Tuesday 2 August 2011

Toubkal Summer Trek

I've not had much time of late to update the blog. We've been really busy with our National 3 Peaks Challenge and our Summer Toubkal Treks.
May bank holiday bought an exciting Toubkal trek, what was meant to be a summer trek turned out more like a winter ascent.

Day 1 we encountered strong winds which made the day tough going, then just before arriving at camp we had the unexpected challenge of crossing a swollen river due to heavy snow fall only a week earlier, with the rivers so high we had to wait until morning to find out if we could continue with our route over Tizi n Taddate pass.Thankfully by morning water levels had dropped and we were able to continue with our chosen route, today also had it own difficulties with crampons required in order for safe passage over Tizi n Taddate pass, once over the pass we only had two more small river crossings to make before arriving at camp so some well earned mint tea and cake, overnight conditions worsened with high winds which the High Atlas are notorious. We woke early praying for good weather and all was looking good.

After a good breakfast we made for Toubkal summit again in crampons, which is not normal weather conditions for May, we slowly made our way up the South Cwm nearing the summit ridge fighting strong winds which at time's blew us off our feet, we managed to reach 3900mt and then decided to return to camp and leave the summit for another day.After a good lunch it was time to load up the donkey's and make our back down to Imlil for a hot shower and a well earned breakfast.
The following two days were spent exploring the souks of Marrakech and enjoying Moroccan cuisine.
I'm now counting the days until we return to Morocco in September.

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