Toubkal update

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 Colin Knowles 15 Jan 2019

I have just returned from the Toubkal refuge after a five-day mountaineering trip. The Moroccan authorities have instituted four checkpoints between Imlil and the refuge. You cannot now climb Toubkal or stay at the refuge without hiring a guide. If you have no guide the police will not let you proceed.

 A guide costs 400Dn per day I.e. about €36. For most folk Toubkal summit is a two-day trip so you need to factor in this extra cost. We do not know how many is the maximum clients a guide can have, but we saw large groups with just one guide. 

For our stay of five nights we only needed the guide to go up and come back down. There appears to be a policeman permanently at the refuge so no doubt he covered us for the other nights. 

This change introduced on 1st January appears to be a genuine attempt to support tourism in the High Atlas following the murder of two women in December 2018.

 bonebag 15 Jan 2019
In reply to Colin Knowles:

I was there 15th to 22nd December and yes we did see one checkpoint at Sidi Chamarouch on our descent day but no others. So sounds like security has been stepped up.

On the guide front does the guide have to be a local Moroccan guide? This could impact on commercial trips like the one I was on from the UK.

I know while we were there that the local Berber population were very worried about their future. Also locals in Marrakesh that we spoke to were equally worried about it.

I might add that non of us felt unsafe while we were there after the event and I am back in February in the Todra Gorge. 

 THE.WALRUS 15 Jan 2019
In reply to Colin Knowles:

Is the guide required for toubkal alone? What about the other mountains you can access from the refuge; afella, ras, akioid etc.

And what about the the more technical routes? There are no mountaineering guides in imlil, so are there routes off limits now?

 bonebag 15 Jan 2019
In reply to THE.WALRUS:

A very good point Walrus.

 acrkirby 16 Jan 2019
In reply to Colin Knowles:

So is the worry only over safety from other humans while ascending the main path, not over deaths on routes?

Did you have to pay for two days of guiding or for your whole trip? If it was only for the two days i feel the muleteers should introduce some sort of combination of guide and mules as you will be hiring someone to help carry your bags anyway.

I hope this can be the case as if they demand a guide accompanies you on your route it will pretty much restrict you to snow plods only, there aren't many technical guides out there...

 Mr. Lee 17 Jan 2019
In reply to Colin Knowles:

Looks like an attempt by the authorities to look as though they are doing something to the rest of the world. Unless there is a specifically heightened risk in the local Toubkal area compared to the rest of the country (which the FCO does not consider there to be) it seems a pretty shallow measure.

OP Colin Knowles 27 Jan 2019
In reply to acrkirby: In reply also to THE.WALRUS and bonebag

We did not need a guide to climb Toubkal starting from the hut, nor for Afella or our ice climbing.

I think it would be difficult to find a muleteer who was also a guide; the muleteers by and large seemed to be older men with little or no english, whilst the guides were younger with english/french of sufficient quality to make arrangements, discuss the routes etc.

We only paid for the guide to walk up to the hut and then on the final day to descend.

I can't comment on whether the police would accept non-Moroccan guides as suitable. 

 

 silverdarling 28 Jan 2019
In reply to Colin Knowles:

Good to hear. Other tourists have said the police across southern Morocco were stopping visitors camping anywhere except commercial campsites . Hopefully changes round Toubkal are a sign that security/cops are growing less insistent in protecting tourists in other places.

 

 THE.WALRUS 28 Jan 2019
In reply to Colin Knowles:

Fair enough..if you have to hire a guide / muleteer to get to the hut, but can then go off and climb anything you want without supervision..seems a reasonable compromise.

 Rich W Parker 28 Jan 2019
In reply to Colin Knowles:

Are the guides armed....


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