The 36th Most¨Prominent Peak Takes its Toll

Yesterday we succeeded in climbing the world's 36th most prominent peak. Jebel Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak, leaves those who climb to the top at 4167m above sea level. For half an hour, Vinny and I stood above everyone in Africa with the exception of those who might have been in Kenya climbing mount Kilimanjero. The excursion took three days to complete as experts reccommend two days to acclimatize to the altitude-- once at 1700m and once again at 3200m. Day one of the hike, after a day in Imlil acclimatizing to the mountain air, proved to be a challenge for both Vin and I. By the time we arrived at 3200m, neither of us could feel our legs, lungs, or head. Discouraged and intimidated by the day to come, we got six hours of semi-restful sleep at the ''Refuge'' and awoke the next morning at four-thirty to start the final ascent.
Each step that we took yesterday was a challenge. Think of the steepest slope that you've seen, and add ice-- that's exactly what we were climbing. Taking a zig-zagging path through the ice, the two Montrealers, still fresh from Montreal's harsh winters seemed to fare quite well. Both Vinny and I were really unphased by the ice-- in fact; we preferred it to the crumbly rock that Toubkal offered otherwise. After three hours of relentless slipping, stumbling and suffocating, we finally reached Toubkal's peak.

A view of a moderate slope at Toubkal
Through all of the panting we only managed to take a few photos, but those we took seem to have turned out great; however beautiful the pictures look, no photo, video or blog can do this experience any justice. The combination of the climb and views provided by the mountain is simply unreal. Here are a few photos from the hike:

A view from the summit

See if you can spot Vin on The Toubkal Massif
This morning was rough, very rough. We were able to sleep in for once, most days we're up by 8, but today we woke up at 11. Unable to walk properly, we didn't have much motivation to do much at all, but the fact that we hadn't done laundry since... Barcelona forced us out of the hotel and into the streets in search for ''European'' laudry -- aka a machine and not a washboard. After two loads, we were exhausted, and returned back to hotel Essaouira for a well deserved shower, shave and general clean-up.