CLIMBING THE TALLEST MOUNTAIN IN NORTH AFRICA

a portion of this video is sponsored by google thank you so much have a good day it feels so weird being at the airport alone [Music] so traveling is basically continuous problem solving and let me show you the first problem that i have to solve today inside of this grocery bag is all of my drone stuff as i was researching last night i realized you can't take drones into morocco there is a storage facility here at the airport i just i don't know if they're going to take it in the plastic bag can i check this bag i want you this one the only this one thank you it uh it turns out that you can store a grocery bag at the airport i don't even think i double knot at the bag we'll see if the drone's still here in four days [Music] if you're new here the name of this channel is kara and nate normally there's two of us in these videos so let me start by explaining what happened to cara last week we flew to greece on a 300 flight that we found with fairgrounds so long story kind of short we were both originally supposed to fly back to the us together but while i was in athens i decided to sign up for my first marathon which takes place here in about a week but more on that in the next video [Applause] charis takes the original plan and flew home because her sister's about to give birth to her first child and she wanted to spend time with her during this special season which left me with a little over a week here in athens to train for the marathon at least that was the plan then our friends eamon and beck you know the the ones from the wrath wow even cheating can't beat eamon and beck they invited me to fly down to morocco and climb the highest mountain in north africa and i'm really bad at saying no to stuff like this so uh let's go to morocco hey y'all cara from the future here two things first thing it is super weird watching nate have this new experience that i wasn't a part of it's almost like i'm getting to watch as a regular viewer for the first time second thing this video was filmed in early november well before the new travel restrictions were put into place in morocco with the ever-changing travel landscape it's more important now than ever to properly research your destination before you travel okay now let's go to morocco thank you thank you all right the first flight of the day is a short one to istanbul ladies and gentlemen children welcome it is good to be back there are a few other airports in the world where i would rather spend five hours [Music] turkish airlines has one of if not the best business class lounge in the entire world so back to the mountain unfortunately eamon and beck and i weren't able to coordinate schedules to be able to hike the mountain at the same time but i had gotten myself so excited about the idea that i decided to go hike it alone last night at 11 o'clock after days of agonizing over whether or not this was a good idea i did it i booked a ticket to morocco i've had pretty much no time to play on this trip ultimately what my decision came down to was what will i remember more in 10 years sitting in my airbnb in athens working behind my computer or going and attempting to climb a mountain in morocco no matter how the next few days work out i'm sure the latter is going to be the more memorable [Music] i didn't even know this was a thing i just booked this entire conference room now this is a lounge park i just put my hotel for tonight it feels like the old days [Music] that sounds bad [Music] all right from here i have five hours to morocco i'm pretty sure i have an entire exit road to myself and a box of chocolates for the flight crew all right see you morocco i made it i almost said we but it just died i made it to morocco alone and late this is it is this gym ready okay good morning from marrakech there's been a big change of plans last night when i landed at the airport i had a text from eamon that said to call him so do you want some friends you're coming we're coming come on so now it's back to the original plan we're all hiking the mountain together i got myself really like mentally pumped up about this idea of doing this big solo adventure but i'm way more excited to do it with friends [Music] okay thank you for everything oh my gosh guys the van in morocco looks so ridiculous let's go climb a mountain oh thank you welcome home nate you built this van out in canada and it's currently in morocco this all feels crazy what's crazier is we left this van in morocco for the past two years and we picked it up like nothing ever happened it's a little moroccan traffic jam [Music] so when i packed for this trip i packed for a one week trip to greece so i'm buying all the stuff you need to climb a mountain so so far matching backpacks matching sleeping bags we're just the three best friends that anyone could have when i say everything i mean everything i think that's it thank you so much that's pretty good i outfitted myself with everything i need to climb a mountain for 230 yeah let's go hammond's napping in the back and from here we have about a two hour drive to in will sounds about right even so excited the energy coming from the back of the van is electric oh no i'm saying it looks like a taco if they pull me over should i pretend to be ammon oh that's a good idea yeah it's a terrible idea no it's a good one it's so stressful driving in morocco because every like 15 minutes there's another police check we've made it through two so far he's waving you through yes yeah the guy on the left on the left yeah yeah sure yeah he's saying go i think he's gonna let you go come on wow such an adrenaline rush [Music] last checkpoint oh we almost went we were so close um okay sure we're literally two minutes away from the town and we just got pulled over at our first police stop yeah right thank you very much we made it [Applause] they were very very nice so we are parked in the town of emil which is basically the last town that you get to before you start climbing up the mountain and everything just feels kind of surreal right now like being surrounded by the atlas mountains and a bunch of local kids playing soccer and it's two worlds that i'm intimately familiar with separately van life and international travel but like