25th - Camp – Toubkal refuge (base camp)

Having had a good night’s sleep despite hearing the wind roar outside we had breakfast and started the steep ascent up towards the Adrar Aguelzim pass at 3550m. The ascent looked horribly steep, but starting walking up it suddenly wasn't too bad. Zigzagging all the way up it was much more manageable than expected. We were walking in the shadow of the mountain all morning but fortunately it was less windy here which made it a little easier.

Reaching the top we circled around and suddenly we were standing in the sun, no wind and a beautiful view of the landscape below. We continued circling around until we reached the top where we continued on to the other side of the mountain, where we had a gentle descent into a valley where the base camp was located in the bottom at app. 3206m.

We would not be staying at the refuge, a former fort, but still camping 5 minutes away. But we were all still very happy as the refuge had… yup – real toilets! Yay!

We arrived midday so we had lunch and then the rest of the day was spent on relaxing and mentally preparing for the summit day the following morning. The wind was even worse here than last night, probably because it was channelled down through the valley straight to where we were. There were two kinds of people in the camp; those in the leeside of the tent, and those getting smacked in the face by the tent canvas all night. We were 3 who were sharing two 2-person tents by rotation which meant that the first night at base camp I had the tent by myself. It was nice to have space to sleep away from the canvas, getting some sleep. Which, by the way, was quite limited anyway due to the wind and loud noisily flapping canvas.

Knowing we are starting the day with a steep bit doesn't really matter much when you can wake up to a view like this.

Half way up, looking down from where we came.

Reached the top, came out into the sun and started circling around to the other side.

Half way round we could look directly down to Imlil.

And starting the ascent to base camp. The fort can be seen, and below to the left can be seen some small specks; that's our camp.