UCD Mountaineering Club

by Deirdre Flynn (Captain 1992/93)
A young and beardless Darragh Smyth sets out on his first hike with the Establishment in October 1989 - to Bray! Excessive numbers on the bus prompted Meets Secretary Peter Cudden to lead a group of Freshers to the Dart station, where he proceeded to take out a map and compass to find the Sugarloaf. At the AGM in Francis Butler's house Darragh was nominated for Meets Secretary while John McEnri took over the helm from Diarmuid O Cuinn who had held the fort for the previous two years. In May 1990 Paul Harrington and Declan Doyle set off on their South American expedition. Between them they climbed seven mountains over 5,000m and attempted another three in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. "The most beautiful mountain in Peru" : Alpamayo (5947 m); "The most difficult mountain in Peru": Cayesh (a second ascent by the bold Pharrington); and the highest mountain in Peru: Huascaran (6750 m) conquered by Declan. That summer the climbing wall was finally built in the Sports Centre in college. A contributing factor to the doubling of numbers in October 1990, the wall has proved a great way of introducing new climbers to the scene. However, with numbers growing to 270, John Mc Enri was seen screaming around the Arts block : "enough! enough! close the stand!" For the first hike (to Glendalough, where else?) the Club had to resort to two buses. Inexplicably, the two medium hikes, doing the horseshoe in different directions, never managed to meet in the middle.

The Navigation weekend of 1990 was remarkable, not only for John McEnri's rendition of 'Freebird', but also for Darragh's orienteering course, including a control in a smelly pit, containing one dead sheep and for Waldo's incredible snoring! Picture the scene - the brothers Lang vying with each other to see who has the most obscure comely-maiden-meets-dashing-soldier song in a kitchen opposite Kate Kearney's Cottage at Christmas. Enda displays his musical talent on no less than four instruments (harmonies supplied by Paul Carroll) while Joe Mount displays his belly in the bop-centre (must have been the aphrodisiac!). Kerry saw the instigation of the set-dancing school, the bicycle brigade (the forgotten people) and Francis' remarkable rescue
of Deirdre Doyle and Co. at Eagle's Nest.

Wales of '91 was a weekend of fantastic weather - straight off the boat and up Crib Goch for most. Joe came with a minibus, disgusted that people weren't drunk already (Yis have no lead in yer pencils!) and slobbed mightily for the weekend. The effects of Sunday night's revelling - including Declan trying to kill Mark with a blunt saw, a local sheep being terrorised and a bottle or two of whiskey - could be seen on Tryfan the next day, as hikers oozed Southern Comfort from every pore and Declan had to sit and "rest" at frequent intervals. Sarah's charade of the Kama Sutra was a masterpiece in acting skills - but were there animals involved?

After the exams we headed to the Mournes where some of us stayed in the Queen's Hut and others in the camping site. Paul Harrington unveiled a new genre in climbing songs while the Flynn sisters recalled every nursery rhyme they ever knew! Six students joined the annual oldie trip to Scotland in 1991 and climbed a gully on Ben Nevis - some with crampons and some with axes - but none with both! This and some ice in Kerry the previous December had given them a taste for the Alps and the idea of a student-based Club trip was born. That summer we met regularly in Dalkey Quarry to prepare. There were weekends in the Burren, Glendalough and elsewhere, but the waiting was unbearable. I remember sitting in Francis' house watching Seamus's slides of La Berarde and thinking that maybe I was a bit out of my depth.

Sixteen of us went to La Berarde, a village with only one tiny shop which ran out of bread (breakfasts of mushroom soup and chocolate) and a campsite where the toilet block served as shelter for dinner-making, whiskey drinking and card games late into the night. The highlights were our first glacier crossings, aided by Declan and Francis; the climbs on the Dibona, Pic Nord de Caval and Pic Coolidge; the first unguided ascent of the Pilatte glacier by the new alpinists, and gorgeous, dry, sunny, multi-pitch climbing. Some of us even managed to spend a night in a luxurious ski resort on the way over - sleeping in a tiny bus shelter when we got on the wrong bus! The knicker tree was my own personal triumph, as well as the morning rock for insomniacs, and multi-coloured bruises. Our Club mascot, Pierre Gaspard, le marmotte, was born in Bourg d'Oisans; a notable and active member of the Club since then. Bill and Owen never did get to Zermatt...

October 1991 saw Darragh Smyth as Captain with Donogh Lang riding shotgun as Meets secretary. An influx of the Erasmus students helped the membership to reach 360. The Inaugural Indoor Climbing Competition, the brainchild of Darragh and Ronan Laffan , took place in the sports centre in November. 64 climbers from colleges around the country took part, and UCD was well represented. Yours truly took the women's title while Darragh got to the finals.

