Carrauntoohil

I feel I've needed to get some real training in, not just going for a run and swimming. So I messaged my buddy, Cormac, who lives in Killarney and has been up and down more mountains in Ireland than I can count. We planned it for Sunday 22nd July, with three other friends of his. I drove down to Farranfore in Kerry and headed to Cormac's house and we drove together in his car with his lovely Kerry Blue dog, Kez. Two guys dropped out on us because they had a terminal dose of Man Flu, it's very serious.
We met the lovely Seamus, and headed to Lisleibane, it's the starting car park. Cronin's Yard is a more popular starting point as it has toilets, showers and a shop to get some nice warming tea afterwards. There is a very obvious track up through the Hag's Glen and along the way we crossed a really cool river with huge boulder stepping stones. The path is slowly rising all the time and we are keeping a nice brisk pace but it's misting rain down on top of us. We make our way towards the Devils Ladder. An infamous path up to Carrauntoohil. It's a nice steep gully filled with huge boulders, smaller rocks and lots of scree. I was pretty nervous heading up this, but the guy went ahead of me and I pretty much followed their path. We were nicely sheltered by the wind in this section but occasionally a huge gust would come down onto us and we'd be holding on to the nearest rock. Nothing was going to prepare us for the tornado ahead of us once we left the Devils Ladder. We reached a flat open plain and stopped for a minute to catch a breather.
With the fog, wind and rain, there was no views to enjoy, but the lads told me on a clear day, it's just breath-taking. I'll have to wait for a sunny day and try it again.
We headed onwards and upwards along what's called, The Zig-Zags, as the name suggests, it's a zig-zag path winding up the final ascent to Carrauntoohil. It was along here I started to feel a bit tired. But we kept going till we finally reached THE CROSS. It's a 5 meter high cross at the very summit. I'm not fully sure of the history, but it's here where people pose for the obligatory photo. We were definitely getting a photo as I'm sure many people would not believe us that we made it to the top in that weather. Next to the cross, there is a small stone shelter called the Canteen, it's keeps the wind off while you try to have a sip of some hot tea before you freeze up completely!

So here we are, frozen to the bone and drenched! But it was well worth it. To avoid be blown off the top, we started to make our way back down the same way we went up, down the zig zags and the Devils Ladder, it was much much scarier on the way down. But the lads were great and didn't rush ahead of me and we took our time on the wet, steep slope. Every so often the fog would clear and we could catch a glimpse of the mirage of the bottom, it always seemed to be getting further away!
Much to our surprise we met a two guys on the way up, who was, very obviously stoned off his head. What a silly silly man! Clearly no respect for the mountain! I only hope nothing bad happened him! We kept walking down and eventually we were on flatter ground and we picked up the pace a little as poor Kez, Cormac's dog, was getting very cold, as was I!! Once we made it to the car park I took off some of the wet layers and my very wet boots and into a nice dry fleece that was in my dry bag!
It was a great day, weather conditions aside and I can't wait to do it again!

Here is the cross at the top. The mountain itself is the highest point in Ireland, at 1,038 meters or 3,406ft. It's part of the Macgillycuddy's Reeks in Killarney National Park. As I said we went the Devil's Ladder route, which, sadly, has become really dangerous over the years due to much of the scree becoming loose through human interaction, so great care must be taken not to disturb the rocks that are there.

Lastly here is a picture of the Devils Ladder. I got the photo of the cross and the Devils Ladder from the Kerry Mountain Rescue website. Make sure to check it out, lots of great information on it.

Getting nervous...

With under 6 weeks to go... the nerves are very much kicking it.

But I have all my lovely gear to console me. I freaking love buying new stuff. I already have a 60L+10 Vango Backpack, (which I adore) and will be perfect for the climb. I modified my 20L day pack last night, it had a thingy for your earphones, but I ripped that out and made the hole a tad bigger so I can fit a platypus hydration tube through. It encourages you to sip water all day, rather than big gulps every now and then.
Then I have my amazing boots, all I need for those are some extra socks.

I was looking up all those snazzy North Face and other branded summit jackets and pants, and I nearly fell over looking at the prices of them, like if I was to kit myself out in the branded gear, it honestly would not stop at 700euro... and that's just a jacket and pants... nothing else :-/

My wonderful Aussie bootcamp buddy, Kimmy, had sent me photos of her and her husbands Kili climb and I quizzed her on it, and then it occurred to me... I have a full set of Ski gear. So I asked her about it, and she told me she did the whole climb in her ski gear! I was so happy when I heard that, cause I was genuinely worried I would have to shell out some serious dosh for the summit gear! So I'll be wearing my ski pants and jacket on the summit, and some thermals and under layers and I'm sorted!

Im trying to get in a few long walks to help break-in my boots, it'll help avoid the life threatening... blister!! dun dun dun!

I have a list in my diary of all the gear that I do need, and I get such satisfaction when I get to check each one off... my purse, however, is not enjoying that part! But they print new money everyday, can't print memories like these :)

I'll stick up another post with pictures of some of my gear and my tricked out day pack when I pick up my platypus!