{"id":1115,"date":"2013-03-28T14:41:24","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T14:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2013-03-28T15:07:19","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T15:07:19","slug":"slievenamaddy-snow-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/slievenamaddy-snow-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Slievenamaddy Snow camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a long day at work on Tuesday (5.30am to 10pm), so decided i needed to take a day off and make the most of the snow before it disappears. A quick check of the forecast showed Wednesday evening to have light winds and a potential of broken cloud, that would be handy with the current full moon and snow covered ground, night hike and camp it was then.<\/p>\n

I had a scout meeting on Wed night so threw all my gear into the car to show the scouts what to bring camping and how to pack (wife was pleased i hadn’t littered the living room with all my camping gear again\u00a0\u00a0\";D\"\u00a0). I also got them to study the map to pick a convenient (and safe) camping spot. There had been a few avalanches this week so I was keen to avoid steep open ground. I had considered Lukes Mountain, but it was further than i wan’t to go for such a late start (10pm), Donard saddle was another option but i didn’t fancy the steep steps to the saddle, especially as i was travelling alone. Slievenamaddy was chosen, should only take an hour with a heavy pack and it was a spot i’d always wanted to camp on. So bag was packed and feeling rather heavy, had i packed too many luxury items? not to worry, it was only a 2.5km walk in, bit steep in places but i would be glad of my luxuries when i got there.<\/p>\n

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Started at Donard Park, tried to get the right balance of clothing as i knew i would be sweating by the first bridge if i wore what felt comfortable in the start, decided to leave the down jacket and long johns in the rucksack and keep warm with a good pace. First signs of any decent snow where here at the 3rd bridge.<\/p><\/div>\n

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At the ice house now and the hills have a orange glow reflected off the low cloud from the streetlights of Newcastle.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Some decent snow at the Slievenamaddy Stile, despite the fact that you can easily walk around this stile i always feel i have to climb over it, its just part of the Mournes experience.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The going got a bit tougher with some knee deep snow in places, fortunately someone had walked this way in the last few hours so i had footsteps to follow most of the route. At Slievenamaddy I found my previously chosen spot with a great view over Newcastle and Donard to the rear. It was a bit slopy but I had brough a shovel so could easily make a flat spot for the tent.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Tent up and time to play with the camera on a long exposure. Worth noting that i had brough a set of 12 inch plastic tent pegs, normal pegs would have been as much use as matchsticks. I also used the walking poles and ice axe to peg down the guy ropes.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The hard work all done it was time to sit back and enjoy the view with a cool (very cool) beer.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The cloud didn’t break as i had hoped but it was still one of the magical experiences sitting back and enjoying the silence. Although with the bright lights of Newcastle below I never really felt like i was truly “in the mountains”.<\/p><\/div>\n

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my sleeping arrangements:
highlander reflective mat at the bottom
mountain equipment helium 3.8 inflatable mattress above
topped off with an alpkit pipedream 400 down sleeping bag
i also had the ex-army goretex bivvy bag on standby at my feet in case it got a bit chilly<\/p><\/div>\n

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I find that one of the key ingredients to a good night sleep is a good pillow, i have tried many i can thoroughly recommend the decathlon quecha inflatable pillow<\/p><\/div>\n

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Here you can see my regatta tent slippers, very handy for keeping your feet warm before you get them into the sleeping bag.<\/p><\/div>\n

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A chewy bar for supper, although with the low temperature it became a crunchy bar!<\/p><\/div>\n

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………………<\/p>\n

Rise and shine at 6.30am, a good nights sleep was had, i managed to stay warm without resporting to long johns or the down jacket, did pull the bivvy up up during the night though.<\/p>\n

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Sunrise<\/p><\/div>\n

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Morning view of Newcastle<\/p><\/div>\n

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Donard behind me<\/p><\/div>\n

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Donard and Commedagh<\/p><\/div>\n

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Donard Forest near the 3rd bridge, must say i had a lovely walk home through the forest, very pleasant, going downhill is so much nicer<\/p><\/div>\n

So my first snow camp was a complete success, next challenge is a summit snow camp\u00a0\u00a0\";)\"<\/p>\n

Thanks to\u00a0LandyLiam<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a long day at work on Tuesday (5.30am to 10pm), so decided i needed to take a day off and make the most of the snow before it disappears. A quick check of the forecast showed Wednesday evening to have light winds and a potential of broken cloud, that would be handy with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1137,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}