Advice on Hiking at Night

Poster_Man

So i'm planning a night hike shortly and am just looking for a bit of advice. Iv done a fair bit of hiking during the day, mostly in wicklow, but never at night!

Its obviously that bit more risky at night so just want to make sure im not forgetting anything. The plan is to go up Djouce, havn't decided yet whether we will go from crone woods or lough tay. Head up to the top and head back down once the sun comes up. Have all the right gear + a group shelter as Djouce can be quite exposed and we want to wait for sunrise.

Theres no moon on the night i have in mind so it will be very dark. Have headtorches plus bigger backup torches so should be ok.

My main concern is running in to some nutter....there may only be 2-4 of us going and only two guys....how safe are the hills at night?? I know certain areas closer to Dublin are not safe at night but the area around Djouce should be ok? right guys!?

Alun

I have done the 'sunrise walk' thing a good few times and have never seen a single other person on any of those occasions. Either of your suggested routes would be OK I'd say, as it'll be boardwalk / tracks most of the way ... I wouldn't want to be crossing rocky terrain full of potential ankle-breaking holes in the pitch dark to be honest!

BTW one nice sunrise walk option is to walk up to Paddock Hill from behind Laragh Church to the Gossan Stones, see http://www.knowth.com/gossan-equinox.htm. On either of the 2 equinoxes you'll see the sun rise in the hollow of Devil's Glen, framed by the stones. Grid ref for them is T 14519 98773.

fergalr

Poster_Man wrote: »

So i'm planning a night hike shortly and am just looking for a bit of advice. Iv done a fair bit of hiking during the day, mostly in wicklow, but never at night!

Its obviously that bit more risky at night so just want to make sure im not forgetting anything.

I think the added risks are as follows:

1 If you run out of batteries, or if torches all get wet and aren't waterproof, etc you can be stranded in the dark.

2 Its colder at night, so hypothermia in the event of an accident is a bigger deal.

3 Its dark, so its easier to get lost, as on a moonless night, you can't really tell the general lie of the surrounding mountains.

4 You also need to watch out for falling or tripping in the terrain, especially if you are not used to walking in the dark with a head torch.

5 Its easier to get into trouble on the terrain because you can't see as well - so walking up slopes that you don't realise are concave, or wandering near drops without realising how big they are. Watch out for that sort of error, it can be serious, and is a bigger risk than during the day.

6 If something goes wrong, you or members of your group might make worse decisions, or panic easier, because of the added psychological pressure of the fact its dark. Don't underestimate this sort of soft risk.

Those are most of the risks that I can think of. Just make sure you have considered at least them all.
Some suggested things to do.

1) waterpoof torches, more than one or two of them, and spare batteries.

2) Lots of warm clothes, and sufficient gear to stay warm even if someone gets an injury (group shelter, maybe sleeping bags or blizzard bags)

3) Make sure you know where you are, and that your navigation is good so you don't get lost and go into trouble. If you get lost, its much harder to relocate yourself, so take extra steps to not get lost - just be really careful about knowing where you are going.

4) Practice walking with a headtorch in easier terrain, or just stick to forest trails for your first few walks.

5) Stay away from areas where there could be large drops, unless you really know what you are doing.

6) Make sure everyone in your group is fairly comfortable with the idea of being out in the dark. If anyone is nervous, have a good chat with them first.
Make sure they understand that theres nothing inherently scary about it, and that you've got enough stuff that if you have to just hang around and wait for dawn, its not a problem.

You seem to have most of these covered anyway,

Poster_Man wrote: »

The plan is to go up Djouce, havn't decided yet whether we will go from crone woods or lough tay. Head up to the top and head back down once the sun comes up. Have all the right gear + a group shelter as Djouce can be quite exposed and we want to wait for sunrise.

Make sure your group shelter etc is warm enough.
Also, check the forecast - if its a wet windy night, it'll be hard to stay warm atop djouce, even with a lot of gear - short of full camping kit.
You'll know yourself on the day.

Poster_Man wrote: »

Theres no moon on the night i have in mind so it will be very dark. Have headtorches plus bigger backup torches so should be ok.

My main concern is running in to some nutter....there may only be 2-4 of us going and only two guys....how safe are the hills at night?? I know certain areas closer to Dublin are not safe at night but the area around Djouce should be ok? right guys!?

I've never seen any people so far down into wicklow, up the mountains, that I thought would give trouble - you know, people that would rob you or engage in casual trouble. They're probably more scared of you than you are of them.
Regarding nutters, personally, I don't actually think there are a lot of them in the mountains. The mountains are very big, and the chances of meeting someone like that would be very small. I personally think the city center of dublin is a much more dangerous place in the middle of the night.
But I've no real evidence for that, its just observations. I think most of the people you meet out in the hills are just pretty cool people, out to enjoy nature.

Alun wrote: »

I have done the 'sunrise walk' thing a good few times and have never seen a single other person on any of those occasions. Either of your suggested routes would be OK I'd say, as it'll be boardwalk / tracks most of the way ... I wouldn't want to be crossing rocky terrain full of potential ankle-breaking holes in the pitch dark to be honest!

BTW one nice sunrise walk option is to walk up to Paddock Hill from behind Laragh Church to the Gossan Stones, see http://www.knowth.com/gossan-equinox.htm. On either of the 2 equinoxes you'll see the sun rise in the hollow of Devil's Glen, framed by the stones. Grid ref for them is T 14519 98773.

I've been meaning to go down to the gossan stones for years, might try check it out on the 20th.


Fergal

Alun

fergalr wrote: »

I've been meaning to go down to the gossan stones for years, might try check it out on the 20th.

You need good luck with the weather though .. I've been up there twice and on both occasions there was not only a lot of low cloud cover out to sea but the valley to the east was full of low lying early morning mist and obscured the whole sunrise. BTW they're pretty unspectacular in themselves .. just two stones about 20-30m or so to the left of the track heading towards Scarr from Paddock Hill .. easily missed without the help of a GPS and the right coordinates especially in the dark.

hmmm

I've done a couple of night hikes and have never run into anyone. They are great fun and if you want to practice navigation, very educational. Doing Djouce sounds like a good easy start.

You shouldn't have a problem on the boardwalk, but like the others have said remember that at night you might get disorientated as you can only see a few feet in front of you. Even simple stuff that wouldn't be a bother in daylight can throw you (e.g. when you come off the boardwalk on Djouce). Keep your wits about you and you should be fine.

Poster_Man

Alun the gossan stones sound cool...if i survive djouce Il have to check em out on the 20th!

Thanks for the help guys, fergalr thats some excellent advice! Definitely a few things there I hadn't considered! Il think we will go from lough Tay for now, stick to the boardwalks and avoid that area around powerscourt with the steep drop offs in to the valley. Going to bring sleeping bags aswell.

By the way if anyone has a mobile phone with gps they should check out Viewranger. (www.viewranger.com) Some seriously powerful software, basically gives you a fully functional OS mapped gps on your phone for about €20! Just bought it this morning, going to try it out on Djouce but hopefully it wont be needed!! Thanks again guys! Feeling a little more confident now that we wont be attacked by an axe wielding psycho or fall of a cliff!!

Mickeroo

If you're sticcking to a track you'll be grand but if you're not on a track don't even think of going out at night without a map or compass and knowing how to use them. Getting lost is a much bigger danger than any psychopath with an axe