Irish Mountain
Running Association

Wicklow Round attempt

AuthorDateMessage
Warren SwordsMay 23 2017, 9:48pmGiving notice that myself, Warren Swords, and Brian Kitson will be attempting the Wicklow Round this weekend.

We plan to set off on Friday night/Saturday morning.

We'll be using a tracker so people can track the attempt. Will put up a link later this week.

We'll be adhering to the original rules and spirit of the round. No pacers, no GPS for nav or splits etc.

It is a supported attempted so will be getting food and drinks at various points along the route.

Main target is to finish with a secondary goal of making last orders on Saturday night.
Jeff FitzsimonsMay 23 2017, 9:58pmBest of luck lads. Hope the weather holds!
Phil HodgeMay 23 2017, 10:41pmGood luck you two - hope you have a great one!
Graham K. BusheMay 23 2017, 10:51pmBest of luck Warren and Brian. Hope all goes to plan, and the weather Gods look favourably upon you.
And the dot watching will be on again...
Pól Ó MurchúMay 23 2017, 11:57pmBest of luck lads! Looking forward to following this! No burger to ye!
Jason DowlingMay 24 2017, 6:23amWishing you both the very best of luck in your attempt. Hope the weather, the ground and everything else are favourable on the day and despite what Pól said previously, you can both have a burger before (or after) last orders!! No bother to ya!!
Laura FlynnMay 24 2017, 7:37amBest of luck guys.
John CondonMay 24 2017, 9:42amGood luck lads. May the weather gods be kind to you.
Alan ConnollyMay 24 2017, 10:10amGood luck lads
Mick HanneyMay 24 2017, 11:01amVery best of luck lads.
Gareth LittleMay 24 2017, 11:08amGood luck, Gents!

"May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face."
Stephen BrennanMay 24 2017, 2:34pmAll the best. :)
Adrian Tucker RIPMay 24 2017, 8:32pmBest of luck Warren and Brian, hope it all goes well.
Mike JordanMay 24 2017, 10:36pmBest of luck! If it's as humid at the weekend as it was tonight you might want to consider more fluids than you'd normally use....could be a sweaty night and day!
Paul MahonMay 25 2017, 7:30amGood luck with it lads - Hope the weather holds out ok for ye as ground is back to bouncy n dry again - Go For It steadily and a pint afterwards will be well earned traditionally ;-)!
Paul MorrisseyMay 26 2017, 1:28pmVery best of luck Warren and Brian
Gareth LittleMay 26 2017, 3:55pmHere is the link for the lads tracker.

http://live.primaltracking.com/2017wicklowround17/?n=4
Paul O'CallaghanMay 26 2017, 8:30pmI like the ethos lads, enjoy your adventure
Richard NunanMay 26 2017, 9:25pmGreat stuff, enjoy the bounce up Kippure, jeez can it be any dryer out there.

best of luck lads, hope it drops a few degrees for ye tomorrow!!
Warren SwordsMay 26 2017, 10:46pmJust an update.

Given Met Eireann yellow weather warning of thunder and rain for a large part of midnight onwards, we have decided to start at 2pm Saturday (tomorrow May 26th)

All systems go
Warren SwordsMay 28 2017, 11:19amAll systems stop!

Our attempt ended in glorious failure. I think we managed to pick the worst 6 hours of weather in months to start in.

We started at 2pm in awful weather but with the expectation it would clear in a couple of hours.

Made good time on Kippure and hit the top ahead of schedule. At the summit, we couldn't see the huge aerial.

Across to Sally gap and we felt good.

Onto Carrigvore and the weather got worse. Horizontal rain, 10-20 metres visibility. But we hit the top ahead of schedule. Gravale was fine but pace was slowing due to constant compass watching.

Weather was real crap at this point so had to get the gloves on. 24 hours after hottest day of the year and here we were starting to shiver.

Any trails had turned to gushing streams. It was surreal. There was a very strong river that we had to cross on way to Duff.

We hit East stop and couldn't see a thing. We were getting cold as we were soaked to skin along with a strong wind.

Onto Mullaghcleevauhan was nuts. Streams everywhere that required careful crossing given how their strength.

The terrain felt wrong but trusted compass. Eventually we ended hitting the lake below the peak! We were way off. Hiked back up and tagged the peak and onto billy Byrne gap. Couldn't pick up trails due to the amount of water.

Next two peaks were grand but had probably lost an hour.

Made it to our support where we decided to call it day. Realistically it would've been zero visibility all the way to Drumgoff.

Since discovered the reason we hit the lake is because we mistakenly turned off east top too early and missed the actually peak.

All in all, a glorious failure!

We hope to make another attempt soon. Thanks for all the support, much appreciated. Still believe we can do it.
Pól Ó MurchúMay 28 2017, 11:30amHard luck lads. Was watching the Tracker live as it unfolded - was thinking it must be really bad up there. Weather yesterday was probably some of the worst we've seen in a while and I can only imagine how bad it must have been out in the mountains. Worthy attempt and no doubt you'll give it another bash before the year is out... :-)
Laura FlynnMay 28 2017, 12:49pmThat's so disappointing for you both. I can't imagine how you did what you did in that awful weather.

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly"


I
Angus TynerMay 28 2017, 1:03pmJust briefly for 5 minutes at 4pm,I was out in the weather at Sally Gap. It was brutal, rain, wind & visibility Well done on persevering for so long
Jeff SwordsMay 28 2017, 3:02pmEven in the relative shelter of Ballinagee bridge it was pretty cold. At one point Brian warmed up the cabin of one of the cars when we were expecting the lads and ended up jumping in himself to warm up. I've been up there in winter in better conditions, no visibility around Wicklow Gap.
Adrian HennessyMay 28 2017, 7:02pmGood call to stop at that point. There will be plenty of other dry days to give it a proper go.
Greg ByrneMay 28 2017, 10:49pmShame about the weather. Best of luck with the next attempt.
Ronan HickeyMay 29 2017, 9:39amI felt for ya when I saw the weather. Abandoning was the smart move. Your day will come!
Brian KitsonMay 29 2017, 10:30amJust to add my thanks for all the advice, support and words of encouragement for myself and Warren. It just wasn't our day.

My respect and admiration for those who have successfully completed this incredible feat have increased even more. It's such a tough navigational challenge. For the first few hours we were 'enjoying' the dreadful conditions and felt that if we could keep navigating our way through this bad patch we'd have achieved a round taking the worst the mountains could throw at us. However, the mountains won this time.

It was still a great adventure and we're more determined than ever to come back and get the job done.

Brian

PS Great quote Laura