Morocco Travel: Mount Toubkal Trek
Why we were unable to summit North Africa’s tallest mountain.
One of the main reasons I chose to travel to Morocco was to climb Mount Toubkal. Rising up over the rest of the High Atlas Mountains in central Morocco, it seemed like the perfect reason to make my way to this new continent.
After living on Vancouver Island for a year, and doing my fair share of backpacking and mountain climbing around Canada’s west coast, I came to Morocco feeling confident about my hiking abilities. But as I’ve now learned, the ascent up Mount Toubkal is not to be taken too lightly — the mountains must always be treated with caution and respect.
Before the Trek
We started our adventure in Marrakech, the closest major city to the mountain range. My boyfriend, R, and I stayed at a lively hostel in the medina and were trying to figure out the cheapest and most efficient way to get to Imlil, the town in which the trek starts.
We asked the owner of the hostel, who told us that our best bet is to take a Grand Taxi. In Morocco, taxis are effectively a form of public transportation, given how affordable and accessible they are. Grand Taxis are split between a number of people going in the same direction, and often cost no more than 30–40 dirham ($3–4 USD) per…
