Back in December, I took a picture of the cairn that marks the summit of Corcóg mountain in the Maumturk mountain range in Connemara. In the background is Lough Corrib and Lackavrea mountain, and in the foreground is a mountain boot that never made it home (can’t have been fun for its owner to hike home with just one boot either). Today, there was no view, though the boot remains. it’s a little frosted over, though.
Can you make out the boot under the icicles ?
The roads were perfectly clear all the way from Galway city to Maam Cross this morning, so my wife and I decided to do a quick hike up to Corcóg. Above 300 metres, there was plenty of snow and ice, and little sign of thawing. There was no visibility either, and the wind at the summit was fairly strong. However, it was worth the hike alone to see the fantastical ice patterns made on the rocks and fences. From Facebook, I see that the Galway Mountain Rescue volunteers were also out on the Maumturks today, on an exercise. We didn’t see them – we did see a few sheep and a hare.
Horizontal icicles extending 30 – 40 cms at the top of the fence posts near the summit of Corcóg mountain.
We followed this fence for the last 200 metres to the summit – it’s a handy guide in poor visibility (as long as you’re following the correct fence!)
The snow was never more than shin-deep, but the path was slippy in places where the flowing water had transformed into a frozen river of ice.
If you were allergic to icicles, this would have been a really rotten walk.
My camera has a viewscreen that flips 180 degrees so that one can take selfies. I don’t use it much. You can see why.
Usually, I make my own soup, but since we just decided on impulse to go for the hike this morning, we stocked up on supplies from the Gourmet Tart shop near our house. Their vegetable soup was very welcome in the snow today!
The cairn on the summit of Corcóg covered in icicles.