An Adventure in the Atlas

View from Mt Toubkal of Ouanoukrim

This was TEC Adventures first international expedition, needless to say I was excited but also nervous as I wanted it to be a success and I was treading into new territory.

The team plan to meet up in Gatwick airport departures after a very early morning check in and what I thought would be the stress-free part of the whole trip but of course that wasn’t the case. I get a text come through.

 ‘Freddie's having issues, I’ll explain it to you when we’re through’

My first thought was ‘what could he possibly have in his bag that is causing him problems at check in?’, turns out his passport only had five months left on it and as everyone knows you need at least six months to go anywhere. So that was it we were down to five of us before we even left UK, trying to enjoy a breakfast wondering how Freddie had not realised this earlier. To our amazement who did we see walking up the steps towards the café where we were eating? It was Freddie looking as relived as we were confused, he then went on to explain to us that he did know about the date on his passport and also knew that Morocco allows up to three months on your passport to enter into the country and had to explain this this to multiple airline staff before they finally checked their facts and let him through.

After an uneventful flight we landed in Marrakesh and were greeted in the welcoming arms of Lahcen my friend and trusted local guided, with cold bottles of water and box sweet treats we jumped in our minibus made our way to Marrakesh. Upon arrival at the hotel we had the first of many cups of sweet mint tea and briefed the team on the days ahead. Everyone was eager to get lost amongst weird and wonderful streets of Marrakesh so after quick shower that’s exactly what we did.

Many hours of haggling followed, and deals were made (some better than others) over all sorts of incredible items from teapots, mugs and essential oils to pillowcases, art works and even a djellaba. As the afternoon turned into evening the square in the medina comes alive with music coming from all directions and circles of people form the stages, in which we were pulled into and got to dance with all the locals. An incredible introduction to Moroccan culture and hospitality.

The next morning after breakfast we got back in the minibus and headed for beautiful rural town Imlil nestled at the foot of the Atlas Mountains (1750m), it is from here where we started our trek. After more cups of tea and some rearranging of bags the mules were loaded and we were off. First stop the Shrine Sidi Chamharouch (2250m) where we had the most in delicious lunch (with more tea obviously) surrounded by the beautiful towering mountains of the Atlas.

The rest of the day was spent chatting and laughing away as winded our way up the valley towards the Toubkal refuge at (3200m) where we were to spend the next couple nights. Upon arrival we had more tea and settled into our dorm for some much needed down time, that is for about five minutes until Toby pulled out ‘Double Shut the Box’ which is skill/luck dice-based game in which the goal is to simply shut the box. He had us all hooked on from the first time we played back in the airport. By this point everyone in the team had managed to shut the box other than Alex who was getting pretty frustrated by this.

Dinner in the refuge did not disappoint, our cook Hassen who came with us all the way cooked up a feast for us every meal which was the envy of all the other hikers in the refuge. On our first night we had the most delicious meal of traditional tagine, berber omelette and fresh salad accompanied by more bread and even more tea. Lahcen and Hassen had even managed to rustle up a birthday cake for Alex which made the whole day just that little more special. Alex used her birthday wish and managed to Shut the box after dinner rounding off the day perfectly, we got an early night ready to start the next day at 5am to take on the twin peaks of Ouanoukrim. 5am came round too quickly with some people sleeping better than others. After a hearty breakfast and conversations on what different layers people were going to be wearing on the ascent we set off into the darkness our head torches on with sunrise a couple hours away.

Ras (4083m) is the first peak we ascend and requires you to do a fairly exposed and hands on scramble up the ridge of the mountain giving you incredible views down the valley from where you came from and all the way back to flats of Marrakesh where the lights of the of the city are still twinkling, everyone managed this with ease and we quickly made our way on to the summit of Timesguida (4088m). We couldn’t have asked for better weather up on the summit, we had the most impeccable views in all directions and the lack of wind made for a warm summit. Lots and snacks were eaten, pictures were taken and everyone was in such high spirits. Made even better since we had the mountains to ourselves!

Everyone else in the refuge is on Mt Toubkal which is our plan for the next day so back down for late lunch, more games, rest and obviously tea. Early to bed as our wakeup time for Toubkal sunrise trek is 3.30am.

We set off from the refuge at 4am after a big breakfast and a lot of faffing packing up our bags as we didn’t plan to come back past the refuge on the way down. We quickly caught up with the trail of headtorches up in front of us made up of the of the big commercial trips and made the call to split from the main trail to carve out our own path to the summit. We arrived at the summit (4167m) perfectly in time for sunrise and got to marvel at the gorgeous colours thrown up into the sky. We hung around for a short while, got our well-earned summit pics and headed down the mountain on the lesser travelled Northern ridge ending up back at the Shrine for a big feed and onto the town of Aroumd.

Our last day we spent relaxing and reflecting, we had more amazing food in the style of Moroccan barbeque and then went off and got a Hammam (I have never felt so clean in my entire life). The whole team seem to draw similar conclusions, which were how different experience of hiking Mt Toubkal was to the twin peaks of Ouanoukrim. Both are incredible mountains over 4000m and we had very similar weather conditions but what made the whole experience different was the just how much quieter but yet and more adventurous and personal the twin peaks of Ouanoukrim were.

Summit of Timesguida 4088m