Oukaïmeden
The highest ski lift in Africa, a 1963 chairlift climbing to 3,300 m in Morocco's High Atlas, which has run little or not at all in recent years while three decades of promised investment failed to arrive.
- Region
- Al Haouz Province
- Country
- Morocco
- Status
- partially abandoned
- Year opened
- late 1940s
- Reason for closure
- No single closure event is documented. The resort's lift operation and slope preparation have been largely suspended in recent years as the infrastructure aged, and repeated schemes to rebuild it over the past three decades came to nothing. A programme worth about 8.25 million US dollars was reported to cover new pistes, one chairlift, five surface tows and two conveyor lifts, with 12 months of construction and a possible reopening for the winter of 2026.
History
Oukaïmeden lies about 75 km south of Marrakesh in the High Atlas, at around 2,600 m with terrain to roughly 3,300 m. Skiing here goes back to the late 1940s, in the closing years of the French protectorate, when the military put in the first lifts and basic facilities; the chairlift that made its name arrived in 1963, a 1,960 m line rising 620 m and rated at 600 skiers an hour, and it remains the highest ski lift on the African continent. For decades it was the only real lift-served skiing in Morocco and a genuine curiosity - snow, mule-hire, and the Marrakesh plain visible below. Its recent history is harder to pin down and sources disagree, which is why several fields here are left empty. Ski industry reporting describes the resort as largely closed in terms of lift operation and slope preparation in recent years, without giving a date when the lifts last ran, while tourism material continues to present it as an operating destination. What is consistent is that the infrastructure is long past its life and that repeated investment announcements over three decades have not produced anything; the most recent, reported at about 8.25 million US dollars for new pistes, a chairlift, five surface tows and two conveyors within twelve months and a possible reopening for the winter of 2026, drew openly sceptical responses in Morocco for that reason. The Michlifen crater lift in the Middle Atlas, also in this dataset, went the same way in 2005.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift | The main chairlift, installed 1963: a 1,960 m line with 620 m of vertical rise and a capacity of 600 skiers an hour, topping out at about 3,300 m, which makes it the highest ski lift in Africa | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | Several drag lifts operated below the chairlift. Their number, names, lengths and installation dates are not documented in accessible sources |
Sources and further reading
More in Morocco
Location
31.2053, -7.8613