Sunday
Hikes September/October 2005
HIKE PROGRAMME |
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MEET: Burgh Quay
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DEPART: Sundays 10.00 am
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COST: Private bus. €10
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Date |
Route
Description |
Distance |
Leader
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Sep 4th |
Route: Killybeg (GR945 909) - Keadeen - Ballinfoyle -
Ballineaddan Mtn - |
18km /
950m |
Philip Roche |
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Sep 11th
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Route: Upper Lake Carpark, Glendalough - Spink - Lugduff -
Spot Height 702m |
18km / 950m |
Eoin Moroney |
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Sep 18th |
Route: Athdown Wood - Seefin - Seefingan - Kippure
- Cot Brook - |
17km / 800m |
Steve Buckney |
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Sep 25th |
Route: Track
(GR076 933 in Glenmalure) - Lugduff - Conavalla - Three Lakes |
16km / 750m |
Stephen
James
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Oct 2nd |
Introductory
Hike Route: Trooperstown
Woods, - Trooperstown Hill, - Clara Vale, - kirikee Mt. – Shay Elliot
Memorial, - Cullentragh, - Derrybawn, - Glendalough |
20km/ 950m |
Brendan
O’Toole
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Oct 9th |
Route: Dwyer McAllister Cottage
c.p., - Rorty Duff, Keadeen, - Ballinabarney, - Ballinfoyle, - Ballineddan, -
Sliabh Meain, - Camara Hill, - Banana Road, - Fentons |
16km/ 950m |
Paul
Carroll
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Oct 16th |
Route: Ballynockan, - Silseán,- Moanbane, - Billy Byrne’s Gap, - Mullaghcleevaun, - East Top, -
Carrigshouk |
18km/ 750m |
Ita
O’Hanlon
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Oct 23rd |
Route: Ballinagee Bridge – Kings River – Gleenreemore
Brook – Lough Firrib – Art’s Cross – Conavalla – Table Track – Carrig – Knocknadrooce
– Aslaun Brook – Ballinagee Bridge. |
18km / 700m |
Jim
Barry
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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.
October
Bank Holiday Weekend
Friday
October 28th to Monday October 31st
Club Trip
to Derry
Leader: Frank Rooney
Accommodation; Tower Hotel
Walking in Donegal: Errigal, Muckish Dunlewey area
Dooish Circuit from Glenveagh National Park
Hard and Moderate Hikes
Price has yet to be finalised for this trip but will
be in the region of E250/E260 to include bus transport from Dublin
accommodation, picnic lunch and two evening meals.
Booking opens mid September through An Óige Head
Office.
Further details will be available in the October Hillwalker
or through the website
Christmas
Party 2005
Saturday
December 3rd
Venue: Glendalough Y.H.
Cost: E65 for
those travelling by Club Bus
E55 for those travelling independently
Price includes bus transport to and from Dublin,
light refreshments after Saturday hike, Gala evening dinner in the Wicklow
Heather and overnight accommodation in Glendalough Y.H.
Booking opens in October through An Óige Head Office.
Map and
Compass Course 2005/2006
The Club will
be running its annual Map and Compass course commencing in November 2005. The
course will include three Tuesday evening introductory sessions, each of
duration of 2 hours, to be held in the An Óige Headquarters, Mountjoy Street.
In addition, there will be two weekend training sessions as well as one night
navigation session, all based in Wicklow. Accommodation for the two Wicklow
weekends will be provided in the Glendalough Hostel. A separate consolidation
session will be organised in the Comeragh Mountains, Co. Waterford, for the
weekend of the 28th & 29th January 2006.
Evening
Sessions (3): Room 102, 7.15 pm for 7.30pm start, November 1st and
November 8th & 15th (Tuesdays)
Evening
Venue: An Óige Headquarters,
61 Mountjoy Street, Dublin 7
Requirements: (1) Ordnance
Survey Map, Sheet 56 - Wicklow (Scale 1:50,000) Laminated version is recommended (approx. €15)
(2) Compass, Silva Expedition 4 graduated into 360
degrees (approx. €40)
NB: A 10% discount is available
on all outdoor equipment in either The
Great Outdoors, Chatham Street, off Grafton Street, or The Outdoor Adventure Centre, Liffey St. (opposite Arnotts) on
production of a valid An Óige or MCI membership card.
First
Weekend: November 5th
& 6st , Wicklow Mountains, meet outside Lynam's Pub, Laragh at
9.45am
Accommodation
in the Glendalough International Hostel
(Saturday overnight) is included
in the course cost.
