I thought Scotland was wet and boggy, until I went to Ireland!
Had an expense paid trip to a conference in Castlebar, so balanced 2.5
days of conference with 2.6 days of peak bagging.
Wed, Thur: at conference, perfect sunny weather.
Friday: Conference ended at lunch time, so 9 of us walked up Nephin (806m
). Thick mist and drizzle on top, 30 mph winds. nice hill tough! 1 hr 20
up, 2.5 hr rt.
Saturday: Croagh Patrick (764m) 30-40mph and mist on top, 1hr 5min up, 2
hrs roundtrip. great fun and I walked around the cairn and the church once
each. not many peaks have a substantial church on top, and with no access
road!
Mweelrea (814m) : it cleared when I got to the summit! great views, so
very happy!
I went up the cwm from the north along the diagnol shelf. Initially thick
cloud
and rain (I started at 11 am after CP). very windy and got knocked over a
few times. The cwm is superb 8-)
Clouds cleared when I hit the ridge and wind was strong, but not
unreasonable on top. not much of a summit cairn. back the same way. Just
over 2 hours up and 4 hours for the round trip.
Back at the car at 3 pm
and debated another peak since the cloud was above the tops, but didn't.
managed to get a room at the Delphi Adventure centre. Kept thinking I
should do Ben Gorm, but worried about my legs if I did 3 700m peaks in a
day.
Sunday: heavy rain and gales. went up Ben Gorm (700m) from Delphi, didn't
have to
move the car. 1 hour up. 50 mph wind driven rain in the top, but I was
soaked anyway. 1hr 45min rt. Feet were soaked withing 50 feet of the road.
Then short drive up to Sheefy West top (772m). rain all the way up and
high
winds. Winds on the summit ridge closer to 60 mph and heavy rain. 1 hr 15
min up, 2 hr rt. not a place to hang about.
back at the car an 13:30 and headed to Belfast rather than play in more
awful weather.
The GPS was great for being sure I was going to the right place.
On Ben Gorm, I hit the ridge in high winds, fog and rain about a 1/4 mile
from the summit, used GPS so sent me right there. then dropped straight
off the ridge to escape the wind and used GPS to get back.
Was happy to have it on Sheefry to tell me I was doing the right thing is
the bad weather.
Some fine hills!, I look forward to going back for more. (after I do the
Corbetts, Donalds, etc ....)
These are all 2,000 ft prominence hills, BTW.
cheers,
Rob