Julie Wright, Richard Wright, Jessica Tait, Simon Tait, Camille Cooke, Kevin Cooke, Richard Peers, Irena Tucker and Huw Tucker climbed Mount Toubkal (4167m) in Morocco in memory of our friend Emma Broad who died in May 2011, raising over £21,000 for CRY.
On Saturday May 4th 2013 nine slightly anxious ‘would be’ mountaineers met up at Gatwick to set off for Marrakech. Our long planned 2-day climb of Mount Toubkal, the highest of the Atlas mountains, was now upon us.
Our training was complete. Would our many walks in the Surrey hills, and for some a Snowdon climb, have prepared us for what was ahead? We arrived in Marrakech and quickly met up with our driver who took us to the mountain village of Imlil, our base at 1,700m. We settled into our Kasbah for the night, men in one room, women in the other.
The following morning, fully charged with mint tea, we started a 7-hour walk up to the remote Refuge du Toubkal (3,200m) where we would spend the night. We carried our day provisions with us, our overnight gear was carried by mules. Progress was steady, the mountains around us were sublime. We arrived mid/late afternoon. Our guides prepared our evening meal and then the nine of us shared a very compact dormitory for the night. Despite all of us needing a good rest (we had a very early start the next day) very little sleep was had by any of us. We weren’t sure if this was due to our proximity to one another, or the altitude!
We woke at 4.30am, and with our head torches on we left at 5am. We immediately encountered a long steep climb and with only our torches to guide us progress was slow. We were rewarded an hour or so later with some fantastic scenery as dawn broke. The ascent was relentless, taking us through deep snow and across never ending boulders. Eventually at around 10.30am, 5.5 hours after leaving the refuge, we made it to the peak at 4,167m. Summiting was an emotional experience, we got Emma’s picture out (as well as the CRY Banner) and reminded ourselves why we were there. She would have been very proud.
Despite a clear blue sky, the cold began to kick in quickly so we soon began our descent believing the worst was over… but coming down proved to be even harder! We made it back to the refuge by 2.30pm for a quick lunch before carrying on back down to our base at Imlil, a further 5 hours away. Eventually we made it back to our Kasbah at 7pm, some 14 hours after our day had started. We were elated to have successfully completed our challenge, Emma had definitely been there with us pushing us up the steep sections! We compared our blisters, packed up our gear and met our driver who was taking us back into the heart of Marrakech, 60km away, for two days ‘recovery’ in a Riad.
We are very grateful to all who sponsored us, we were overwhelmed by everyone’s support, thank you. Your money was well spent. It was certainly a huge challenge, but more importantly the good work which CRY can do with the funds we have raised will help prevent such tragic circumstances happening in the future.
Richard Wright