Second
Weekend: November 19th
& 20th, Wicklow Mountains, meet outside Lynam's Pub, Laragh at
9.45am
Accommodation
in the Glendalough International Hostel
(Saturday overnight) is included
in the course cost.
Night
Hike: December
11th, meet outside Coach House Pub, Roundwood at 4.00pm
Course
Cost: €100
Cost
includes:
Course
2
overnights in the Glendalough Hostel
Cost excludes:
Transport
costs to/from Wicklow for both weekends
Comeragh
weekend January 2005
Booking: It is essential that interested persons book in
advance through the An Óige Head Office, Tel (01) 830 4555.
Consolidation
Weekend: January 28th
& 29th January 2006, Rathgormack Mountaineering Hostel, Comeragh
Mtns., Co. Waterford.
(Costs associated with this
weekend are not included in course cost)
Course Organiser: Jimmy McCullagh
Club
Travel
Elbrus
Expedition 2005
Having already climbed a Russian bureaucratic mountain, I flew to
Heathrow where I met up with the rest of our team of 10 Irish climbers. There
someof us discovered that Aeroflot love excess baggage! All that was forgotten
on arrival at Moscow where we were greeted by our Russian Liaison the radiant
Anna Brianova. She soon had us
installed for the night in the Ismoylovski Hotel, a huge place in several
blocks which the Russians built for the 1980 Olympics.
Next morning we returned to the airport for a two hour
flight south to Mineralnye Vody. Waiting to greet us were our Mountain Guides,
top Russian mountaineer Roman Luganov and his Ukranian assistant Maxim Foigel.
There followed a four hour trip in a minibus up the Baksan Valley, where we
registered with the Border Police and into the Azau Valley to an altitude of
3200m in the small hamlet of Azau, our base for the next few days. Staying that
high was an advantage it nice to acclimitise in your sleep!
Early the following day we set out for our first objective, an aclimatisation
ascent of Mount Cheget. Starting on a dry ski run we followed the pace set by
Roman and Max, rising onto soft snow and finally a series of rock scrambles to
a height of 3600m. From the top we were rewarded with a view across the Azau
Valley to the twin tops of Mt. Elbrus looking benign in the sunshine. Next day
we continued our acclimatision with an ascent to a mountain pass at 3750m. The
group was all moving well and apart
from one or two with headaches there were no signs of altitude sickness.
Our next walk took us up towards an Observatory on the side of Elbrus. Our
guides, with Ronan Lenihan (a Mountain Instructor on the trip), took the
opportunity to put us through a refresher on crampon techniques and ice axe
arrest. That afternoon the clouds gathered and it began to snow as we made our
way back to Azau.
Next morning we quit our base in Azau, taking a cable car and ski lift onto
Elbrus to the Barrel Huts at 3600m, our base whilst on the mountain. Finally we
would see features that up to now were just names on the maps. After settling
in we trekked up in poor visibility and a freezing wind beyond the Diesel Hut
at 3900m finishing at the Pastuhov Rocks at 4800m. It was a good practical test
for clothing and gear and a timely reminder that the ascent wasn't going to be
easy.
We had a meeting that evening with the guides. The news wasn't good, the
weather forecast for the next few days was bad and we were faced with the
prospect that we might not get a weather window for a summit attempt. With the
guides advice, the consensus was that we should prepare for a summit attempt
that night, 24 hours earlier than intended. At 3am as snow fell, we met in the
communal dining hut for breakfast, the mood was as sombre as the weather. At
4am we left the barrel huts, by that time the wind was screaming across the
mountain, the thermometer read -12C and there was practically no visibility. We
met two other groups retreating down the mountain and they advised that
conditions were even worse higher up. The guides made the decision to return to
the barrel huts, it was pointless to go on and we should save our energy for a
second attempt the following night.
The mood was bleak as we dumped our frozen gear on the floor of our hut as dawn
broke to reveal continuing snow driven on the wind. At about 3 o'clock in the
afternoon the weather began to clear and our hopes rose. I went to bed at 8pm,
but awoke at 1am and couldn't resist checking every five minutes to see if the
stars were visible! At three-thirty in the morning it was still clear and the
mood over breakfast was upbeat. We quit the huts at 4:30am, as we plodded
higher the wind picked up but apart from spindrift it stayed clear. Above 5000m
the lack of oxygen really kicked in and every step became an effort. We stopped
briefly in the col between the twin tops at 5200m and grabbed a hot drink
before the final push for the top. One of our team was showing signs of hypoxia
and was safety roped by the guides.
At 11am local time I reached the summit at
5642metres (18,500 feet), ten minutes later the entire team had summited and
later returned safely to the base.
