Sunday
Hikes February 2006
HIKE PROGRAMME |
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MEET: Burgh Quay
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DEPART: Sundays
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COST: Private bus. €10
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Date |
Route
Description |
Distance |
Leader
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Feb 12th |
Lugduffs Route: Shay Elliot Memorial - Cullentragh - Mullacor - Lugduffs - Lough Firrib - Turlough Hill - |
19km / 650m |
Jimmy McCullagh
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Feb 19th |
Lough Nahanagan Route: Upper Car Park - Glendasan
- Camaderry - Northeast spur - Lough Nahanagan - Wicklow Gap - Tonelegee-Brockaghs
– Laragh |
20km / 1080m |
Stephen
James
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Feb 26th |
Mullachleevaun Route: Glenbride - Moanbane - Billy Byrne’s Gap - Mullachleevaun
- East Top - Duff Hill - Gravale - |
18km / 800m |
Donal Finn
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Mar 5th |
Introductory Hard Hike Route: Ballyross Wood - Bottom of Raven's Glen - |
17km / 800m |
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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.
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.
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:
Garry Byrne Email:
garry_byrne@environ.ie
Mark Campion: Email: campion@ireland.com
Out on
the Trails
Pentland Hills
New Year Trip to
27
December 05 - 1 January 06
The excellent
Lothian Bus leaflet ‘Bus Access to the Pentland
Hills’ and equally excellent
The Pentland Hills are designated a
The Youth Hostel
at
The first day we
took the 44 bus to the terminus at Balerno and walked
down a Country lane, past Threipmuir Reservoir, which
had a covering of ice, towards a ridge with tops called West Kip, East Kip and
Scald Law – the highest peak in the Pentlands.
The views were excellent and walking exhilarating due to clear skies and
gentle breezes. We rounded Black Hill and visited the small visitor Centre at Harlaw. As there was
still plenty of time, I extended the walk to head north-west to pick up a bus
at Bonaly in the suburbs. We did 14 miles in the day, which is
excellent considering it got dark around
There was snow
overnight but the roads were clear and we took a bus to Swanton in the outer
suburbs. We passed a delightful holiday
village of thatch cottages and had elevenses at the ski centre. A steep climb took us over the centre onto a
ridge at Caerketton Hill from where we descended for
a leisurely lunch at Glencorse Next day was overcast
with much snow and slush about. We took
a taxi to West Linton, a lovely Victorian village and proceeded by low level
tracks to the villages of Carlops and Nine Mile
Burn. Luckily the mist cleared and the
rain disappeared. A long circuitous
route took us to the continuation of the ridge we were on the first day onto Carnethy and Turnhouse Hills, to
the village of Flotterstone, where we waited an hour
for the bus in the Flotterstone Inn.
The Water of
Leith flows from the Pentlands through
Hogmanay, or New
Year’s Eve is of course a big day in the Scottish calendar. The city centre was closed off and traffic
diverted from the previous day in preparation for the event. Numbers are controlled by tickets and we got
ours from some friendly policemen, who quickly saw off ticket touts. There was a spectacular fireworks display
centred on the castle which lasted for about 15 minutes, after which most
people went obediently home. As myself and John O’ Mahony had
yellow jackets on, we were approached by several people looking for
information!
The following
day there was time to wander around the city centre, having deposited our
luggage at the railway station. The
tourist business was in full swing and the city had largely been cleared from
the night before.
All
in all a very enjoyable time and what better way to spend the festive season?
Garry Byrne
Hillwalker’s Website
Survey & Feedback
I included a
survey in the October 2005 edition of The Hillwalker
(with a reminder in the December/January edition) to try and gage how often
people use the club website (www.hillwalkersclub.com), and how they feel about
its style and content. Unfortunately I only received half a dozen replies.
However, here is the feedback based on those replies:
Q1. How often do you visit the website?
Result: All of
the respondents do actually browse the website. 3 people visit the site just
occasionally, 2 people visit it once a week, and 1 person visits it just once a
month. One person mentioned that they didn’t visit the site too often as all
the information on the Web version of the programme was already available on
the posted-out copy of the programme.
Q2. If you have visited the website before, which is
of the following would you tend to look at?
Result: All 6
respondents said they tend to look at the List of Sunday Hikes. 4 people also
look at photographs, 1 person looks at the Club news and 1 person looks at
Travel articles.
Q3. Do you ever look through the archived Hillwalker programmes?
Result:
Two-thirds of respondents do browse through the archived programmes, with just
2 people who don’t. One person mentioned that the lists of Sunday Hikes in past
programmes often provide ideas for starting points, finishing points or other
parts of a route when planning hikes.
Q4. Is the layout of the website easy to use & to
navigate around?
Result: A nice
response to this one: all respondents said “yes”.
Q5. What kind of connection do you have when using
the internet?
Result: The
response here was split evenly – half used broadband while the other half used
dial-up. One person mentioned that he surfed the net
in an internet café or in a public library. My purpose in asking this question
was to determine if we are adding too much graphic content (mainly photos) to
the main page of the website or not – obviously if using dial-up the page would
load up slower.
Q6. What browser do you use?
Result: Well, it
looks like good news for Microsoft as all respondents use Internet Explorer.
This was an important question for me as some browsers can often display
graphics and text differently than others, and some functions or features in
one browser may not work in others.
Conclusion: While
the number of replies to the survey was low, I believe that the results have
proved interesting, and it has been a worthwhile exercise. Thanks to all those
who participated, and for those who haven’t: you can still send in any comments
to me at hillwalkerclub@eircom.net
Matt Geraghty
Club
News
WALKING WORLD
Back issues are
now available, strictly on a first come-first served basis, from An Óige Head Office,
Available issues
run from no. 15 to no. 45 approximately.
