Ah lads, you’re only mocking the whole concept of hillwalking. So half-joked one of the hikers who had just arrived at the top of Carrauntoohil, only to find three young fellows, casually attired, each enjoying a cigarette, a can of cider and the view – which included the bicycle that they had just lugged up to the summit. There are a few ways to reach the summit of Ireland’s highest mountain and the lads had taken the most direct one. The Devil’s Ladder is a steep scree slope – several hundred metres in height – and while it is the shortest route to the top – and the simplest to navigate – it is as ‘easy’ as carrying a bike up the staircase of a lighthouse – a lighthouse that is 250 metres tall. Everyone on the summit asked them if they had done it for a dare or a bet – if they had, they weren’t letting on. I’d like to think it was part of a mad plan – akin to that featured in the film, Fitzcarraldo. Whatever the reason – if you need a job done, and the A-team are already booked, these are the lads to do it – no matter how mad it is.
After they had set off back down the hill, another climbers remarked that he didn’t have the heart to mention it in front of the lads but he’d had arrived on the summit one morning 15 years earlier to find two guys asleep in the cairn nearby, also with a bicycle that they had carried to the summit.
Classic! Rerminds me of Croagh Patrick, where yoiu see serious walkers all kitted out with neoprene and Power Bars and altimeters, and walking amongst them are little old ladies, come straight from Mass, wearing those thick black shoes and Sunday coat, quietly making their way to the top.