Moonlight challenge 21st Nov

Tiriel

Anyone else doing it this year?! First time doing anything of that length, interested to hear if you've done it before or have any tips!

knucklehead6

Tiriel wrote: »

Anyone else doing it this year?! First time doing anything of that length, interested to hear if you've done it before or have any tips!

I'm doing it as well, with a couple of different teams from a meet up group I hike with. Just doing a gpx track for it at the moment.

I was hoping someone would save me the bother but there don't seem to be any available on the net

Tiriel

Looking forward to it now, though slightly nervous! Looks like temperature have dropped quite a bit, just in time.

Would you mind sharing your gpx track!? (cheeky to ask I know, but I don't know how to create one without walking it!).

I'm relatively new to hiking, started early this summer. Using the mapmyrun app to log all of my walks, but looking at getting something more reliable/accurate as it does tend to lose GPS and stop halfway when in the mountains.

Alun

It's pretty well signposted, there are 3 checkpoints, and each team gets a detailed map of the route see here. No real need for a GPS route really.

Tiriel

Ah good! Any idea of the height gain?

Alun

I reckon about 1000m in total. The biggest climbs will be up Trooperstown Hill, and from Clara Vale Church as far as Kirikee.

Good luck, it'll be pretty cold out there!

TheBody

Can't wait for the hike tomorrow. I've done it every year apart from the first.

It's a real festival atmosphere. Everyone has a great time. You will love it!!

knucklehead6

Alun wrote: »

It's pretty well signposted, there are 3 checkpoints, and each team gets a detailed map of the route see here. No real need for a GPS route really.

There's no need for one at all, but it's handy to have.

If anyone want one send me a pm. It's a best guess, based on the route plan and map.

unkel

Tiriel wrote: »

Looks like temperature have dropped quite a bit, just in time.

It will be nowhere near as cold tomorrow night as it's going to be tonight / tomorrow morning!

Forecast is good though, no rain, not too much cloud. Hopefully you will have a good bit of moonlight along the way. Good luck

Tiriel

Can't wait :-) bag packed with spare layers.

I'll leave the gpx, thank you knucklehead6, will trust in the signage and just enjoy it. It's probably too cold to be messing with my phone anyway!

unkel

Bring gaiters if you have them and extra socks. Up very high will still be cold tonight but a bit lower down the thaw set in late this morning and there is a lot of melt water coming down already. There will be muck

Don't trust the forecast too much anyway. They said this morning would be clear and there was no snow forecast for last night. Yet the roads around the Sally Gap were very icy / snowy at 8AM this morning. A 10-15 minute drive from just before the Sally Gap to Carrigshouk took me the guts of an hour. And visibility above about 500-600m altitude was no more than 50m. The bonus was the frozen bog around Mullaghcleevaun crumbling under my feet where maybe a day ago the same bog could have swallowed a man :eek:

unkel

Bring a flask of tea!

Tiriel

Fantastic event, huge credit to the organisers and the Glen of Imaal. Great atmosphere and support from the volunteers along the way. Started shortly after 3pm so missed the gaiters advice but did OK!

Finished at 7hrs on the button. Pint time now :-)

Tiriel

Looking forward to tomorrow! My 2nd time to do the Moonlight Challenge

Anyone else taking part?

knucklehead6

Tiriel wrote: »

Looking forward to tomorrow! My 2nd time to do the Moonlight Challenge

Anyone else taking part?

for some reason i thought it was 2 weeks time!!
thanks for the reminder

knucklehead6

It was a grand night... Don't mind saying i preferred last year, the route was a bit tougher.

We made it round in 5 hours 15 minutes on Saturday night.

Apparently there were complaints about the difficulty last year, which is why the route was easier and a bit shorter too.

Tiriel

I preferred last year too. Somehow this year it didn't seem as spaced out between groups leaving. There was a long line of people along the miner's path and up onto Spinc, which meant you got caught and couldnt' move around people.

I was 5.45 this year, 7 last year. Was definitely easier this year but it was still a really really enjoyable night. The volunteers are amazing, in great form and really positive banter along the way. Nicest cup of hot chocolate ever

There's a GPX track up on MountainViews now for anyone that ever wants to do it.

Link is here

Alun

Tiriel wrote: »

I preferred last year too. Somehow this year it didn't seem as spaced out between groups leaving. There was a long line of people along the miner's path and up onto Spinc, which meant you got caught and couldnt' move around people.

I was one of the volunteer marshals on the boardwalk section, and apart from one or two large groups it didn't look too crowded to me overall, I must say.

Tiriel

Alun wrote: »

I was one of the volunteer marshals on the boardwalk section, and apart from one or two large groups it didn't look too crowded to me overall, I must say.

We must have been unlucky so!