Morocco part I - Toubkal the highest peak in the Atlas mountain range

I decided to write a short series about my trip to Morocco, This is pat one of our attempt to reach the top of Toubkal (4167m) the highest mountain in the Atlas region.

Basic information:

Cost: 150$
Duration: 2days
Would I do it again: absolutely :)

We flew in from Milano (Italy) to Marrakesh the flights with Ryan air are really cheeped it cost us 80$ for a return ticket.

From Marrakesh, we went straight to Imlil which was the starting point of our trek up Toubkal. Imlil lies on 1800m above sea level and it's a traditional Atlas village.

Doue to bad conditions in the mountain read it just dropped a lot of fresh snow we had to shorten ou trek form three-day to a two-day trek. Which meant we would go straight to the highest refugee beneath Toubkal at about 3400m and then from there on we would attempt to summit the top next day.

The initial price of the trek was 200$. I this price was a guide a cook and two nights in the mountain huts ad all the gear we needed. Because we had to shorten our trip we bargained the price to a 150$.

The first day we walked for about 8 hours. At first, it was an easy walk that got more and more demanding but nothing too hard. The fresh snow was making us work even harder to reach the refugee. Nature and the views were amazing for the first part of the way. In the higher part, the clouds rolled in and it started to snow and the visibility got close to none. Thanks to the guide who knew the way well we managed to reach the refugee safe.

The refugee was really simple with just one wood burner to dry our boots and clothing. The cook prepared us a warm meal, which was delicious, not sure if this was because we were really hungry or it was really tasty.

It kept on snowing the whole night. The next morning the conditions didn't look promising. We postponed out start from early morning to noon to wait for better conditions. There were a few groups that tried to go earlier and they were all unsuccessful.

The conditions got a bit better and we got ready and went out. After two hours of strong winds and deep snow, we realized that it's too dangerous to continue. We returned to the refugee and looked at the weather reports. The reports were bad for the next days so we had no other option but to realize that we won't reach the summit. Of course, we were disappointed but we knew this was the right decision and that the mountain will wait for another day and adventure.

We went back to Imlil the same day and head east to Taghazout to surf.

This is so amazing for Marocco you can surf or go to the high mountains in a weekend.

I'll be writing about surfing in Morocco in the next part :D

This is the end of part I. Hope you guys found it interesting and helpful if you need any other information or have a different experience please comment below!

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!steemitworldmap 31.137745 lat -7.919794 long Toubkal the highest peak in the Atlas mountain range d3scr