Reliving the conquering of Luggala
By Jim Stanley

The weekend weather of March 18th was atrocious – not the kind of weather for mountain climbing in Wicklow! However, 21 brave souls turned up for the Lug (Luggala) walk but we wondered where the other 20 or 30 were! They can’t have all been mothers! However, three walkers came all the way from skiing in France just to be with us on the day.

Conditions were extremely bad as we set out. After an hour or so 3 walkers had had enough and turned back. The temperature was down to 2 deg C at this stage and with storm force wind and driving hailstones and snow we were not happy campers.

After getting on to Table (mountain) track we had decided to head for Cloghernagh and skip the final climb up to Luggala. However, Clodagh Collier was having none of this – she insisted we soldier on to the top and actually summated Luggala at 14.20 on the day. At this stage we thought Clodagh was suffering from summit fever. A few of us went to the top with her while the main bunch huddled together like artic penguins further down the mountain!

Even our experienced leader, Peter Skinner, had a rare moment of indecision on the decent from Cloghernagh. All those forests look the same in a white-out! However, he did manage to get 21 weary walkers back to the cars by 1700hours.

Being the weekend that was in it the shamrock was proudly displayed on the day also although it took a bit of a beating on the hill. (Thanks to Eamon and Carmel Lawlor for providing the shamrock and safety pins!) Peter, for the Liquorice Allsorts which gave us a reason to keep going when things got tough!

More of our great adventures anon.