EASTER TRIP 2006
Thursday 13th -
Monday 17th April
Llanberis Youth Hostel
NOW FULLY BOOKED
Anyone still
interested, please contact:
An Óige Head Office, Tel. 8304555 for Waiting List.
LOST AND FOUND:
Hiking Jacket
lost on Hillwalkers' Hike, 3rd January, in the Brockaghs.
Contact: Eddie
Russell, Tel. 2840063
Membership 2005-2006
So far, 90
members have renewed their membership for the current year (
-
Remember,
you have to be a member of the Hillwalkers' Club to
avail of the special bus for Sunday Hikes.
-
From
this edition onwards, only paid-up members will receive the newsletter by post,
email or both.
-
-
The
membership renewal form is located at the end of this newsletter.
THANKS!
Navigation
Training
Consolidation Weekend
28th & 29th January
T
he annual Map&Compass
Course finished up with the skills consolidation weekend in the
Although the
Saturday started off cold, the wind dropped to give us one of the nicest
weekends in the Comeraghs I’ve experienced in the
last five years of the course. On the Consolidation Weekend we aim to meet the
needs of as many of the participants as possible whether that requires covering
the basics, doing more advanced stuff or something in between. So we stream the
participants according to ability separating them into different groups for their
training on hills. We generally find this works best for the last weekend of
the course allowing the participants to get the most out of the weekend.
On Saturday
morning we separated in to five groups and set off into the hills to do our “Map&Compass” thing, some starting
from Coumshingaun and some starting from the
All in all there
was a general impression of satisfaction with the weekend/course amongst the
participants. I received a number of “thank-you” emails on the Monday following
the weekend (which I don’t get every year!), which are always gladly received,
and I passed them on to the leaders. The course could not possibly work without
the experienced people we have in the club who are willing to help out, namely,
Ita O’Hanlon, Tom Kenny, Donal
Finn, Joe Kellegher, Mark Campion,
Philip Roche and Ciaran King. And I’d also like to
thank the club for recognising the importance of self-proficiency in the hills
and continuing to support the Map&Compass course.
Jimmy McCullagh
Training Officer
Hillwalker
Wedding
Another Hillwalker Wedding in
Lillian and I would like to say thanks for all
the wishes of good luck on the occasion of our Wedding day, which we received
from all our friends at the Hillwalker’s Club
Christmas party.
The Wedding took place on Tuesday 3rd January,
and everything went
smoothly. Even the weather decided to be nice to us, and the sun shone all day.
We had a
A few days after the Wedding we went to
Matt Geraghty
MCI News
Forthcoming Events
KINGDOMS OF EXPERIENCE
A personal take on the 1985 Everest North East Ridge
Expedition
Led by the
much-missed, charismatic Mal Duff, this Everest ‘Unclimbed Ridge’ expedition
has become historic as one of the last major siege-style assaults, done without
sherpas. It was also only
the second expedition into
Liz Duff gives a
witty, earthy, fresh-eyed woman’s account of the expedition’s high times and
hard times. Andrew Greig – poet, novelist and writer
of ‘Summit Fever’ and ‘Kingdoms of Experience’ – accompanies her slideshow with
songs and poems written during the expedition. The evening will be informal,
entertaining, guaranteed pre-digital – and celebratory.
Date: Wednesday,
22nd February
Venue:
Admission: €10
(€7 with MCI Card)
OUTDOOR ADVENTURE SHOW / BOULDERING LEAGUE
This
year’s Snickers Irish Outdoor Adventure Show is taking place from 17th – 19th
February in Simmonscourt, RDS. Fast becoming THE event for outdoor
enthusiasts, this year’s show will have a special focus on adventure travel, as
well as a come-and-try-it climbing wall, canoe pool and mountain bike stunt
demos. Entry is €12 or €8 concession for MCI members on production of MCI
membership card.
CARRAUNTOOHILL SAFETY CONCERN
Kerry Mountain
Rescue Team have highlighted a dangerous situation
which has developed on Carrauntoohil. A visible false
track has now developed leading from the summit directly towards dangerous
ground. Kerry Mountain Rescue Team are urging all
walkers to exercise extreme caution when navigating from the summit,
particularly in poor visibility. Walkers should note that there are no safe
descent routes anywhere to the east or north east of the summit.
Mountaineering
Council of
Sport HQ,
Note
from the Editor
We would like
to hear from you!
Whether you …
· wish to contribute an article …
· have read an
interesting book you'd like to recommend to club members …
· would like to share your favourite hikes
…
· want to comment on any club matters …
Why not get in
touch? Write or email to:
Barbara Sudrow, 24 Glenmalure Park,
S.C.R.,
Social
Corner
LONG-AWAITED FABULOUS FOLK
NIGHT
Date: Friday, 17th February
Time:
Venue: UPSTAIRS in THE
108,
Organiser: Joe Kavanagh, Tel. 087-9875630
All musicians and instruments welcome - and interested listeners, too!
For those who wish to take a break from the music occasionally for a chat,
there is also space in the ground floor bar!
Getting there:
Although not a city centre venue (always impossible to arrange for a
Friday night), it's easy to get to
By bus: From
On foot: 3.5 km from town via Rathmines - no
problem at all for seasoned hillwalkers!
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Indian Food Night planned for March in a
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Suggestions welcome! Please contact our Social Organiser Steve Buckney with proposals for future social outings - don't
keep those brilliant ideas all to yourself!