Over the hills and far away

[tolcreator]

Got back into the hillwalking groove yesterday... climbed Torc mountain, then continued on down the old kenmare road as far as the windy gap. 6.5 hours, not too shabby... though for the last hour, until I got back to the treeline, I thought that mountain rescue would be searching the hills for my corpse for the next week or so... but once I was

Comments

[arken_thell]

Congrats on getting back into the grove. The weatehr was oretty amazing alright :) those poor tourists but rented walking poles???

[tolcreator]

Oh, don't mind me, just poetic licence.
When you're out hillwalking, you generally see 3 types of people:
1). People with no backpack, no food, no water, no boots, no jacket, etc. People like that make me worry, that I'm like, embarrassingly over equiped and prepaired, as If I'm in full "walk to the north pole" gear, including huskies, in order to walk to the corner shop.
2). People pretty much like me.
3). People with very shiney and new and expensive looking gear. Either, they're like, totally hard core, or... they've just checked into a hotel in killarney that advertises "hillwalking!" and has the gear for rent, or something. Bright, bright colours, named brands, etc.

[arken_thell]

Ahh yes, I'm familiar with all three types, althoguh even for a short walk I'd bring some essentials, just makes sense. I've never really gone hill walking though but I've heard it's nice and quite refreshing.

Isn't it usually type one and three that end up in trouble thou?

[tolcreator]

Well type 1 are kinda asking for trouble... you'd be amazed at how much the weather can change in the hills... I've evolved from type 1 to type 2 through experience. Then again, yesterday I forgot a hat (got sunburned) and a woolly jumper (it was cold on the top of Torc). I also forgot a map (though I know the place well, I climbed Torc on a whim, so that was slightly dodgy).

I'll never go hillwalking again without some of the "bare essentials" (waterproof jacket, water, food, etc) after one sunny summer morning at sea level turned into bitter winds and sleet on the hills and me in a t shirt. Not fun, at all.

The thing to be said for type 3 though is that they're easy to spot from a helecopter. If I'm ever in need of rescuing I'm screwed, as I do all my shopping at the army surplus store...