Mount Toubkal: No Sleep. Frozen Fingers. Full Hearts.

Finding humanity, healing, and purpose at 4,000m above sea level

There’s something strangely beautiful about being on a freezing mountain at 4am, running on an hour of sleep, and one wrong step away from falling off a snowy ridgeline… and yet somehow, still feeling like you’re exactly where you need to be.

That was us – 80% up Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa (4,167m) – alongside a brave group of individuals raising awareness and funds for You Okay, Doc?, the charity supporting doctors’ and healthcare workers’ mental health and wellbeing.

We chose this challenge intentionally. We weren’t looking for comfort. We wanted hard. We wanted something scary, humbling, and deeply human. Something that would shake us out of routine and remind us what really matters – connection, purpose, and presence. Toubkal gave us all of that and more.

Freezing, Focused, and 400m Per Km

From the refuge at 3,200m, summit day started in complete darkness. Headlamps flickering, crampons clamped on (for the first time ever), and -20°C winds blasting across the ridge at 35km/h. It was over 1,000m of vertical gain in just 2.5km – our legs, lungs, and life choices all being tested at once.

With 20 minutes to go, and the unfamiliar feeling of sun occasionally catching our faces for a moment of reprieve, we were completely spent. Our poles felt too short, our fingers were frozen, and the wind howled in our ears. We questioned everything. It felt like a throwback to endurance races some of us had done in the past – not in form, but in spirit. That moment when your body is shouting “stop” and your mind has to decide whether or not to listen.

It was mildly terrifying. But it was also clarifying. When you’re stripped back to the essentials – breath, step, team – you begin to feel what really anchors your mental wellbeing: shared experience, stillness, support, resilience. That’s what we found on the mountain.

Afterwards, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Toubkal felt steeper than anything I’d done before. So I researched it. Turns out, it’s not just a feeling. With a vertical-to-distance ratio of 400m per kilometre, Toubkal ranks among the steepest final summit pushes in the world – steeper than Kilimanjaro, K2, Elbrus, and even many high-altitude peaks in the Andes and Himalayas. Toubkal punches way above its weight class.

We Reconnect By Disconnecting

We live in a world obsessed with convenience, speed, and control. But supporting your mental health – and the mental health of those around you – requires the opposite. It demands discomfort. Slowness. Presence. You can’t understand resilience until you’ve stood in the dark with a windburnt face, hiking toward a summit you can’t yet see.

That’s what this was about. Yes, we grew. But more than that, we reconnected – with ourselves, with each other, and with what truly matters. That process of connection is the foundation of wellbeing. Toubkal reminded us that there are no shortcuts to feeling whole. You have to put in the steps, one frozen foot at a time.

When You’re Running on Fumes

The night before the summit, 30 of us lay shoulder to shoulder in a boiling refuge room, tossing, turning, and failing gloriously to sleep. As someone put it, we spent four hours not sleeping as the main activity… and maybe one hour sleeping out of sheer desperation.

And yet, the next morning, we climbed.

There’s something in that – about what it means to keep going when your tank is empty. Something that echoes the reality so many doctors and healthcare professionals face every day: running on fumes, and still being expected to show up. In those moments, more than ever, you need good people around you. A team. Someone to check in, to carry the load with you, even if just for a few steps.

That’s what we had. That’s what You Okay, Doc? represents. And that’s what we need more of.

Mental Health, Community & Humanity

This wasn’t just a physical summit. It was an emotional and communal one. We did this to raise awareness for a cause we care deeply about – mental health in healthcare. But what we took away was far more personal.

Because supporting mental health isn’t always about grand gestures. Sometimes, it’s about being present. About laughing when your legs are shaking. About asking someone if they’re okay – even if you just met them yesterday. It’s about community. Humanity. And remembering that you don’t have to carry it all alone.

As Dan, the founder of You Okay, Doc?, said on the mountain:

⁠“We need to disconnect to connect.”

And as Ben reminded us:

⁠“How often do we actually take time for ourselves – to stop, recover, and just be?”

These moments aren’t luxuries. They’re lifelines. Especially in a world that constantly tells us to go faster, do more, and never stop.

Final Thoughts

Would we recommend Toubkal? Absolutely—if you’re ready for something that goes deeper than a physical challenge. This isn’t a casual hike with views. It’s snow, wind, altitude, and a bit of chaos. But it’s also laughter, perspective, healing, and pride.

Sometimes the best way to support mental health is to be vulnerable, take the risk, and say yes to the mountain. Even when it’s steep. Especially when it’s steep.

Take the step. Into the dark. Into the unknown. Into the snowstorm at 4am with a group of half-strangers who somehow become your team.

And when you reach the top? That’s when it all makes sense.