The city of Ifrane and its hinterland took on, on this auspicious day of January 20, 2017, a magnificent snow-white dress to offer visitors one of the most beautiful landscape paintings that no naturalist painter could have conceived and created. The city was completely transformed.
These first snowfalls recorded at the beginning of January 2017 in the town of Ifrane, and its suburb of Michlifen in particular, gave a new taste of life to us mountain people.
This gift from heaven is a blessing both for the supply of the largest water tower in the country, Ifrane and its region, and for the creation of wealth, especially agricultural wealth, in the downstream plains, and the energy that the country greatly needs.
Also, neither the extreme cold of the season nor the absence of significant financial resources to deal with climatic hazards spoil our joy in welcoming this snow. This is how the city of Ifrane experienced during this month of December and will certainly experience even more these very next weekends and during the February school holidays, a large influx of tourists and visitors who will come to taste the joy of living in snow-covered mountains and take advantage of the winter sports offered by this beautiful region of the Kingdom of Morocco.
All these people, with a little civic-mindedness and respect for others and for nature, can easily practice their favorite sporting activity and indulge in skiing, sledding or simply give free rein to their imagination, creating snowmen and other sculptures of their own creation.
Speaking of Alpine skiing and white tourism, it is worth noting, with great satisfaction, that the Michlifen Ski and Mountain Resort was there, on December 18, 2016, with the commissioning of the new newly installed ski lifts, respectively on the black slope for the large ski lift and the green slope for the small ski lift, in the presence of the President of the Royal Moroccan Ski and Mountain Federation, responsible for Technical Assistance, within the framework of a multi-party partnership agreement mobilizing a fund of 17,850,000.00 Dhs, and the representative of the Franco-Moroccan Hebri-Parc/Poma Group responsible for the equipment and installation.
This partnership agreement, let us recall, was signed by the Governor of the Province of Ifrane, president of the provincial commission of the INDH, on the one hand, and his partners representing respectively the Ministry of Youth and Sport, the respective presidents of the Provincial Council of Ifrane, the Royal Moroccan Federation of Ski and Mountain Sports, the Ski Club Ifrane and the Michlifen Association for Tourist Development and rental professionals of Glisse equipment, on the other hand, and which should be joined by the President of the Municipal Council of Ifrane, manager of the Michlifen station.
This partnership agreement concerns the development and equipment of an infirmary and emergency care room, at a price of 200,000.00 Dhs by INDH, the construction of 16 kiosks reserved for the rental of equipment and equipment for Skiing and mountain sports, for an amount with premises for the SCI Ski school and a cafeteria for an amount of 1,650,000.00 Dhs, financed by the Ifrane Provincial Council and the purchase and installation of new ski lifts (ski lift or chairlift), for a total amount of 16,000,000.00 Dhs, financed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
In this same framework of effort, aimed at the promotion and development of white tourism, in general, and winter and mountain sports, in particular, in the city of Ifrane and its beautiful ski and mountain resort of Michlifen, the Ministry of Youth and Sport carried out work to develop and extend the Michlifen youth reception center, for a budget of more than 200 million Dh and whose reception capacity was seen go from 30 to 50 beds.
In the wake of these major development and promotion efforts, the Ifrane Ski Club did not remain idle, since it also proceeded with the development and equipment of its chalet-refuge built since 1939 in the Michlifen Ski resort. This project was carried out by this pioneer club of national alpine skiing, in partnership with the Provincial Committee of the National Initiative for Human Development of Ifrane, for a budget of 327,000 Dh, including name equipment.
