UKC

Hi i am planning a quick trip up Mount Toubkal in Morrocco in the next couple of weeks. I was wandering if anybody had experience with the weather this time of year.  As i know that the weather at the summit can be highly variable this time of year. 

i was also wandering whether it would be worth bringing an ice axe up or would it be excess weight.

It will be hot. It was reliably over 40C in Marrakech and not obviously much less at 2700m or so around the refuge. I was very careful with Sun but burnt very quickly when I accidentally left my sandalled feet outside my tent.

I was there very early July 2013 with a school expedition, no winter conditions on the mountain . Be careful with hygiene / water around the refuge.

Snow cover unlikely to persist beyond May, any remaining patches would surely be soft/heavily tracked. Truth be told, the Toubkal guides don't seem too bothered with crampons or ice axes even when they are needed.

Three of us went trekking round Toubkal in early May, ten years ago.  There was a snow within half an hour of the hut, leading to a snow basin.  After that, you ascend onto a ridge and the snow disappears.  If there is any snow left in June, it will be very soft (so crampons and axe will be useless).  It took me three hours to reach the summit but my mates did it two (keen runners).

Thanks for the advice.

Some tourists were hiring guides and donkeys to get up to the hut from Imlil.  I wouldn't bother.  Just follow the valley south from Imlil for several hours, can't go wrong.  However, i would try and acclimatise.  We were above 2500m for the week before and it really helped.  The tourists that came straight up from Marrakesh seemed to have a right struggle, even on the way down.  Maybe they got the tick but there didn't seem to be any pleasure in it.