by Seamus Mac Gearailt (Captain 1985/86)
Keeping With Tradition
There was a sense of old tradition about the Mountaineering Club in 1984, that seemed strangely out of place, since many of the legendary characters were no longer around, but the rituals of long walks, bivvys in Wicklow
and overnight Lug Walks in winter stayed on. John Furlong provided Sunday buses until we ran out of money, and then it was the 49 to Bohernabreena or lifts to Wicklow with the few remaining cars for the fortunate. Most new members joined during the Freshers Week recruitment fair, but there was also a steady influx of experienced mountaineers from U.C.G., who had come to work in Dublin. A camping trip to the Galtees in November 1984 is memorable for a disastrous series of accidents, as well as being completely washed out by rain. Christmas in Castlegregory that year was less eventful, with most of the activity concentrated in O'Connor's Green Room bar, and the search for Geraldine Coleman's trousers.
January 1985 came in cold and snowy, and so it stayed into March. The big freeze allowed Keefe Murphy and Louis Mooney to climb the frozen waterfall on Glendalough crag, while the rest of us fought over the few Club ice-axes in the glaciated Mournes. The water supply for the Queens hut that weekend, came in a dozen vodka bottles supplied by the only nationalist pub in Kilkeel. Several weeks later there was a very successful trip to snowy Wales. The Bangor Station Bivy was de rigeur in those days, followed by a hearty breakfast in Pete's Eats, With ice-axes begged and borrowed from all quarters, the many Munroes of Snowdonia were conquered during the glorious bank holiday weather.
As only a small number of non-students remained involved in the Club at that time, there was a general lull in activity leading up to exams, and throughout the Summer. Things picked up again in the Autumn of 1985, with hired buses, the Navigation Weekend, and another trip to the Galtees which this time enjoyed fabulous weather.
Only a small party of about 20 went to Connemara for the Christmas trip of 1985. We stayed in the old Westport Estate hunting lodge at Delphi, which is now a posh fishing lodge. On the first night the weather was so cold that the water in Killary Harbour froze on the shore as the tide ebbed. The brilliant weather allowed a few of us to climb Carrot Ridge on Ben Corr, and after a great week of walking and partying, many of us had become seriously committed to mountaineering. Friendships were fostered on that trip that would develop into many rock climbing partnerships, and alpine teams over the ensuing years.
A New Independence
The mounting transport crisis came to a head in the winter of 1985/86. The number of active mountaineers was insufficient to support a large coach, and although the few car-drivers were generous with lifts, there was never enough space for everyone. The resulting limitations on our activities were proving extremely frustrating to an increasingly ambitious bunch of people. Then Geraldine discovered that her sister knew of a chap in the Wayfarers who had a 20 seater bus, and liked going away hill walking. We had found a saviour - Jobus piloted by the redoubtable Joe Mount. Charging what could hardly be described as an economic rate, and putting up with hardship beyond the call of duty, Joe and his bus became our ticket to a new independence.
One of the first weekend trips in Joe's bus took us to the Comeraghs in the freezing February of 1986. The bus was jammed with people and equipment, as we drove into a snow filled Nire valley. The overnight survival of
the newer, and poorly equipped, recruits can be attributed to the policy of cramming six of them into a four man Vango tent, and letting body heat do the rest. A paltry amount of winter equipment was distributed amongst the group according to the time honoured Club traditions of power and privilege, and we bashed around the icy Comeraghs for two days in the mist without ever seeing a view. For all of us it was our first experience of ice climbing, which consisted of the leader climbing using two ice axes and the only pair of crampons, then belaying on one axe battered into the frozen turf, before sending the second axe back down the runnerless rope to the unfortunate partner, who followed by cutting steps in the rock hard ice.
For the next couple of years Joe provided the mainstay transport for Club trips. He took us to Rossbeigh in Kerry for the Christmas of 1986, and to Castlegregory in 1987, as well as weekend trips to the Mournes, Mayo, Connemara, and Wales. By the time he went to England, a whole new generation had graduated, and there were more cars around. The location of the Christmas trip varied every year, but was based mostly in Kerry, with the inclusion of Connemara every couple of years. Eventually the scope was widened, and following Castlegregory in 1987, the location moved to Louisburgh, Co. Mayo for 1988, and then for the first time in years, we spent a very enjoyable Christmas 1989 in Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal.
