Even at 02:30am, there were climbers setting out from the refuge towards the summit of Jebel Toubkal – the highest peak in Morocco. Our sparse breakfast, eaten by the light of our headtorches, sitting on the fooor of the communal mess tent, was significantly improved by Simon, who somehow had the energy to drop brew a fresh coffee! I gratefully accepted it.

Lines of head torches showed the way ahead, up the steep zig zags of scree as we got into a slow, steady rhythm. Above the sky was full of stars and the milky was tan parallel to the main valley.

At the col, just below 4000m, we stopped and watched as the sun came over the horizon and the mountains behind us glowed pink in the morning light.

Another half hour, saw us reach the summit, where a small crowd were milling around. Photos and high fives all around. Not wanting to rust away, we found a quiet area away from the summit to sit and soak in the view, while some of the group had a high altitude power nap.

On the descent, we split the group as some still had the psych and energy to make an ascent of nearby ‘Toubkal West’ – bagging themselves a second 4000m+ peak. Si guided some of the lads to the summit, while I put the others in the group shelter for a snooze and pre-descent rest.

On their return about 45mins later, Si and I swapped places and I dashed over to the summit by myself. A magical experience, scrambling alone up to an un frequented peak – the solitude felt restorative after the hoards on the previous summit. I stayed up there a few minutes trying to take in the views, before taking a direct descent to head off the group that Si had just got moving.

We were back to the tents around mid afternoon, but rest was hard to find in the dusty dirty camp. The strong winds whipped around us in clouds of dust. Even inside the mess tent, the food was quickly coated in brown dust before we could get it to our mouths. It was too hot to get in our own tents, so to get a little respite we walked over to the refuge and bought some popcorn to eat in their busy, but dust free dining room.

We got the cook to prepare dinner early and were all in bed before it was properly dark. I lay down around 21:30 after pretty much 19 hours on the go…