Into The Mountains We Go
On our first day of the hiking portion of our trip, our journey toward Toubkal Base Camp began with breakfast on our hotel’s terrace overlooking the small city of Imlil. We came to the terrace packed, dressed and ready to begin what we could only imagine would be a demanding but incredible day in the High Atlas Mountains.
After breakfast, we reviewed our gear, separating what we would need on us during our ascent from what we should pack up for a mule to bring to the refuge (base camp). As we left our hotel and began our hike towards Mount Toubkal, our first section of the trail was a little wooded area with a small road cutting through fields and farmland. With small villages in sight on the side of the slopes, we continued on pretty flat ground until reaching the edge of Toubkal National Park.
As we got further and further along the trails, a trend was emerging, with small shops popping up along the way where you could stop to catch your breath, or even purchase snacks and drinks. The terrain slowly transitioned from a wider trail with larger trees to a narrower trail that felt like a small pebble road as the large trees switched to smaller bushes. As we climbed higher, things shifted again to a more rugged terrain, with a variety of different-sized rocks covering the path and the vegetation slowly disappearing as we passed above the tree line.
The more we hiked, the thinner the air got as breaks became more frequent and hiking poles were needed in order to traverse successfully. We had many mini-breaks as we stepped to the uphill side of the trail, allowing mules carrying supplies and bags to pass on route to the refuge as well. Thankfully, lunch came at a perfect time, with a small diner serving us tea with chicken tagine as well as salad and bread alongside. This quick lunch around 2:00 PM revitalized our group with only two hours or so remaining of our journey to the refuge.
As we passed by the last few small shops along the trail, the refuge came into sight way out in the distance. Though it was still quite far, seeing our destination provided some energy for our group during this last stretch. As we got closer and closer to the Toubkal base camp, we could begin to pick out groups of tents speckled around the main base camp area. We arrived with a sigh of relief, congratulating one another on what we had achieved. We were proud of ourselves, as for many of us it was the longest hike we had ever done. We had covered 14km of trail with an elevation gain of 1600m, as we had started in Imlil at 1600m and were now at 3200m.
We first took some much-needed rest, gathering for a tea and snacks before more downtime ahead of dinner. The refuge is this amazing castle-like fortress that sits on the highest part of the last valley below the massive slopes leading to the highest peaks in North Africa. There are four peaks above 4000m that you can access from the refuge, making it a bustling place with lots of adventure enthusiasts looking to summit at least one of these peaks. Our sights were set on the highest of them all, Mount Toubkal.
As the day came to an end, with our bellies full from dinner, which was an appetizer of soup, and the main being a mix of pasta and chicken tagine, we gathered for a meeting about our summit hike. We would be meeting at 2:15 AM to eat breakfast to ensure we could begin our hike before 3:00 AM. We spent the remainder of our evening repacking what we would need for the summit and decompressing from a long day of hiking. We went straight to bed after that, knowing we would need all the rest we could get for what tomorrow would bring. In a few short hours, we would be meeting again to shoot for the summit, with the main goal of making it for sunrise.
