Before I tell the tale, it's important to say I’ve had the most incredible time in the mountains this year! Hiking feels like second nature to me now, it feels part of who I am, what I do.
In the past year I’ve revisited some old favourite peaks and gotten to know some new ones. All with their own unique magic. I've explored every inch of the Dartry Mountains, wandered around the Derryveagh Mountains like a familiar neighbourhood. I finally got to climb Kilclooney Mountain up around Coumshingaun Lough, a bucket-list moment of mine! I hiked in snow, in storms, in the Irish heatwave. And I found my solace in the Mournes, my home.
My smile is never brighter than when I'm climbing a mountain!
I started the year wanting to give my body a break. My 52 Peaks in 52 Weeks challenge of 2022 was incredible, but my body felt exhausted. At the end my knee was in lots of pain, my legs were tired and I was craving walks that didn't involve big peaks.
HOWEVER, as the year went on, it turns out I just feckin' love hiking mountains! By the middle of November 2023, I had a moment of realisation I’d already climbed 27 peaks that year, and that was me taking it real easy. So I figured sure look, what’s another 26 peaks before the new year!? Climb one more than in 2022? Aye go on..
And so on the side of Benbeg in Cavan, on the 15th of November, mid hike, I decided to aim for ’53 in 2023’!
I wanted to keep it a secret, which was stupid and lasted about 2 days because I can't keep my mouth shut, so told a few of my nearest and dearest. Figured it would be good for accountability at least, but not share it online. No matter how much motivation and passion I had, I guess part of me thought I didn't have it in me.
For the next month I hiked my butt off!
From the top of my head I made a list of all the peaks around Donegal, Mournes, Leitrim, Sligo & Wicklow that I hadn’t climbed yet in 2023. Without doing any research I had more than enough jotted down to keep me going. Simples!
By the middle of December I’d managed to climb 22 peaks in 30 days!? I even surprised myself with this one. Then come 17th December, I had only 5 peaks left to climb in 2 weeks. EASY! NOT a bother…
Then bam, I was hit with an illness that kept me bed ridden over the Christmas period. I didn’t have the energy to stand up for more than 5 minutes never mind hike my body up a mountain. As it got closer to the 31st December I was still ill, had no energy and was fed up. I didn’t want to put the last month’s efforts to waste by failing at the last hurdle.
Towards the end I was trying to find a way I could still complete it - do I extend the deadline by 2 weeks to make up for being sick? Do I count the peaks I hiked twice as this would take me over 53? Do I find some sort of loophole? Anything that would mean I wasn’t failing.
But when 2024 hit, I decided to accept defeat, it was taken out of my hands. The challenge had been and gone. New year, fresh start, fresh new challenge! I feel pretty gutted I couldn’t finish it, but I'm also extremely proud what of what I did manage to achieve. The mental dedication I had and the physical strength my body had to do so much in such a short space of time is so fulfilling.
So what do I do with that? What do I do next? What could I actually achieve when I put my mind to it?!
After 4 years of hiking challenges I’ve seen this incredible drive in myself to continuously get up into the mountains. Having a challenge that gets me to explore different peaks throughout the country is so exciting! There isn’t much I stick to when it comes to hobbies, but hiking is so much more than that for me. It’s my biggest passion, deeply engrained in me.
I haven’t quite decided what to do with that energy for 2024. Of course I have some thoughts, but I have a fire in me that wants to go big! Any ideas?!
What I did achieve was 48 Peaks in 2023! Which all in all, isn't a bad effort :)
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