I stood there staring at the seven people I brought up Lugnaquilla with me, wondering how I managed to get us all lost in some of the worst weather I have ever experienced...
This is a story that I tell everyone I hike with nowadays. It just adds to the hiking experience to hear a real-life horror story of what can go wrong when up a mountain. Makes you feel like you've truly accomplished something when you get back down to the foot of the mountain.
The Idea...
We decided that it would be a great idea to jump on this tradition of going on a snow-covered hike up Lugnaquilla every year in the last week of December. The first year we did it was in 2019 and it went very well so the crew for the next year grew to seven. Of course, 2020 would be the year where it all went wrong.
What Happened...
Basically, what I failed to do before we started hiking was check the weather properly. I just checked what the temperature would be in Wicklow. So we all knew it was going to be cold but nothing could prepare us for what we were about to experience. It was clear, but frosty for the first couple of kilometres until we passed the first of the peaks. From there on out, we could barely see two metres in front of us, but I was still confident in my sense of direction because I had hiked Lugnaquilla plenty of times.
As we neared the summit was when things started going downhill. The wind picked up to about 70-80km/h, the visibility somehow got even worse, and the gear that many of us brought up was not good enough to withstand the -15 degree wind chill. We made the collective decision to not hang around and quickly started to descend the mountain back to the cars.
You might have guessed it by now but we descended the wrong mountain. About an hour into our descent we noticed that the trail we were following wasn't the one we followed up. Lugnaquilla's infamous plateau had sent us off course and now we felt defeated. As the most experienced (but evidently not experienced enough at the time) hiker, all eyes were on me to come up with a solution. They were not happy eyes either, they were filled with anger and fear.
After about 10 minutes of deliberation, we finally decided that it was best to retrace our steps until we could see a way down the correct trail. Not long after we started back up the mountain we found the connection to our original trail and the eyes of fear turned into relief. We all knew that the rest of the descent would be plain sailing.
The Aftermath...
Once we arrived back at the car park a mix of exhaustion and adrenaline overcame us and we did not know how to handle it. We just sat in our cars until we thawed out, reminiscing about what was one of the most terrifying, but also thrilling hikes we had ever been on. Still to this day I look back on that hike as the point where I matured as a hiker and gained my respect for nature and how powerful it can truly be.
None of the people who joined me on this hike ever followed me up a mountain again and I completely understand why. It was a traumatising experience for many of us on the mountain, but it's a story that will never die among our friend group.
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