Toubkal Experience organises famous Berber hamlet hikes in the Atlas Mountains. We leave Marrakech for a drive south, going up through the Moulay Brahim ravine and upper valleys to reach the higher foothills of the Western High Atlas Mountains and our trailhead of imi oughlad (1450m). We disembark from our car and meet up with the Berber muleteer team. We set out in a north-westerly direction for a 2-hour acclimatisation hike up switchback mule tracks, passing through cornfields, woods, pine and juniper to the tizn’tachete (2000m), where we will pause to look back down on the imlil and ait oussaden valleys before continuing for another half hour to imi n’ifri and our field picnic. We hike for around two and a half hours south-west along a dirt trail to Assif n’ ait oussaden and the red clay terraced town of Tiziane (1750 m) for our bivouac / gite lodging (We offer accommodation of your choice for Toubkal treks standard or luxury).

Today, after breakfast, we will begin our hike up the Assif n’ait oussaden valley, passing through the wallnut groves, up to Tizin’taghrhourte (1995m), and through a rare almost flat stretch to Assaka spring, where we will stop for our field picnic amidst an awesome silence after about 2 and a half hours of relatively easy walking. Our afternoon journey brings us down through the forest boundaries until we reach the Berber settlement of D’knt (1870m) or agouns n Assoul, where we will eat and spend the night in a bivouac / gite.

Today we began a three-hour ascent past walnut orchards, maize and barley fields, sheep and goatherders, and women and children carrying 20kg bundles of faggots and herbs. We cross the Tizin’tagdalte and descend through juniper woods to a spring for lunch. We walked 3 hours down winding upper slopes to reach a river in Assif n’ait oussaden. From here, we reach Tizi oussem (1850m) and rise to Tamsoult, where we camp/hut.

After breakfast, we head off east on a reasonably arduous climb up winding mule paths to the Tizi Aguelzim (3550m), then south-east for another 3 hours to the Toubkal base camp, which marks the spring snowline at 3207m, and where we will eat our supper in bivouac surrounding the base camp.

After breakfast, experience a three-hour strenuous hike to Morocco’s highest mountain (4167m). The view from here is truly breathtaking. When you are ready, we will take the Ikkhibi Sud or South Cirque for a simple – up to 3 hour – descent down to the base camp for a lunch. After lunch, we started off north down the steeply falling, zigzagging paths of the Valley of the Assif n’Isouhouanem n’Ouagounss to the Shrine of Sidi Chamharouch. There is a pilgrimage’marabout’ shrine here, perhaps the remains of a pre-Islamic civilisation, set alongside a waterfall. Hike about 2 hours downhill to the town of Imlil before taking a transfer back to Marrakech.