A little mountain taster

2 weeks today, I fly out to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, for a much anticipated ultra marathon with 200km’s and 9000 metres of climbing in the Tian Shan mountains and it’s very much on my mind, sat in Marrakesh airport reflecting on a long weekend hiking in the Atlus mountains In Morocco, climbing the three peaks.

Aside from spraining my ankle running down the mountain trails - our guide Mohamed gave me several warnings to be more sensible but, typically, I decided to ignore his very good advice - this little adventure exceeded my expectations. Over the three days, we hiked at between 3,200 and 4,167 metres, with the latter being the Toubkal summit so there was a healthy amount of altitude and, with a couple of little extra sessions to stretch my legs, I clocked over 5000 metres of climbing, which felt pretty good.

I set out on this trip purely with training in mind for the main event coming up, which - injuries aside - delivered in spades. But the best bit was good company and a real sense of community along the way. We were eight in the group with a mix of ages and backgrounds ranging from early twenties whipper-snappers Asha and Lewis - the former who was in training for Everest Base camp with her dad - somewhat of an inspiration for me with my daughter, Amelie, in mind and the latter in Lewis, who literally had no idea what he had signed up for with this trip, reflecting his easy going attitude to life; my polo playing, newly adopted son for the trip, Caleb, almost half my age but wiser and more well read, speaking no less than 4 languages and often educating me on far-reaching matters from history to politics; Andrew, a salmon farmer from the highlands with a hidden talent for endurance and a new found passion for the outdoors after a covid-induced epiphany to get off the Xbox and get outdoors; Steven from NI with the exotic calling of IT professional and all- round nice guy who has now gained an intimate knowledge of Toubkal due to rebelling bowel movements resulting in multiple, involuntary, loo breaks inconveniently timed for the summit push; Jerome, a 6”2 man-mountain PT, likely candidate for men’s health magazine and - despite the looks - down to earth, modest and warm hearted; and finally, whom I thought would be the sensible one in Chris; a family man and the eldest of the group in his early 50’s, who went wild at the sight of alcohol on our post-trek, final night back in Marrakesh. Rumour has it that long after old-man-Ben had retired for the evening, Chris was encouraging the group to ditch and run on their rather hefty bar bill; true or not, this made me chuckle.

I would say we were likeminded but I am not sure if that is fully accurate or indeed important with various ages, backgrounds, professions, fitness levels and motivations so what strikes me is that despite our differences, we formed a natural bond and sense of community that is the result of shared experience.

More on that but worth taking in some of the highlights starting with the day we did the three peaks.

Led by our guide, Mohamed, we had an early start to climb Toubkal with a 3am wake up call and by 4am we set off from base camp, “the refuge”; the group had varying pace so we were accompanied by our incredibly speedy chef, Hamaroush, with the goal of ensuring the quicker of the group could summit for sunrise.

At 5.45am and a good half an hour before sunrise, myself, Andrew and Jerome were at the summit taking in the awesome views of the Atlus mountains; simply stunning and - I am not going to lie - bloody cold at this point. We had gone through 30+ degrees at the bottom of the valley to minus temperatures at the summit, which was particularly shocking for our Caleb, who was dressed for the beach.

Anyways, at around 6.15am and with 5 minutes until sunrise, I got incredibly grumpy so decided to announce I was off and would see everyone later - I am normally quite good natured but every now and then I can be quite unreasonable; this was definitely one of those moments!

Fortunately, Jerome was very clear with me that I wasn’t going anywhere and I should sit back down. When the big man talks, you listen so I did as I was told. Less than 5 minutes later we had the perfect sunrise and the most incredible, panoramic views of the Atlus mountains; it was a moment to take in and one I will hold for a while sat at my office desk.

After taking in the views, we ran at a clip back down the mountain, trying, and failing, to keep up with speedy Hamaroush. After several near misses and a couple of falls - I am no mountain goat - we were back at the refuge for breakfast. Hamaroush estimated 2-3 hours for the descent so despite my Bambi-balance and resulting cuts and bruises, getting there within an hour felt good and it was a bit of an adrenaline rush after the slow, high altitude plod to the summit.

A quick nap and some food later and we were out on the mountain again. Brilliantly, Caleb had now decided to wear ALL of his clothes - his morning exploits had clearly left an impression, however it may not have been the wisest now the sun was up and it was 20+ degrees out.

In fifteen years of being a guide, Mohamed had only ever taken a group along for the three peaks in a day once, with a standard two day itinerary, so, despite the disapproving looks and nagging feeling that he wasn’t a fan of my extra-curricular runs on the side to bolster my fitness, he agreed to take us up that day to summit the two other highest peaks in Northern Africa; Rass Ouanoukrim, at 4,089m and M'Goun - 4,071m.

A tangential point but at one stage over the weekend, Mohamed casually mentioned he had previously completed the round trip from valley to Toubkal summit in 5 hours, 40 minutes which is only half an hour longer than the FKT by legendary ultra-runner, Killian Journet. No wonder Mohamed looked at me with such distain.

The trek to the 2 peaks was rugged and untamed, without the thoroughfare of Toubkal. There was a decent amount of scrambling and some fairly gnarly climbs that kept it interesting. Conditions were very different to the morning, with the afternoon sunshine making the heat pretty uncomfortable. However, it was worth the effort when we were rewarded with breathtaking views of Toubkal on arrival, which was followed by another clumsy dash back down to the refuge.

It felt like we got our money’s worth that day with the perfect sunrise, 2000 metres of climbing and three summits - all in time for dinner!

Day 3 was bags of fun and I took the opportunity to do a couple of laps up and down the trail, getting in some extra miles into the legs and taking in some time to myself.

It was the perfect morning until I managed to twist my ankle on the rocky trail; typically, as my mind turned to lunch, literally metres from the mountain restaurant. Not much to say about that, apart from that it really, really hurt and that Mohamed is always right.

The rest of the descent into the valley was really quite horrific as I tried my best not to limp or look in excruciating pain for the “easy” 2 hour hike back to civilisation. My reaction at seeing our finish line and the village shop we started at, was pure relief in the knowledge that I didn’t have to walk another step on that ankle. Unfortunately, that relief was very short-lived as moments later we piled into a mini-bus designed for dwarves with less legroom than a Ryanair flight, so I quietly cursed to myself in my folded position for the next 90 minutes until I could escape on arrival at our Riad.

There was so much more to this short but action packed trip and I felt like it ended on perfect note. In the taxi back to the airport, hungover and sleep deprived Chris shared his motivation for the trip; the 25th anniversary of his dad’s passing. He also spoke openly about some of the more formative, difficult times of his life, some of which we have in common and he reminded me that that everyone has a story, with family and human connection really being what it’s all about.

In the daily routine, it’s easy to forget that life is precious, our time is finite and that we take real meaning from shared experiences. A big thanks to the group - coined as the “Toubgals” by Caleb - for a reason I am yet to grasp - for that welcome reminder.

Feeling mentally refreshed, I now look forward to the next adventure… After a couple of weeks and hopefully with my ankle healed up, I will be good to go.