kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro – Day 7: Summit Day

Profile 1Day 7, Day 6 on the mountain.

After dinner we got into our sleeping bags for 4 hours’ ‘rest’ before leaving for the summit of Kilimanjaro.

The task ahead is suddenly very real as we climb into our tents with the glacier on the blown-out crater above, glistening in the evening sun. An invitation and perhaps a threat.  At dinner we had presented a unified, confident group. But apprehension and concern was running close beneath the surface for us all. We all had minor aches and pains, nausea and headaches and I think we all worried that we were about to experience mountain sickness when we reached high altitude. Although we’d already climatised well to 4,850m. My own concern was Continue reading

Kilimanjaro – Day 1: A Mountain in my Mind… 

This day began early, as a taxi brought me through flooded streets to the 98FM Radio Studios at the Malt House, Grand Canal Quay. The leaden Irish summer skies weeped a deluge and mirrored my mood as we drove through the deserted early morning Sunday streets. Laughter and tears followed as friends and colleagues gathered on air to pay tribute to the lionhearted legend that was Johnny Lyons. For 20 years I worked and fought with this amazing man. Luminous and effervescent in his passion, brilliance, and extreme love and curiosity for life. He challenged me, he thrilled me, he infuriated me and he never let me down. So cruel and heartless. Snuffed out and snatched away at 49, when he had so much living left. Continue reading

Cooking Up A Storm in Kerry

GapPhoto1My thighs hurt, my calves hurt, my shoulders hurt, my ankles hurt, my fingers hurt….   what’s wrong with me?   Oh yes, I’m back from training in Kerry’s high peaks. My neck hurts too..  in fact, the only thing that doesn’t hurt is my knee – which is great news, because that’s supposed to be my weakest bit. So I’ve kept my dodgy knee safe, and worked everything else. Result.

I have 31 days left, before I head off to Russia to climb Mount Elbrus with Pat Falvey Irish & Worldwide Adventures, and after getting injured earlier this year, I’m really running out of time.  I’m back in the gym, doing yoga, cycling, using weights, running and swimming – I’m doing everything I can to be fit in time. I’m fairly confident that I’m fit enough to train properly now, but I’m running out of time to get hill-fit, and every day counts. All my friends have been called into action, to give me company out on the hill. It’s all to play for, and I’m not giving up.

A Heaven Sent Tuna Wrap

This is the second weekend I’ve spent in Kerry.  Last weekend, Pat Falvey and Alpinist John Higgs, invited me to Carrauntoohil for a ropes and crevasse rescue course.  This weekend Pat and instructor Tony Nation had me back out on the hills – this time at 2am, beating back the rain and mist to find sunrise over the Kerry Reeks, after many hours of climbing and ploughing through bog. I was piggy-backing with a gang of girls who are training for a trip to Kilimanjaro. It was tough going, and when we reached the summit of Cnoc Na Braca, all I was fit for was huddling into the rocks and feasting on a tuna-wrap, which tasted a bit like mana from heaven.brekkie

Six hours of hiking through darkness into a relentless Kerry rainstorm was enough to test the best of gear and spirits, but as we got to the top, the rain eased, a brief shimmer of sunlight emerged and the mist lifted just long enough for a few photos while we ate lunch, giving us a tantalising glimpse of the beautiful view over the Black Valley, before closing in again, shutting down, and punishing us the whole way back down the hill. Kerry can be a bit like that at times. I found going down harder than going up, and was relieved to reach the valley floor and head back to Pat’s Mountain Lodge for a full Irish cooked by the boys, which was a truly unexpected treat!

 

Bagging Some Peaks

For a while I thought I’d made a mistake going out with the group. I’ve been letting my leg heal for a few months now and I was worried that perhaps the long haul over the uneven, soggy, bog, would have caused new damage. But I woke up this morning, stiff everywhere else, but ‘sound of knee’, so I’m relieved, and ready to keep stepping up the pressure. bootcamp

It could have been a lot worse of course. Pat had ‘threatened me’ with his ‘Survival on Carrauntoohil Bootcamp’ to help with my fitness. I got to see how that looked when the Adrigole GAA team turned up on Saturday morning at Cronin’s Yard. The guys were faced with Pat Falvey, Tony Nation and two Military Instructors who put them through their paces.  I watched as they carried ‘casualties’ across the mountain, using shovels and pick-axe to dig out channels, dragging under camouflage canopies, and struggling through icy mountain streams, as the mist and rain beat them back into the bog. Those lads were WICKED.

Parting shot from Pat as I left the lodge?  “Goodbye now girl, and you know, you could try climbing a few mountains…”  I guess I’m heading back to Kerry next weekend.

 

 

Clients
  • Communicorp
  • Danone
  • Irish Farmers’ Journal
  • Dublin Airport Authority
  • WeightWatchers, Ireland
  • Limerick City & County Enterprise Board
  • ‘Foot In The Door’ Media Trainer for Independent Commercial Radio, Ireland
  • Clare County Enterprise Board
  • Carlow County Enterprise Board
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  • Travel Department
  • Helly Hansen Killarney Adventure Race
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  • Pat Falvey, 'The Summit Book'
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