Rock Jocks
In the Spring of 1984, Traoloch O'Brien and I were initiated in the specialist craft of rock-climbing. Our instructors were Euge O'Riordan and Louis Mooney, and our leader was Liam Collins who had started a year before and had the necessary gear. The big issues of chalk, bolts and competitions lay beyond the horizon at that stage, and ambitions were focused on climbing HVS, and acquiring enough gear for two or three runners as well as a belay. Our positions as committee members enabled us to direct Club funds towards buying rock gear, and by spring 1985 we were independent climbers, breaking a leg each in the process. We would escape from the rigours of study to go climbing in Dalkey, Glendalough and Luggala; grateful recipients of lifts from the graduate classes. Over the next few years, new climbers emerged one by one - Mark Lang, Declan Doyle, Niamh Laffan, Paul Horan, Padraic Breen, Paul Harrington, and Padraig Cunningham, until eventually a sustainable climbing community had been re-established in the Club.From advance base at Euge and Cathy's house in Dundalk, we set out for our first trip to Fair Head in October 1985. The old hands were showing the new boys where the real action was to be had. This trip left us awed and inspired at such magnificent challenges for the future, however it was to be nearly two years before we returned. There were no climbing
walls at that time, so you hung up your boots from October to March every year, and concentrated on bog trotting, drinking, and trying to shift someone on New Years Eve instead.
The 1986 climbing season opened with a trip to the Burren at Paddy's weekend. There was the usual small crew, supplemented by Christy Neary, whose elegant rock ballet was an inspiration to us all. The highlight
of the season was a blistering June bank holiday in Malinbeg. After Hurricane Charlie, at the end of August 1986, Traoloch and I spent a surreal week living in the cave below Luggala. We worked our way through the classic VS routes, then the HVS ones, until at the weekend when the rest of the posse came to visit, we could call down to them from a perch on "Gilt Edge", way up in the middle of the main face. At that point it seemed like there were no limits, and the future was wide open.
The momentum gathered over the following years. Some of us bought cars, the country became smaller, and weekends away became more frequent. In 1989, as far as I can remember, we were away for 22 weekends out of 28 between March and October. Up and down the country, the circus travelled to Clare, Fair Head, Donegal, Tormore, and the Mournes, picking off the best of Irish climbing. One particular weekend that will always shine in my memory, was when John Gleeson took us to Fair Head for Midsummer 1987. The oak wood behind the hut in Murlough Bay was filled with bluebells and primroses, as the Rathlin buzzards hovered overhead. Across the waters of the North Channel, the Mull of Kintyre seemed closer than Howth does from Dun Laoghaire. All of Scotland lay before us, from Islay and Jura in the North, to the ancient rock of Ailsa Craig in the South. It never grew dark at night - the brightness just wheeled slowly across the Northern sky. That weekend, Traoloch and I climbed "An Bealach Runda", a beautiful, meandering, and enveloping route in the most remote fastnesses of the Head. Sitting on the level lawn of the top, watching the swirling currents around Rathlin, I thought I would never want to come down again. There were other memorable trips, such as Pembroke in June 1989, and again in 1990, or to the Lake District also in 1990. All the while the numbers were growing and standards improving. High points were reached in summer of 1991 and 1992 when two of Keefe's best routes in the Burren were repeated for the first time by Club members: these were "Siren" by Traoloch O'Brien, and "Through the Looking Glass" by Padraic Breen. The rock climbing credentials of the Club were now firmly re-established.
Toys For The Boys
Climbing mountains, as everyone knows, is all about the right equipment, and the Club has always maintained an equipment pool for the use of members. In the early eighties, the Club gear pool consisted mostly of camping gear, primarily several, indestructible Vango Force 10 tents, as well as two or three ancient ice-axes, generally about one metre in length. Such equipment however, was sorely inadequate for the rising ambitions of the "hardcore" at the time. A masterful grant application laced with threats of casualties that would result from the poor state of Club equipment, was prepared in 1985 by Mark Lang the treasurer and Traoloch O'Brien the equipment officer, resulting in a massive increase in the Club equipment grant. Subsequent years' grants were similarly generous, and an excellent pool of equipment was soon available. As well as buying alpine/winter equipment which would normally have been well beyond the pockets of students, some of the funds were used to subsidise the sale of rock gear to student climbers, to encourage more, and safer, leading. Several lightweight tents and stoves were also purchased, making backpacking trips feasible without yaks. Without the backup of this equipment pool, many of the trips to the Alps in that period would not have been possible. Over the same period personal equipment was also revolutionised in the general mountaineering community, and it wasn't long before the affliction spread into the UCD Club, hitherto a bastion of check shirts, tweed trousers, Aran geansies, and the indispensable, 100% impermeable Solo raincoat. Desperate rear guard actions were fought against the Lowe fleece and goretex invasion, and it was commonly held that moral purity could be sustained by only doing long walks, drinking bottled Guinness instead of draught, and singing seventeenth century songs about the deflowering of young maidens at the
back of the bus. But now the last of the vestal virgins is long gone, and the Club bus is a sea of gaudy fleece, lycra, and Lowe rucksacks.
