Sunday Hikes December 2004

 

 

HIKE PROGRAMME

MEET:  Burgh Quay

DEPART:  Sundays 10.00 am

COST:  Private bus.  €10

Date

Route Description

Distance

Leader

Dec 5th

Introductory Hard Hike

Route: Ballyknockan - Silsean - moanbane - Billy Byrne’s Gap - Mullaghcleevaun - East top - Carrigshouk - Oasis.

13.5km/ 780m

Joe Gilvarry

Dec

11th/

12th

Christmas Party at Glendalough Hostel

See special information below

Walk on Sunday to be led by Philip Hayden

Various

Various

Dec 19th

Christmas Hike!

Route: Drumreagh Forest Entrance (GR. N937032) - Drumreagh forest track - Church Mountain - Turf cutters’ Track - Hollywood Village.

12m/

600m

Don Reilly & others

Jan 1st

Traditional New Year’s Day Ascent of Lugnaquillia

 

Jim Barry

Jan 2nd

No Hike.

 

 

Jan 9th

Introductory Hard Hike

Route: Forest Corner (GR067187) - Seehan - Corrig - Seefingan - Kippure – Lough Bray - Glencree

13km/

500m

Philip Roche

 

 

General Hike Notes

 

PARTICIPATION Mountaineering is an activity with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants should be aware of and accept these risks. People who take part in our club activities do so at their own risk and are responsible for their own actions and involvement. 

 

SUNDAY HIKES Participants on Sunday Hikes must be a member of An Óige Hillwalkers Club. If you are not a member of the Club, but are considering joining, we invite you to participate on our monthly Introductory Hikes.

 

INTRODUCTORY HIKES An Introductory Hike is organised once per month for aspirant members. Participants on these hikes must be a member of An Óige.

 

CO-ORDINATION Tickets are given out on Sundays to ensure that participants reserve a bus place as they arrive on production of Hillwalkers’ Membership Card.

 

LEADER The leader has the right to refuse anyone who is not adequately equipped (e.g., without appropriate boots, rainwear, food, torch, hat, gloves, etc). The leader may alter the route from that described in the program. The leader sets the pace of the hike and walkers are expected to obey the leader’s instructions at all times.

 

TORCH During winter months it is essential to bring a (head) torch on all Sunday hikes. Check your batteries / bulb.

 

ENVIRONMENT Try to reduce the erosion and widening of trails, e.g. do not walk on the edge of worn tracks; walk through the centre of the original track or go several meters into the scruff where the ground is untrodden, walking parallel to but not on the track.

 

LITTER Litter is unsightly and dangerous to animals. Even bio-degradable items like orange peels and banana skins take years to disappear. Bring all your litter home and try to include at least one extra item from each day out. Do not bury litter – animals will dig it up.

 

WALKING STICKS In the interest of safety and comfort please keep the pointed end of your walking stick covered, especially when travelling on the bus.

 

HIKE LEADERS If any member is interested in leading a hike, please contact either:

Tom Kenny      Email: tomk2003@yahoo.ie

Philip Roche    Email: philip.roche@boimail.com

 

 

Christmas Party

 

Saturday December 11th

 

Bus Travellers:

Meet at Burgh Quay (usual spot) on Saturday at 9.30hours.

 

Independent Travellers:

Independent travellers who are going walking should be at the hostel by 11a.m. This is for registration and bunk assignment before walking.

 

Bring: usual hiking gear, overnight and washing gear and glad rags for the party. Lots of energy and party spirit (not spirits!).

 

 

Christmas Hike

 

Sunday December 19th

 

Leader: Don Reilly

 

Meeting at Burgh Quay as usual. Cost €10. Jim Dowling will have a large bus for the day. This is usually a hugely popular hike so come early to be sure of your place on the bus.

The hikes will finish at the Hollywood Inn and finger food will be laid on for all hikers.

Musicians are asked to bring musical instruments with them.

 

 

New Year’s Day Hike

 

Meet at Fentons at 10.45 am, for traditional ascent of Lugnaquillia. Hikers are asked to arrange own lifts/ car pool from Dublin.

Leader:Jim Barry

 

 

Membership Renewals

 

Members who have not yet renewed their memberships are reminded that this will be the last edition of the “Hillwalker” that they will receive until they renew their membership. Membership for the current year until September 2005 is €28. Application forms and remittances should be sent to our membership secretary Anne Russell (email annerussell10@hotmail.com for further details).

 

 

Books for your Christmas Stocking!

 

WHERE THE MOUNTAIN CASTS ITS SHADOW

The Personal Costs of Climbing

 

 

Maria Coffey’s book WHERE THE MOUNTAIN CASTS ITS SHADOW won the 2003 Banff Mountain Book Festival Award. In this book Maria Coffey explores the costs of climbing not just to climbers but also to their families, friends and loved ones. This is an area never before explored in the world of mountaineering, an area glossed over by climbers, even a taboo subject for many of them.

