Two weeks ago I travelled down to Kerry with my parents to climb the highest point in Ireland, Carrauntoohill in the Macgillycuddys Reeks. It's highest point is about 1,040 meters I believe. I have never climbed any kind of mountain before let alone one of this scale and even though I knew it would be tough I really wanted to do it.
On Saturday morning we met up with a guide who was going to help us climb because it was safer and also was good to be told some history of the area too on the hike. We climed with a group of nine people including the guide. We began to hike around 9am and after the first hour of walking on mainly flat land, I was already pretty tired. We slowly began to climb up more vertically. At some stages we had to climb up almost vertical walls of rocks with no safety gear. Even though there was not much chance of falling, someone who is somewhat scared of heights like me would be terrified, which was the case. I managed to subside my fears and just not look down when I got freaked out.
We stopped for about ten minutes half way up and we pretty much all were feeling the strain and I had already run out of water. We continued our journey by travelling up the Heavenly Gates which was a nice route to take in my opinion, it wasn't too hard. The last twenty minutes going up to the very top was the worst no doubt. I genuinely didn't think I'd make it up. It was so warm out and I just had no energy left but I managed to struggle my way all the way to the top eventually. It took around four hours to reach the top.
The view was absolutely stunning. It was such a lovely day but we could only really get a view of the mountains peaking over the clouds. I think it was an amazing view, and just showed how high up we were up. We began to descend shortly after a lunch break and I managed to fall three times being caught by strangers each time. We thought we would be descending down the Devil's ladder, which is the most common tourist route but we began to travel up the neighbouring mountain before we went downwards. At this point we all lacked energy and motivation and wanted to go home. We all managed to complete the hike and come back down to flat ground.
It was a huge struggle for me to climb but it was so worth the view and being able to say I have done it. I rested for a good few days after and had a lot of sunburn but I think it was worth it. I'm sorry the pictures are kind of bad quality, they were taken on my phone.
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