Leo arrived at my door he had to ring to signal he was outside, as the doorbell doesn't work because I took the battery out.
In he came dressed in track suit and runners all ready to go. He is a tall man with a broad physique, a very fit dude for someone in their late50's. Leo loves to discuss running, so he would tell me all about the runs he had done that week and of course he would want to know all about mine, nutrition being a major part of the conversation. After realizing how much time was available for us both we decided where we were going to run.
Luggala to Knocknaclogogue felt just right. A 1.50-2hr return journey
It was absolutely freezing outside and it was lashing down.
For extreme weather, one has to be prepared,
so under my combats I had my shorts on, under my running top I had 3 tight motorbike skins.
I wear a climbers top for running all year round, its got a hood on it that is like a divers mask it clings tight, great for unexpected weather and high winds, the zip curves halfway down my chest which is really handy in summer. The material is the lightweight lycra and polartec which makes it warm and durable.
I had packed a bag with a complete set of clothes and shoes to get into after the run.
We got into sunshine suzy his old yellow renault and headed for the hills.
On the roundwood road we took the turn for the sallygap, soon we were driving by the carpark for running Djouce which over looks Lough Tay. Looking over at Luggala and Knocknaclogogue we could see they were only half covered in cloud, visibility not bad for the conditions. Further on down the road we took a left at the crossroads onto the famous military road. This road opens up the more remote less walked mountains. We pulled into the first carpark on the right as predicted there was no-one around.
We sat in the car for 5/10mins the time it took to adjust to the actual reality of going out into the ice cold lashing wind and rain. I cannot tell you the courage it takes to actually open the door and go out to run in the wild storm that is raging all around us. This area is really exposed where it is just too easy to receive the full force of nature.
Ok lets do. I got out and took off my trousers. Put up my hood and pulled down my black rolled up Balanclava.
Leo decided to keep his trousers on he too had 3 layers on underneath his track suit.
We headed off, it was bitterly cold the polar winds had been sweeping the country all that week, the rain was driving down hard.
As soon as you cross the peat trench that leads to this mountain Luggala there is an elusive trail you can take which even in the summer is always swampy, you cannot step foot on this mountain without getting wet. If you miss the trail your into hard tuff stumpy terrain that tears the heart out of you. Well this day naturally the ground was totally waterlogged with ice cold water the swampy parts were deeper than usual and the ground was extremely slippy with every footstep sinking you down a bit further.
I took off at a faster than usual pace because of the cold, after a few mins however the body adapts.
This is the weather I love on the mountains, wild and dangerous. when I had my car I would wait for the weather to reach its most deadliest before going out in it. With the rain lashing against me every footstep waterlogged I was completely saturated but still warm enough. As with a lot of mountains I reached the first little summit the one that looks like you have reached the top but really you haven't, there is about 5 of these on Scarr. I looked back at Leo he was further away than what I thought. So I carried on and got to the summit, there was a glorious fury going on galeforce wind and rain with a touch of hail in it. Normally I would wait for Leo but not in this, down at the river where there is a bit of shelter, he knows the way down I thought to myself.
So I started down the mountain there are two trails you can take the right one leads you down handy enough there is a nice rock section to it. The wrong one will lead you into gorse and thick heather which is a nightmare with no track.
I had to slow speed heading down as you couldn't even trust the grassy sections on the trail it was that slippy and the wind was doing its best to knock me over. I was all the while waiting to hear Leo coming up behind me as he normally would have caught up by now, but no sign.
He had been complaining of an injury he had months ago that was niggling at him, an ankle injury he got but was nearly gone.
I eventually reached the open grass stretch that leads to the river. It was a lot calmer wind wise down there and I was glad I had made the decision to wait for him there instead of the summit. I looked up to see if there was any sign of him expecting to see him half way up at least, no sign at all. I started to get worried, has he slipped coming down on those rocks near the top?
I looked at the stream it was a raging torrent with only one possible place to cross.
I was tempted to go on and head up, if only I could see him coming. I waited and waited, God I thought is he Ok?
After 5mins I started to head back up and thought I will see his tracks if he has come any way down this way,
I was convinced he must have got an injury and had headed back to the car.
It is a very steep ascent back up to the peak of Luggala and easy to go off course, I tell my friends if in doubt always go left. It will lead to the summit trail.
I got up to the rock section fast enough where I feared I would find him lying, thankfully he wasn't there.
On the rocks the icy wind was that strong it was actually blowing me back and this was wind mainly at my side, it was strong furious and coming mainly from the West with a bit of North in there as well. I thought how am I going to handle that when I am running back to the car and its full on in my face.
The rain was still pounding me hard and was cutting into the small part of my face exposed, my hands were numb with the cold.
There was Still no tracks of Leo, he hasnt been blown off the top has he? No he's probably back at the car or he went down the wrong way. I hope he is alright. I got to the summit and crouched down at the look out point over the lake to see if his body was at the bottom of the cliff, just to rule it out. No sign, Great. I turned around to be blasted again with the weather and headed back to the car, I was being blinded with the hail in the rain and at times my vision was blurry and the cold now was really starting to penetrate. I would not be happy until I saw him at the car.
At last I got to it and had to cross the road and walk right up to it to see if he was in it.
He wasn't.
Cars were passing by, people driving staring with there mouths open wide.
Looking at me in shorts and runners an balanclava totally saturated. and unaffected by the storm.
I started heading back up with the intention of heading over to Knocknaclogogue if I had to.
The fecking eejit went down the wrong way, I still couldn't shake the worry though, was he alright?
I stopped and turned around for the car again and made my way back over the trench, to leave a bunch of long grass under his windowscreen to let him know that I had headed back up, just In case he had decided to come back by following the river which lead to the road.
More cars, more staring.
For some reason I could really feel the cold now more than ever. My mind was racing and I had to decide at which point I would have to ring for help. Only I had no phone, I would have to flag down a car by 2 oclock to get the mountain rescue out. To give them 2 hrs to search before dark. If your lying injured in these conditions you would die pretty fast. If by the time I got to the first top and didnt see him I would know then that he must have ran Knocknaclogogue. It was a good feeling to know that I had the fitness to run up knock and up and down Luggala again if I had to, and would make it back before the two pm deadline.
I got to the top of the first illusory peak and scanned the area ahead there was something moving on the lower part of the main summit way ahead. As I stopped to be certain it stopped, maybe its a little tree I thought as I carried on, no its moving again. Thanks be to god Its Him, what a relief, 5 mins later we met and ran back to the car. He was delighted to see me. We got changed in the rain, this is quite a drama and easier said than done. The clothes got wet but were still drier. On the way home he scolded me for not waiting for him on top, I told him the obvious place to wait was down near the river which I did for 5mins. Either ways we both really enjoyed the whole thing.
In the car his heater was on full blast and it was still cold.
I asked him to go round to Tesco so I could pick up some of Staffords Gi bread for our salad sandwiches. Which we devoured as we talked about and shared our experience and as its Leo, every part of it was turned over and scrutinized with glee. Later on that night after the news the weather girl said it had been the coldest day of the year to date, Accu Weather had a galeforce warning in place saying winds on high ground would be from 70 - 110km.
Upon entering the super market was hit by the cold in the place! waiting to be served was really taking its toll, I was shaking inside could feel the ice in my inner core. It reminded me of the time when I was running for my life. When I decided one morning to run a solo mountain marathon Oct 08. In the mountains that day there had been an unexpected snowstorm and blizzard. Death was stalking me and it was my fitness that saved me. But that is another story.