combined together it's this completely new foreign feeling experience and i kind of love it i don't know i'm just feeling a lot of things right now what do you think have i packed the right stuff for the mountain yeah that's good these guys are helping me pack or distracting me one of the two children toilet paper we're here goodbye nice to meet you unfortunately nate our guest bedroom setup is not quite what we have in casa b here in trinity but we're going to make sure you have a good comfy stay i did offer that you could sleep in the bed with eamon didn't i this rug this is me yeah um the rug is really really nice yeah but look how cozy back looks back here a rug two yoga mats deflated sleeping pad an extra sleeping bag for padding and then uh the one i'm sleeping on looks great i think you're fine this would uh this would all be great if we weren't sleeping at about a 20 degree angle i know and the sleeping bags are all so slighty they're just sliding down slowly to the front of the van no it's gonna be good and i did good night [Music] okay today's the day i just sat in the van for like 30 extra minutes because i couldn't bear the thought of getting out of the heated van it is so cold out here like i've gotta find my gloves right now oh this is horribly packed where'd they go i can't find my gloves hey jackie good morning good morning okay emmy gave me his gloves i feel guilty but i'm also freezing cold meg and i are currently just walking up to the town hoping i'm gonna run into the start of the hiking trail this is how little planning i've done this morning well that was short-lived huh that was it's been fun hanging out i'm gonna miss you nate i'm sorry i'm not coming with you thanks for walking me to the start good luck oh this is gonna be weird are you okay yeah i'm good okay good okay i feel like my child is going to school oh baby gets better okay so there's been a another plot twist amos feeling really under the weather now it's back to the original plan evan and beck are gonna wait back at the base for a couple days and hope amy gets to feeling better before he climbs good morning where are you from usa hello welcome thank you so much good morning good how are you okay i'm a little sad but that's already got me excited module [Music] good morning been hiking for about 15 minutes now just kind of following the trail that i see on google maps hiking through a little village right now i think i started the trek but if i'm being completely honest i'm not sure i'm trying not to say that too loud because i'd really like the opportunity to try to do this alone but i'm kind of thinking there's a swim chance that i make it through this village without somebody forcing themselves upon me to be my guide i've heard it is required to have a guide to climb to call and i've heard you definitely don't need one i'm sure the truth is somewhere in between [Music] oh i was worried about freezing to death a few minutes ago and i'm already sweating let's see if my bag can hold one more thing i don't understand we're going up this way yeah have a good day [Music] look at this village built into the side of the mountain here so beautiful normally i'd have these conversations and make these comments to somebody else i was hiking with but now i'm just making them to you camera's the only person that has to talk to [Music] good morning no it's not possible to go without no no i would prefer no guide one night or two night to go to the top 400 for one day but i prefer to go it's not the price but i just prefer so they said it's necessary to take a guide from here yeah it's true well i think this is where my solo trip ends it's uh mandatory to have a guide to go up after the terrorist attack that happened a couple years ago which i can completely understand and appreciate i was excited to have just like some time alone in my head as i hiked up the mountain but it'll also be good to be able to support a local guide after covid and that's not how i expected the day to go when i left the van this morning but it'll be good how's it going i'm nate nice to meet you too this is my guide we're officially on the trail no more wondering if i'm going in the right direction or not and he seems to be a very fast hiker so i'm just gonna do my best to keep up we're officially starting the trail at 10 o'clock i thought i officially started the trail back there at 8 30 but here we are [Music] my guy didn't know what he was signing up for the trees here really beautiful i've now gotten to experience falling three different countries first in canada and we drove down to the northeast in the us and now morocco [Music] park now any fun facts no no fun facts so that's in the middle of this took up what elevation are we at now almost 2 000 meters and that's 4 000 167 meters so from here from the entrance of the national park we have a little over 2000 meters to climb until we get to the summit having flashbacks to our everest base camp trek except instead of yaks coming up the mountain it's horses here in morocco what are they carrying i couldn't afford the bags stuff oh they're bags so i could have had a donkey carry my bag probably our donkey we are the donkeys [Music] you're making me look bad now though [Music] [Music] perfect and mostly people who like to eat this in the morning and we also have a hot glass of minty whiskey [Music] thanks we're ready to go here we go okay up the mountain we go i would have liked to have shown you a lot more of that village but the elders here were not a big fan of the the camera okay no problem it's a pretty neat little town there's this big white rock that's supposed to be holy it's a place you can come if you're down on your luck or if you're having trouble having kids that's a pretty unique place going less and less far each time uh i go first okay okay now i'm the leader it's just getting prettier and prettier from here we have a beautiful view of the entire valley we can see the small town that we just came from and then working our way up the valley there looks like frozen waterfalls on the side of the mountain the views from up here are just incredible [Music] oh nice we're making great time [Music] thank you very much wow wow now that is an unexpected luxury halfway up the mountain