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The combination of lots of foot traffic, no piste bashers and hideous melt-freeze conditions means that the slopes in Oukaimeden are the snow equivalent of riding cobbled streets on a penny farthing with no tyres.

After getting lost and hiking through some rocks we found our way down to some less damaged snow and were able to start messing around.

While the snow is shocking, the mountain is anything but and you find yourself staring at the slopes and fantasizing about how good this place could be if you scored it with epic conditions.

After a couple of runs bonking rocks and jumping off hand made cat tracks we headed back down to the resort where there was an inter-club skiing cup being held between Asni and Toubkal.

The absence of good snow left Ed to take to the Moroccan sand

After hanging round for a bit and introducing myself I was bestowed the honour of talking to the grandly titled President of the Royal Association of Moroccan Skiing and Mountain Activities.

After 10 minutes I had garnered that their idea of powder snow was what we had ridden all morning, but more promisingly that it only snows three or four times a year in big dumps.

So if you time it right there is a good chance that you could score deep powder.

Without a decent base though I'm not too sure how safe it would be.

Like anyone enjoying snow there was a lot of fun being had on the mountain.

But, and I've said this many times before, because they were stripped of the ability to peacock themselves with outfits and equipment (there are no ski shops) there wasn't any real pretension on the slopes.

Watch the full film on Sunday 24 February from 1900-2000.

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Ski Sunday runs for eight weeks from 20 January to 9 March on BBC TWO and the BBC Sport website.

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