Leenane was the venue for Christmas, where the biggest house held 24 people and Aisling O'Sullivan played Mammy to all and sundry. I refused to play Mammy to my ten hunks of manhood in the red light district (50p in the meter, and all that), the house where the microwave wouldn't receive RTE anymore. Alan O'Brien played barman tricks, Susan played with her Chippendales, and Owen pitted his strength against Cap'n Smyth in an iron-stomach competition. The trip epic was undoubtedly our ascent of what we thought was Carrot Ridge, (Caveman's Delight ???) in wintery and wet conditions. The 1992 Lug Walk was completed by a record 22 people, including 8 women, forever scrapping the myth of the hard-man hike. One group opted for a two-day walk, camping overnight - not a lot of fun carrying all that gear over 36 miles but they finished it anyway! The conditions were favourable, although most of us hit our 'wall' at Duff hill. Everybody should do at least one Lug Walk - then you'll never have to do it again! Declan O'Keefe deserves special mention for having the nerve to lie down in the middle to take a 'nap' - what are our oldies coming to?

Scotland again saw a student contingent, with Darragh, Bill, Paul, Ciaran, John and Donogh joining Seamus and Co. in the heights of comfort and the lows of drinking (whoever did finish that bottle of Talisker?). They climbed Tower Ridge, with the 'ponies'- John, Paul and Darragh "I took a rest day" Smyth trying to do long walks every day of the trip. They died on the fifth day. The haggis which was brought home allowed Paul to dress up in a skirt, Darragh to display his culinary skills and Ronan incomparable flights of imagination about the mating habits of Haggi...

The AGM once again took place in Ballyknockan. Paul tried to preserve his dignity while skinny-dipping with Neil and Willie, but because nobody could tell if the women present were not really hard men, he splashed on in. The Mournes post-exam trip was a sunny weekend of climbing and beachbumming, with a £1-a-night campsite (child's rate), a Freudian reading on -the womblike nature of a tent and Robbie Roe and Declan O'Keeffe shouting much abuse at each other from Slieve Beg - rowdy climbers all. Darragh Smyth applied for the ENSA scholarship course in Chamonix through the MCI and was accepted. He spent two weeks climbing in the region with Traolach O'Brien, Declan Doyle etc., including Mont Blanc, before joining the others on his course for alpine-lead training for another two weeks. Meanwhile the rest of us climbed during the summer, this time preparing for a Chamonix expedition. Weekends in the Burren, Ireland's Eye and Glendalough led towards September. A mere twelve days before we were due to head off I took a fall off Drifter's Escape in the Quarry, badly damaging an ankle and leaving myself crutches-bound for three weeks - adieu Chamonix... The other twelve student mountaineers headed off for three weeks, Cian Duggan strutting his climbing stuff, Bill Murphy and Rory O'Connor epic-bound on the Grepon (and on and on and on), Fo Dunne, Bryan Raleigh, Mark Purcell and Eoghan de Barra having a great day on the Aiguille de I'M, a spectacular ascent of the Cosmiques Arrete by all and sundry and the introduction of garlic porridge to the extensive Club menu list. Snowed-in in the Couvercle hut, what did our bunch do, only finish off all the food there - whether theirs or not! Bill, climbing up a gully behind a French group, asked in his own inimitable Francais how to yell "below!" when throwing down a rope. The Frenchman pointed to another gully, telling Bill "la-bas" (down there), whereupon our Corkinan coils his rope, flings it down the frenchman's gully and yells out: "LA-BAS!". Luckily, he had a sense of humour...

In October Ciaran Clissmann organised and led an expedition to Mera peak (6476 m) in the Khumbu Himal range in the North-West of Nepal. Ten climbers left from Dublin; with both Ciaran and John McEnri reaching the summit successfully in late October, and celebrating in style in Kathmandu. In October 1992 the stroppy wench took over as captain, and although the membership fee was doubled (college rules), we retained our membership of 375. "The year of the list" started with the introduction of coffee afternoons (every Tuesday lunchtime), the Alps slide-show and the Mera Peak slide-show. The Fresher's week abseil off the library attracted two security guards - not to stop the proceedings, but to give it a go! The Navigation Weekend numbers kept on climbing while a December camping trip to the Galtees had fine days and lots of snow to play in and no pub! In Donegal at Christmas Ian Norton ran out of mountains and Betsy (Seamus's
"car") finally died - a minute's laugh was observed. Enda played to a packed ceili house, the hard men bivvied out on Muckish, and Bryan and Alan introduced first years to the joys of winter climbing.

Meanwhile, Cian Duggan was climbing Mont Blanc, as part of a European expedition to mark the 1992/3 breaking down of trade barriers. One student mountaineer from each member state participated. Paul Harrington was once again in South America, attempting the central tower of the Towers of Paine. Access permits caused problems however and the ascent had to be abandoned.

The second Intervarsity Climbing Competition was held in February , again in UCD with Bryan Raleigh taking the title of best undergraduate climber, (and getting a photo of his bum in the College Tribune). Unlike many other college clubs, UCD is not a "wall" club, not a climbing club, not a rambling club, but a Mountaineering Club in the full sense of the word and to her we dedicate the words of Henry Grattan "esto perpetua - long may it continue"