Sun, Snow And Sweat
Since Ireland is not endowed with glaciers there is little opportunity to learn snow and ice climbing techniques at home, and the overall lack of glacier experience in the Club was an impediment to alpine expeditions. In order to gain the necessary skills, between 1982 and 1986, eight or nine people attended snow and ice climbing courses with UCPA in the French Alps. With the experience gained it became possible to plan alpine holidays, and later recruits on the alpine scene could learn from their peers.
The expeditions of 1986 were particularly successful, with a good trip to the Dauphine in June, that included Liam Collins, Ailish Farrell, Ronan Gill, Maurice Prendergast, Mike Corish and Seamus MacGearailt. Many good routes were climbed including the Dibona, Les Bans, the traverse of the Barre des Ecrins, and Pic Nord de Cavales, which translates as "peak of 100 pictures". For a change, the other crew took the train south, to the Pyrenees in September. Here they were joined by Marie Flynn, Paul Horan, Muireann de Freine, David O'Connor and Lorcan "HVS" Kennan and managed to climb Vignemale and Monte Perdido.
The local weather system around Arolla, in Switzerland, defied the general pattern of Alpine weather in August 1987, and remained moderately good for the group of eight that assembled there, including most of the usual suspects, plus Louis, Bridget and Bernie en route to Corfu. Meanwhile another crew was literally washed out of Bregaglia by the floods. Ascents of note that year were, Mont Blanc de Cheilon, the north face of Pigne d'Arolla, and the traverse of La Singla. Never have I drunk so much beer on a climbing holiday, and all because Padraig Cunningham wanted cover for his advances to the waitress in the local hotel. Rebuffed, he departed to Austria to join Francis Butler, Geraldine Coleman, Gerry Murray, Marie Flynn, and Phillip Boughan, for a walking tour in the Stubai, at the end of August.
Winter highlights revolved around trips to Scotland, with most years seeing a gang of rabid munroists dashing around bagging the best Caledonian peaks. The basic lesson of the time was that if you wanted good weather, you had to bring Paul Horan, whose presence had an uncanny coincidence with lovely weather; such as in Skye '87, and Torridon '88. When Paul stayed at home, the weather was brutal as in Glencoe 1989, Cairngorms/Torridon 1990, and Glenshiel 1991.
A compact group of four travelled to Bregaglia on a shoestring budget in August 1988. Paul Harrington and Declan Doyle were the alpine novices, accompanying Mark Lang and myself. We were joined in the San Martino di Masino at various stages by Liam and Ailish, and Euge and Cathy. The weather was tremendous, and we climbed many beautiful rock routes on the perfect granite of the Val di Mello, Piz Badile, Cengalo and other surrounding peaks. There was also some more serious mountaineering on Monte Disgrazia north face, and Piz Bernina, the highest peak in the area.
By 1989 there was a lot of accumulated alpine experience, which gave rise to greater ambitions, and luck being pushed perhaps a little too far. The year did not start well with a pair of mountaineers, who shall remain anonymous, being airlifted off Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis in February. Another group spent a couple of weeks floundering through unseasonal snow in La Berarde that June, without much success. Then in August, whilst passing three weeks in Chamonix, another trio experienced an horrific and epic descent on the north face of the Aiguille Verte, which involved 13 hours of abseiling, and an overnight bivy hanging from the ropes on the edge of an ice field, being bombarded by little avalanches. Much equipment was lost, but luckily there were no injuries. It was a chastened bunch of people that faced into the nineties at the end of the year.
The Vision Thing
It is difficult to gaze across the world from the summit of a mountain, without developing grand views of society and our own communities down below. For the past ten years UCD Mountaineering Club has been my community: a place to develop friendships and realise ambitions that once were only dreams. During that period the Club has developed to the point that high standard rock climbing, Alpine trips for large groups, including many students, and expeditions to the bigger mountains of the world, are the norm rather than the exception.
The great thing about a living, developing Club is the warm, open atmosphere it fosters, based on tradition, experience, and friendship across the generations. One of my best friends joined the Club in the early seventies, whereas others only came in the nineties. It is such a sense of continuity and regeneration that has sustained this mountaineering Club in the past, and will ensure that we continue to be one of the leading Clubs in the country in the future. Such a Club never outgrows its roots, and over time attracts people of all ages who see it as not just a university Club. There is plenty of room in the organisation for the activities of small groups in parallel with the main agenda, and such multifarious activity actually enriches the Club as a whole, reducing the crowd syndrome which can put people off. What matters are the links and contacts that give rise to a choice from a variety of mountaineering experiences to suit all tastes. When I signed up in 1982, there was no question of moving on to another Club after graduation. After all, Oxford University Mountaineering Club has members for 50 years, so why can't UCD?