Melanoma Trust

Date: 8th March 2009
Starting Point: Glenmalure Lodge

Start Time: 11:30
End Time: 16:15

The sun starts to break through on our way down Mullacor

Description: What started out as a miserable morning, turned into quite a delightful stroll in the mountains! It was tough to break ourselves away from the comforts of Ann’s Café in Laragh as the sleet and snow fell outside. We tried to gear ourselves up to braving the cold weather.

Starting out from the Glenmalure Lodge, we went up some sheltered forest tracks, slowly ascending the Ballybraid Valley. Everyone came prepared with a map and compass this week and were eager to put their learning from last weeks course to the test. We mainly worked on taking bearings and estimating distances and time.

Just before leaving the forest we came to a wooden hut which sheltered us from the first proper snow shower of the day as we sat inside drinking tea. After that it was the push for the summit of Mullacor across large clumply tufts of grass. We grouped tight together as the next heavy snow shower rolled in and put our map reading skills to the test as we picked our route to meet up with the Wicklow Way.

Once we reached the forest again we were safe from the worst of the winds and we proceeded to make our way to the luxury wooden shelter constructed by Mountain Meitheal for our main lunch stop. This was a real treat to be in out from the elements and have the space to properly enjoy our food. When we finished here it was a short trip back to the Glenmalure Lodge.

Roll Call: Ann-Marie, Colette, Eoin, Maria, Mark, Peter and Tommy.

Distance: 11km | Ascent: 500m