 

This is a meticulously researched and sensitively written book, weaving riveting tales of adventures, dangerous and fatal experiences with reflection on the nature of such experiences. She reflects on the drive to go above the clouds  “which leads mountaineers to heights both physical and metaphysical”. This is what Tomaz Humar, the Slovenian climber describes as “feeling the magnitude of eternity.” Maria Coffey explores psychology of those who climb, the nature of a climbing addiction and its effects of partners and children.

 

Maria Coffey was the girlfriend of climber Joe Tasker who died on K2 in 1982 and this gives her an insight into the suffering of those affected by loss through mountaineering accidents. It is this exploration of those affected by another’s climbing which gives the book its unique interest. She interviews many of those left to pick up the pieces after such accidents, those left to continue living without a partner, particularly those left to rear children alone.

 

Interviews with the children of Chris Bonington provide an interesting insight into what it was like to grow up as the children of an often absent father, their desire to be part of a ‘normal family’ and their later courting of rebellion and infamy. Tserin Cheesmond, whose father Dave was killed in the Yukon when she was only three years old, speaks of her sense of abandonment and anger at a father who “knew the dangers but took the risks anyway”.

 

The book concludes with the story of Cherie Bremer-Camp who, with her husband Chris Chandler attempted the first winter ascent of  Kangchenjunga in the winter of 1984-5. It was an expedition which cost Chris his life and Cherie most of her fingers. After her rescue by local people she resolved to somehow repay their kindness. She attributes her recovery from the effects of these tragedies to the initiatives she set up in Tibet including a health centre, a school and clinic, solar powered vaccine refrigerators in seven centres, a pre-school and a maternal health worker.

 

While this book deals with the effects of many tragedies, it is an uplifting read. Its message is that life needs to be lived “with a vengeance” (Terres Unsoeld).Maria Coffey herself concludes:

 “That intensity was Joe’s legacy to me. It compelled me to follow his example, taking from life what I wanted and needed, shaping it to my dreams, experiencing it to the fullest, knowing that the end can come suddenly, without warning. Joe’s death jolted me alive.”

 

Where the Mountain Casts its Shadow;

 Maria Coffey 2003, arrow Books ISBN 0 09 943608 6

 

Check the author’s website: www.hiddenplaces.net.

 Review: Deirdre McMahon

 

 

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FOUR QUARTERS OF LIGHT

An Alaskan Journey

 

Brian Keenan’s fascination with Alaska began with his discovery of Jack London’s Call of the Wild, while still a schoolboy in Belfast. This fascination was confirmed by a short lecture visit to Fairbanks, Alaska, some years ago. His appetite whetted he resolved to return and explore one of the last wild places on earth. His book vividly portrays the Alaskan landscape over a five month period from snow melt in May to snowfall in September. He brings to life the “churchers, birchers and searchers” who live amid its arid tundra, the ghost mining towns of the late nineteenth century gold rush, an Eskimo fishing camp.

 

This book combines adventure in remote places with reflection and a poetic recreation of the landscapes and people encountered.

 

Four Quarters of the Light, An Alaskan Journey.

Brian Keenan, 2004 Doubleday Books London ISBN 0-385-60306-1

 

 

 

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MOUNTAINS OF THE MIND

A History of a Fascination

 

Robert McFarlane explores the question of why mountains – lumps of rock and ice- have dome to exert such a fascination on the human imagination. He blends cultural history, meditation, and personal memoir. He explores and reflects on the geology which has created the mountains, glaciers and ice “the streams of time”. He reflects on the history of mountaineering, the exploration of the unknown and the climbers’ fascination with Everest. From my experience of this book, and I haven’t finished it yet, this is a book to enjoy in small segments. Its presentation and its illustrations make it a book to enjoy over a long period of time and one to return to again and again.

 

Mountains of the Mind; a History of a Fascination

Robert McFarlane, 2003. Granta Books, London ISBN: 1- 86207-561-1

 

 

Winter Checklist

 

Does your rucksack include the following items for winter hikes?

  • Torch
  • Spare gloves and socks
  • Emergency rations
  • Spare headgear
  • Scarf
  • Bivi bag
  • First Aid kit

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

The Officers of the Hillwalkers Club would like to wish all members a very happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.

Nollaig faoi shéan is faoi Mhaise daoibh uilig is go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís!

 

 

Club Committee

 

Club President and Chairperson: Prionnsias MacAnBheatha
Secretary: Frank Rooney
Treasurer: Jim Barry
Sunday Hikes: Tom Kenny and Philip Roche

Membership Secretary: Anne Russell
Training Officer: Jimmy McCullagh
Editor: Deirdre McMahon

Social Officer: Steven Buckney

 

In addition, four club members work behind the scenes as follows:

Distribution: Cyril McFeeney & Pearse Foley
Webmaster: Matt Geraghty
MCI Environmental Officer: Patricia Goodman