yes facial moroccan whiskey we make like this and uh sometimes we can put him back again just to mix it just to make a sugar then check cheers can i try to pour it of course yeah [Music] okay check this out this is probably the most innovative refrigerator i've ever seen it diverted the cold water that's running off the mountain into this little room and they're just squirting it right on the drinks to keep them cold oh wow those are suitcases do you know how much they get paid to take this stuff up and down 20 euro per day from you the main difference it seems from the porters here versus the porters in nepal is that the people in nepal actually carry this stuff on their back and here it seems like the horses are doing all the hard work caring and the people are just kind of guiding them up and down the mountain [Music] this gives you an idea of just how cold it gets up here this is all ice that's probably melting from last night [Music] okay the refuge where we're staying tonight is in sight sitting right down there in the valley both of us oh that feels good oh these are for me it's nice so i get set up with some sandals so just as abdul said we made it to the refuge in a little under five and a half hours i had done zero research on the room situation and this is the hostel room that i'll be staying in tonight all right it's uh me and about 25 other roommates in this room i am feeling super grateful for how today's worked out abdul has been such a great addition to the team even though i was set on not having a guide at the beginning of the day i really just can't believe how lucky i got like if i would have spent 100 hours researching online i don't think i could have found a better guide than abdul it's been a really good day and honestly the trek was nothing but enjoyable so now i'll grab some dinner sleep for a couple hours and then tomorrow morning around 4 a.m we'll wake up and we'll make our push to the summit and hope to get there in time for sunrise oh yeah someone in there told me it's supposed to be negative 20 degrees celsius on top of the mountain tomorrow i'm not sure what that converts to in fahrenheit but i know it's really cold okay the best part of the night we'll enjoy it while we can [Music] three pairs of socks [Music] [Applause] you ready i'm ready yes how about you let's do it let's do it [Music] this way let's see how we are going up okay this morning we have two and a half hours to reach the summit before the sun comes up i'm pleasantly surprised by the temperature i'm pretty sure i'm running on about zero hours of sleep i just tossed and turned all night last night sometimes it can be really hard to sleep at altitude [Music] how many kilometers and how much elevation four uh kilometers on eight hundredths to go yeah this will be uh a challenge with the camera huh i hope all good thank you [Music] i'm also very glad that i have abdul to lead the way because there's no way i'd be finding my way up here in the dark it doesn't look good i said it says watch out for falling rocks in french [Music] i think one of the best things about hiking at night is that you can't really look up the mountain to see how much further you have to go because your headlamp just disappears into the darkness so you're really forced to take it one step at a time the first hour out of the refuge wasn't so bad but the last hour has been a bit of a struggle with altitude i haven't been able to feel my fingers and toes for some time now i knew what i was setting up for but just wanted to let you know that it hasn't necessarily been easy sun's just starting to come up over the sahara so we are here in 3900 meters about half an hour more from here i almost got it [Music] i think we came from somewhere right down in that valley you can see the little string of lights coming up the mountain that right there that's the peak we just have to make our way up along this ridge and then we've made it i need to put my scarf so cold this journey is really starting to come full circle we've almost made it up to the summit and we can see marrakesh the city that i flew into all the way from here every time i think we're almost there the mountain just gets bigger wow are you ready to finish this yes this is incredible what a crazy journey this is probably one of the most rash decisions i've ever made in my life to come climb this mountain seven days ago i didn't even know i was coming to morocco and today i'm standing on top of the tallest mountain in north africa oh i can't feel my fingers i can't feel my face i think it's just stuck in a permanent smile right now but i'm happy i'm feeling accomplished but with all those emotions there's also a little bit of sadness that i'm up here without kara every big memory that i've made in my life over the last six years has been with kara and this is the first one that she won't be able to share with me i think that's one of the incredible things about traveling with your spouse is we'll have these memories to share together for the rest of our lives so it feels kind of weird having this one to myself i was thinking about all that on the way up here and i felt like it was going to come out a lot more eloquently but i don't know if that made any sense between the altitude and the lack of sleep wow just wow sunrise in the atlas mountains over the sahara desert [Music] thank you for getting me here the best guide in morocco thank you so much maybe like two hour and a half from the refuge to here sometimes as people they do more than that they do three or four five hours sometimes well done thank you thank you we did good whoo you can only enjoy the views from the top for so long i soaked it all in for a minute and now i hike back down the mountain get a taxi back to marrakesh get on an airplane fly to istanbul overnight layover in istanbul fly to athens and then in four days i attempt to run my first marathon [Applause] [Music] no french [Music]

Channel: Kara and Nate

Views: 882,975

Keywords: atlas mountains, mt toubkal, mount toubkal, jebel toubkal, north africa, toubkal guide, toubkal mountain, high atlas, atlas mountains morocco, atlas mountains documentary

Id: LGBQbbS88lM

Length: 27min 20sec (1640 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 05 2021