Philip Roche
An Óige
Hillwalkers Club AGM
An Óige Hillwalkers Club
AGM
8.00pm,
Thursday Oct 6th, 2005
Meeting
Room (2nd Floor)
The 2005 AGM will be chaired by our chairperson
Proinsias MacAnBheatha and will follow the usual format with a brief report
from each of the Club's officers (Secretary, Treasurer, Sunday Hike, Training,
Membership, Weekend) to be followed by discussion.
Your Hillwalking
club needs You!!!!!
The following members are retiring from the committee
and new blood is needed for the coming year.
v
Philip Roche
and Tom Kenny Sunday hikes organisers
v
Deirdre
McMahon Hillwalker editor.
v
Proinsias Mac
AnBheatha chairperson.
If you feel you can make a contribution to the running
of the club, or know someone who can particularly in the areas of weekend
co-ordinator, Sunday hikes co-ordinator and Newsletter editor,
please complete attached nomination form or indicate your interest to a
committee member as soon as possible.
Interest would be particularly welcomed
from female members who are currently under-represented on the committee.
Committee Nomination Form
I,
, would like to be considered for election to the Committee of An Óige
Hillwalkers Club at the upcoming AGM to be held on October 7th, 2004
My candidature is supported by the following members
and committee members:
Name Signature
Member 1 ______________________ ______________________
Member 2 ______________________ ______________________
Committee Member
1 ______________________
______________________
Committee
Member 2 ______________________
________________
Nomination
forms should be returned to club secretary Frank Rooney, 31 Carrickhill Walk,
Portmarnock, Co. Dublin
Fairyhouse
Races
or
Hillwalkers let the horses do the running!
On a warm but overcast afternoon I took the Luas into town to meet up
with a group of fellow Hillwalkers. We were heading to Fairyhouse for an
evening at the races. When I joined the group on George’s quay I hardly
recognized some of the glamorous ladies. Carina, Ali, Ger and Muriel to mention
but a few were dressed for ladies day at Fairyhouse. At about 3.30pm good
humored Jim arrived with his coach and we were off.
There were approximately 30 on the bus and another 10 or more joined us
later. On arrival at Fairyhouse we were shown to a large function room. Our
tables were numbered and a race program was available for each person. It was
now about 4.30pm and the first race was due to start at 5.30pm. We had time to
study the race program, go out to the showing area and take a look at the
horses and place those bets. A buffet of chicken or steak or both with lots of salad and baked
potatoes with butter was available
between 5-730pm. The food was really good.
Confidence was high when placing the initial bets. Nobody had lost
anything yet! Sadly most of us were feeling quiet deflated after the first
race. That is except Paul. Paul managed to get butter for his baked potatoes
and win over 500 euro on an outside chance in the first race. He was smiling.
There were over 20 horses in each race except the second, which only had five.
For the second race we felt quietly confident, as the odds were low here. There
were some small wins but nothing like Paul’s luck in the first. My close
associates Denis, Vinny and Dave were not doing too well. I wasn’t doing too
well either, having had no luck in the first six races. My bets were becoming
progressively lower. I went for a wander out to the course and look for
inspiration from the bookies that filled the space between the viewing stands
and the racecourse. It all looked very confusing. Ear wigging on Marian’s and
Pearse’s suggestions proved more successful.
There were seven races in total. Racing finished at 9pm. Most people
managed to break even with a few winners and of course a few losers. I had one
winner in the last race (thanks to Marian and Pearse) and I was happy to almost
break ever at the end of the night. I doubt if any of us will become
professional gamblers but it was great entertainment for an evening. And if you
stick to bets of about 2 – 5 euro you won’t break the bank!
From 9pm there was music and dancing, which lasted till 2am. I do
believe there were a few who lasted the pace. For the others Jim arrived to
collect us at 11.30pm and the entertainment continued in various venues in
town.
Enid and Stephen organized this race evening. It is safe to say we all
enjoyed the evening and nobody was crippled by their losses on the night. Thank
you both for organizing a super night.
Deirdre Corrigan
Club
News
Jennifer Lee and Brian Flynn (Both regular members of the Hillwalkers) did the Lug walk on Saturday 18th July last and made it as far as Table Track where they had to abandon our plans due to time constraints! weather was not kind to them on that day and visibility was very poor! But due to Brian's excellent navigational skills they got that far!
Well done to both of them
on an extremely tough course in difficult conditions.
Coming in next month’s Hillwalker: Matt Geraghty’s Bavarian
Odyssey
Articles always welcome.
Send to mcmahond@eircom.net