Snowboarding in Dublin Mountains 7/1/10

Coyote

a copy of my thread in the weather fourm but thought you guys would like to see them as well
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=63854857&posted=1#post63854857

I parked at the bottom of the hell fire club forest, and walked up stocking lane, I have a rear wheel drive car so i did not want to chance it going to far I prob could have made it or would 100% made it if I had put on my snow chains. meet a few 4x4 and one guy spinning his front wheels, at the top.
on the way back a guy in a 4x4 tied a rope to the back of his jeep and pulled me down part of the road that was a bit cleared.

all in all a good fun filled 5-6 hours up there

Coyote

the long clime ahead


this photo out of order but I liked it so much I put it near the top, that's the photo of my first run and the clime backup

this was the part of the road I did not want to try to get down later in my rear wheel drive car



just after the road closed sign they have cleared it a bit tho




the road ahead no one seems to have gone as far along the road as i did


I left a trail of footprint from my snowboarding boots


It's a long hike backup after a run


this is a good spot for snowboarding as it's steep and has good snow


that nasty corner again

ShayK1

my only question is:

Do you feel the trek up the mountain is worth the short run back down?

Coyote

I do, I know loads of lads last year built a kicker and spend the time on that
but to me the freedom of going down a power run is worth the work.

2lazytogetup

Id love to have a rear wheel drive car. beter driving experience.

i think i saw you pulling your snowboard and having a cigarette at the top of a hill today. although might have been someone else with a snowboard.


The only steep enough slope i could find to snowboard on had loads of kids of sleighs. sleighs with no control that would go into the back of ya.

i did find a desolute spot at the very top of a mountain, but i didnt find a steep enough run there. that was where i saw a lad pulling a board and taking a smoke break.

i was thinking of going to the sugar loaf tomorrow, might be better runs.

Coyote

yea that prob was me black jacket and gray trousers with a burton custome x (black) board. had a cig brake at the top the hill beside the kids on the way up and down tryed last year to ride there and never again I will stick to my power higher up.

35190

you lucky lucky bast*rd!!!

michellefoley

hi, how long did it take you to get up there, and then how long was the run down?

i'm thinking about djouce tomorrow but it'll be harder to get too

Coyote

well if you can get to the junction of stocking lane and cruagh road. which a lot of people seems to this afternoon, was not much chance of me making it that far with rear wheel drive car in the morning, mostly 4x4 early in the day. people were making if up higher after the junction with 4x4 but not sure I would try it without good snow tires but people did make it with road tire 4x4. then it's a 2K walk, if you look at the 2 photo you can just see the sign that I used as a start point I went a bit farther down the slope the next time as that was the first run. the hard bit is to find a good descent and long enough else where. It is a hard hike to get back to the sign use the same footprints as the time before.

google map link

Outsidethebox

That second shot is epic man.

michellefoley

2km?! eek! i have a land rover with road tires, but i'll be in ski boots so any walk is going to be not much fun........

2lazytogetup

Great photos,


In that second photo, is the print in the snow you carving, how fast did you go?

i couldnt find any steepness in that area today. Roundwood is a good 30min (1 hour in these driving conditions) away from Stocking Lane

Coyote

well it would be a lot shorter if you drive to the 2 car park, it not that hard I did see a freelander and a civic 4x4 up there, most of the rest were bigger 4x4 tho. the turning point/carpark is where the small road goes off to the left 3/4 the way up but it's not a huge space and you would need to leave room for others to turn. remember the road after the junction of stocking lane and cruagh road has a road closed sign on it so you do so at your own risk.

Coyote

2lazytogetup wrote: »

Great photos,


In that second photo, is the print in the snow you carving, how fast did you go?

i couldnt find any steepness in that area today. Roundwood is a good 30min (1 hour in these driving conditions) away from Stocking Lane

yea in the second photo the line you see was me carving, not sure of the speed not a mad speed as was first run of the day and it's 10 months since I was on the board.

if your looking for some where to ride a good way to look is to use google map and use the terrain zoom in and look for where the lines are close they are 20m drops from one line to the next. but you need to be sure where you are riding as you don't want to hit a tree stump or some other thing hidden in the snow

2lazytogetup

Thanks,

Ill do that.

I hope you have another great day again tomorrow.

kermitdfrog

That's brilliant stuff! My friends and are I are planning on heading up this weekend, but I have to be honest I'm not sure we have the patience for the trek you did. Far more likely we'll just head a few fields up from the foothills and build a small kicker. Not as good as full runs, but a lot less effort. Fair play to you though, and great photos.

Shad0r

Two words: Snow Chains!

Looking forward to Saturday. Would like to find a steeper spot though. Slow carving on powder is not as much fun as fast carving

martind81

Headed up to the viewpoint at about 1 today, the jeeps that have been going up there have really cleaned the road up and i think its even been gritted so it was no problem for me to get up as long as i didnt stop.
There must have been 30-40 cars/jeeps up there when i landed and about 15-20 just down the road at the forest but alot of people walked up there so it was fairly congested on the slope.
Didn't know there was a river at the bottom until i went down the first time,seen a few people landing in it and one kid managed to break a leg just as i was leaving. met the fire crew on my drive down and the garda helicopter was hovering overhead aswell. Alot of people stuck trying to get up and alot stuck trying to pull out of the ditch!
My advice is walk up from the forest!!

2lazytogetup

its a nice spot there. did you go near the burnt out cars. good incline there.

what was the thaw like when you were leaving. im thinking of heading up there tomorrow morning.

Kudos to Coyote for recommending it.

martind81

didn't see any to be honest! every square inch of the slop is compacted and is a nightmare to move around on, alot of people falling! not much of a thaw, hopefully it'll be quieter there in the morning because it was a pain with so many there today.

martind81

actually scratch that last one........just looked out the window and its lashing rain! not sleet,rain! and i live in hunterswood in firhouse.:mad: