22/07/2025
Jamie Donnelly’s Challenge and Expedition to Climb up to the Summit of the Mountain of Toubkal the Highest point in North Africa at 4167 Meters of Elevation, situated in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, in North Africa, scheduled for 17th of July 2025, was a successful Challenge and Expedition Jamie Donnelly climbed up to the Summit of the mountain Toubkal which is at an Elevation of 4167 meters in 2 Days Hiking and scrambling up very steep rocks, on loose rocky terrain, including a total distance of 21 miles of hiking on loose rocky challenging terrain Jamie began the Expedition with his team from a town named Imlil in morocco at 1740 meters of Elevation of 11:20am, the temperature was 29 Degrees, Hiking up steep gradient through the woods, whilst in the woods Jamie could hear insects hissing in the heat, they pressed on hiking through the woods to a village named Armid, they then Hiked along side the village and then on to a flat rocky field just outside the village, on the rocky field Jamie spotted a football pitch with the floor of the football pitch all flat and solid of natural stone, they then began hiking up a rocky path towards there base for the evening which was a Refuge at 3207 meters of Elevation, along the Path Jamie and his team were stopped at a government checkpoint at 2050 meters of elevation, which gathers information on climbers, after that they continued to hike along the rocky path up the mountain, the local expert whose name was Mustapha had organized for the larger resources of the team to be sent up to the Refuge base by Mules, they passed by a few rivers, after 2 hours of hiking Jamie and his team reached a mountain cafe hut ran by the locals, at this stage a large Dragon fly which was about 5 inches long and 5 inches wide landed on Jamie’s Hiking pole, Jamie was intrigued buy it so hi filmed it and took a picture of it, at the Mountain Hut Jamie and his team had a short break, at this stage the local expert who was also a Muslim wanted to Pray so hi asked Jamie who was the most experienced in the team to Guide the team towards the Refuge Base whilst hi prayed, hi would then catch them up, so Jamie did so, along the way hiking towards the Refuge Base Jamie noticed that the terrain began to change considerably with many different types of plants, and vegetation, the terrain and vegetation seemed to change completely every 400 meters of elevation or so, but never the less very beautiful and interesting, the mountains were also clustered with a unique type of beautiful trees, there were also many large boulders around, the temperature at this stage was around 20 degrees with the occasional 10 mph gust of cool wind which felt very pleasant in the heat, there was also a constant river running along there route which seemed to make there assent more therapeutic especially at the occasional small waterfall, Jamie led and guided his team for about 1 hour towards the refuge base, when Jamie decided to stay stationary and wait for the local expert Mustapha to catch up with them, once Mustapha caught up with the team hi thanked Jamie for Guiding them to this stage, they then continued on the Expedition hiking towards the refuge base, they then became within sight of the refuge base which looked a beautiful sight in the distance, surrounded by greenery, they then continued along the rocky path towards the Refuge, once they arrived at the refuge Jamie observed the front of the refuge and hi noticed that there were a number of mules on the greenery grazing in front of the refuge which appeared to be well cared for, the mules are used to carry supplies up to the refuge and for carrying injured climbers, Jamie also noticed at the refuge a number of erected tents, the refuge building its self was a large building which had water supply, dorms bedding and toilets but with no electric lighting supply in the dorm rooms, the plan from here was to get up at 3:00am in the morning and begin the climb at 3:45am to the summit of Toubkal at 4167 meters of elevation and reach the summit by 6:30am, this was to be done in total Darkness so Jamie and his team were to use head torches, that evening Jamie prepared well and had adequate enough sleep, Jamie got up at 3:00am met the team at one of the rooms in the refuge, and had a little breakfast, the darkness made preparation a little more difficult but not a problem, Jamie went outside to observe the scenery, Jamie saw that the night sky was clear with a brief outline of the surrounding mountains to be seen, many bright stars could be seen clearly which stood out in there thousands, this looked very beautiful, Jamie and his Team then began the climb up towards the summit, for the first 1 hour and a half it involved scrambling up very, very steep loose rocky terrain in total darkness, using there head torches, then another 1 hour and a half of hiking up very, very steep loose rocky terrain, the climb seemed very long as a result of the darkness and as Jamie didn’t know the area or rout, it was also very physically challenging indeed but with Jamie’s fitness, conditioning and positive mental attitude it was fine, for the last 15 munities before they reached the Summit at around 6:15am the darkness got a little lighter so Jamie was able to turn his head torch off, also for the last 15 munities, and through out the climb there was a constant gust of wind, so Jamie told the local expert and team to advance to a section on the mountain with adequate cover from the wind, in order to make preparation for the final push to the summit, Jamie chose a rocky section for cover which was adequate, the wind and altitude made the temperature drop significantly so in order to make a summit push Jamie had to wear mountain gloves, and a mountain hat on his head to keep warm, once prepared Jamie and his team pushed for the summit and reached the summit on schedule at 6:30am, the views from the summit looks beautiful and spectacular at sunrise. Once Jamie reached the summit hi still felt healthy, fit and strong but he felt the challenge, Jamie enjoyed the challenge and experience On the mountain Jamie saw very interesting mountain squirrels, mountain sheep, mountain goats, mules, a large dragon fly, many birds including on the summit, and many lizards
