How to end up ice climbing in Morocco (with 0 skills or winter gear)

Using a traveler's adventure mindset.

Apr 29, 2025

I sat in the back middle seat of a 14-person van, my legs stretched into the isle, bumping along Morocco’s Route 13 in En-Nzala.

We were in hour four of (soon to find out) eleven, driving north west from Merzouga’s windy desert to Fes’s old Medina.

I peered out the window as we pulled up to one (of the many) rest stops on our journey. At this one, we were to learn how they “make fossils”.

We filed out of the van sluggishly, more interested in making it to our destination than seeing the fossils. I slipped off to the bathroom while the tour guide started his discussion.

After yapping with a bus mate for just five minutes, we found a friend in common! She goes to university with a friend of mine but was studying abroad in Barcelona (and in Morocco for the weekend!). Excited, we continued chatting about all our travel plans.

At the next rest two stops, we happily hopped out together to see the “native” monkeys and buy ice cream in the “Swiss Alps town of Morocco”.

Just four days earlier, in the final hour of walking in crampons against the 55mph winds trying to summit Mount Toubkal, I wished for nothing cold, ever again.

We had shivered everything out of us at 4,167m/13,671ft, wearing hats I bought 24 hours before and windbreakers borrowed from fellow hikers.

(We were as unprepared for three hours of ice climbing as we look in this picture….)

Other standout moments from our seven Riads (Moroccan hotels) in twelve days included:

Sitting in a Berber home explaining we didn’t have room (or money) for a massive handmade camel fur rug.
Accepting free laundry service at 7pm from our Riad (only to get the clothes back the next morning soaking wet…).
Getting a fifth basket of bread for breakfast so we could “try all the options”.
Men yelling “you look skinny” to try to get us to eat at their restaurants in Marrakesh.
Reading in the back of a van while winding up and down through mountain and desert landscapes.

Even with less ideal events, I still embraced it all as part of the journey.

This is a main difference I see between a traveler and a tourist.

Tourists are usually in a place for a set itinerary: Cancun to relax by the beach or Rome to tour the Colosseum, Pantheon, and Vatican.

While a traveler might have set plans, they also embrace every moment of the journey from a bumpy bus ride on gravel roads ending with a flat tire in Patagonia to a two hour layover in Lisbon where “we definitely have time to leave the airport”.

Regardless of the type of travel we prefer or are trying at the moment, by having a traveler’s mindset (as opposed to a tourist’s), we can enjoy more of every situation.

Instead of being annoyed by traffic when it takes six hours instead of three to reach Lago Atitlán from the airport, I accept it and use the time to sleep and chat with my fellow shuttle riders. Not because I’m happy to sit in traffic, but because I’m content in the journey.

By appreciating these times during travel, we can make everything an adventure.