Hi there,

I'm planning my next hike and have been looking at Mt Toubkal in Morocco. Does anyone have any experience of this hike and can advise how quickly it can be done?

By the looks of the reviews I have read it's possible to trek the Normal route in 2-3 overall from Marrakech by
Day1 : cab from Marrakesh to Imlil, hike 6-8hrs to the Neltner Hut
Day2 : early start and summit late morning (5hrs trek), & back to Imlil by the end of the day.
End of Day2 or morning Day3 : Back to Marrakech

Can this be done? It looks like about 100miles from Marrakech to Imlil.....

Thanks
Steve

Go to this page http://www.summitpost.org/jbel-toubkal/150232 and use all the route and trip report links in the bar on the left margin.

I was on the Atlas crest near Toubkal about 6 weeks ago. This is a year with little snow, so I would think the Toubkal route will be completely melted out earlier than usual.

conflax wrote:
Day1 : cab from Marrakesh to Imlil, hike 6-8hrs to the Neltner Hut
Day2 : early start and summit late morning (5hrs trek), & back to Imlil by the end of the day.
End of Day2 ..Back to Marrakech

This is exactly what I did in late March 1997. It was knee deep snow most of the way to the summit ridge, after a couple of days of snow, so slow but easy. I was alone but on summit day there were about 10 of us out in front. Coming down was hot, even in late winter.

I took a Mercedes taxi with a couple other strangers from Marrakech train station to Imlil, then just carried my gear from there. I don't think it took anything like 8hrs. There was snow on the last part, but that would not be there in summer. The hut was full of ski tourers, some were in tents, but I got squeezed into a shed out the back. Started around 5am, climb took several hours, foggy on top, no views.

From the hut I slogged down to Imlil and caught a ride in the back of a truck most, if not all(?) the way back to Marrakech. I'm guessing in summer it would be severely hot and dry there, but in winter it was an interesting short trip. An extra day would make it more enjoyable, I wouldn't normally go so high so fast, but I just went with the flow and how things evolved.