Trip Reports

Winter Toubkal Climber February 2026

Winter Toubkal Climb, Stuart McNeil, Mar 2026 3
Trip Report

Written by Leader Stuart McNeil, March 2026

This is a great short trip for anyone who wants to summit a fairly straight forward 4,000m peak and experience the Moroccan culture of Marrakesh and surrounding villages It also gives the opportunity to brush up or try out basic Ice Axe and crampon skills.

Our hotel in Marrakesh is very well situated for visiting the Jemaa el Fna medina which is a vibrant bustling hub featuring street performers musicians and open-air food stalls and can be visited on the arrival day in the afternoon or early evening depending on flight times.

On departing Marrakesh mid morning we drove the short distance to the village of Imlil (1800m) arriving at our hotel for lunch and were given keys to our rooms The afternoon was spent having a short walk from the village to the local water fall and a small circular walk taking us back to the village for a coffee in one of the many cafes.

The next day we went for an acclimatisation walk up to the col of Tizinmzik (2480m). The weather was sunny and clear blue skies we arrived around lunch time and secured a fresh orange juice from one of the vendors there, we then practiced walking in our crampons and doing a little bit of ice Axe arrest before descending down approximately an hour for our lunch cooked by Ali who had walked up ahead of us with the donkey carrying our provisions for lunch we had a leisurely lunch and after around 38 minutes we descended back to Imlil to relax and sort out our equipment for tomorrow's walk up to the Toubkal refuge, there is the opportunity to leave fresh clothes and other items not required for the ascent at the hotel until returning in a few days time. We had a very nice evening meal all very healthy with freshly cooked produce.

After breakfast at 9am we set off for the refuge and had lunch at the small village of Sidi Chamarouch (2330m) this is where the donkeys returned back down the mountain and the porters took our kit bags and other provisions as it was the snow line and we put our crampons on for the ascent to the Toubkal refuge were we arrived at 16.30.

We secured our own room which actually slept eight so we had a little bit of space to spread out and could leave our boots rucksack and other climbing equipment in the open lockers in the room. The refuge had log burning stoves and was warm in the evening whilst we had our meal.

The next morning having donned our crampons climbing helmet and got out the ice axes we departed for the summit at 7am in perfect conditions with no wind and sunshine the snow was also perfect for crampons we arrived at the summit at 11.40am and had it to ourselves for 20 minutes admiring the views and having a snack that we took with us. We descended back down to the refuge arriving at 2.30pm for a late lunch.

We descended the next day to Imlil having a very relaxed early lunch at Chamarouch village arriving Imlil for a well earned shower and coffee/tea,we had a really enjoyable evening meal and relaxed in the hotel.

We departed Imlil at 10.30 on the mini bus after a late breakfast and were back in Marrakesh by 12.15.

We had a group evening meal which was very enjoyable with a well deserved drink.

Really well done to the summiteers - Gill, Francois, Dominic and Sean and for the great uphill pacing of Jawba our local guide that catered for all abilities and of course Ali for the great cooked meals.« | Next report »

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