Maamturks Challenge Walk - April 30th

DeepSleeper

Anyone out there heading to Galway for the Maamturks Walk on April 30th? It's not on Easter Saturday this year, but the weekend after - the late date should give more daylight and (perhaps...) better weather.... It's only about 24km long but has about 2400m of ascent.... Not for the faint-hearted!

http://www.nuigmc.com/maamturks/index.php

http://www.nuigmc.com/maamturks/Maamturksleaflet2011.pdf

Anyone done it and survived to tell the tale?

Thinking about it, but apparently it's been marred by some appalling weather. Might see closer to the event

DeepSleeper

Yeah - weather has been bad in recent years, but then it is usually in late March or early April - hopefully the later date will bring sunshine!

Esroh

I've finished 1 out of 3 attempts

2006.1st time I was green and although had been walking alot I was ill prepared really as were my walking buddies. It was wet and the low cloud meant navigation skills were put to the test. Missed the cut off at the lake by about 20mins and knew I was safer to walk away.

2007. 2nd attempt was in good weather and having done The Bens and Comeragh challenges in 06 we had learnt how to pace a long trek. We would have done the 3 legs seperately atleast once in the run up so an a good day navigation was not a problem. It took us around 11 hours.

2008. I was in 2 minds about doing it as I had a 4 day cycle coming up 10 days later. I was going ok on the ups but the descents were getting to me and after a tumble on the descent to Maum Oige I decided to call it a day. (though the walk out to the road was a hard slog). I had put to much work into cycle training to miss out.

My advice to anyone would be.
Be sure of your navigation skills or who ever is leading your group.Know the route.If you can get out there and walk parts of it.
Be sure your fit enough.(mentally as much as physically).
Equipment must be right. you could go thru all weathers on the day.
You carry your own supplies on this so be sure you carry enough food/water but do not overload.
Becareful not to get dragged into booting up the first leg as you will pay for it later.

Mountainviews website has route info

kuro2k

Yea I took part last year for the first time .... It took me over 13 hrs and I only reached the second last checkpoint with about 5 minutes to spare!

Its probably best to stick to fluids as much as possible on the day and eat as little as possible, your stomach will thank you during the latter stages especially on the final climb. I probably didn't do enough training last year and I will be back again this year for more pain

I would definitely recommend it!!!

ChazMichael

April 30th?... interesting, normally it's held late March/early April just after the clocks change meaning back to dark mornings initially, so the first 1-2 hours of the walk are done in the dark. As mentioned, this years date should mean not as much walking in the dark and hopefully better weather. (Although a few years ago it was a scorcher and people ran out of water and got roasted)

Last year we were hit with every weather imaginable, Snow, strong winds, side-ways hail, everything.
I find the descents harder on the body than the climbs such is the steepness of some, particularly the descent to the lake, (1st cut-off i think).
And what is it with the Maamturks and slipping and sliding. Everytime I hike there I end up on my ear at least a few times.

Preparation is key on this walk, make sure gear and food choice have been tested.
I've had a failed attempt on this walk too, I was a bit green also.

I definitely recommend the MountainViews resources also.
This walk is a great experience and you'll learn lots about yourself from a strength-of-mind/determination point of view. Enjoy!

CelicaGT

I Just Presumed The Challenge Took Place After Good Friday, Lucky I Just Read This Post & Re-checked The Dates!

This means I dont have to fast this year before the challenge which is great

Myself and a friend of mine did it in 2009 in 11hr 20min and we are going for it again this year, hopefully in a similar ammount of time if navigation does not slow us down.

Looking forward to it now, should be a good one!

DeepSleeper

It seems the organisers have decided for a range of reasons to push back the date from early April to the end of the month, though they didn't realise at the time the decision was made that it would now clash with the Leenane Walking Festival. Anyway, we can expect more daylight and hope for better weather... and it is still a Bank Holiday weekend to give two recovery days...

rabnif

Hi All,

I'm doing my first Maamtirks and obviously I have a list of the items that I plan to bring along but I wanted to know from the more experienced on here what full kit list you guys are bringing (in terms of food mostly but also the safety survival side of things)

Thanks

DeepSleeper

I'd suggest you travel as light as possible, but having said that I'd say you will certainly need:

• A map and compass (note that OSI sheet 37 does not cover the whole walk and if you stick with OSI you'll need three maps... consider using the Harvey Superwalker map of Connemara instead, though you'll need to be comfortable with navigating at a scale of 1:30,000 for this)
• A torch is essential
• A bivvy bag or survival bag of some sort - a simple orange plastic survival bag will do
• Waterproof jacket and trousers
• Hat, gloves and spare hat and gloves
• A spare thermal layer or light fleece just in case
• A watch
• A fully charged mobile phone (with lots of credit if pay-as-you-go)
• A small first-aid kit

Food and drink need thought too - you'll need a lot more calories than a normal walk and a couple of litres of water - even this might run short if the day is warm... I think some people carry water purification tablets on hot days so they can refill bottles with confidence at Loch Mám Ochóige

Remember, speedy accurate navigation is key so consider doing a route card before you go or else make sure you can take a bearing and measure the distance for a leg in less than a minute... If you were to take just 3 or 4 minutes to take bearing/distance for each leg in bad weather, then towards the end of the day you could easily be half an hour behind a walker of similar pace who was very quick with map and compass...

Good luck!

johngalway

Done the first two thirds of it on different days Planned to have a go at this but I done in my knee last year so that's that. The pull up from the Maam Cross side is tough enough going for a moderately unfit fella like myself But, it's easy from there on to Mam Ean (spelling) with a steep descent down that side. From Mam Ean to Mam Ochoige isn't anything too bad, bit steep up again but the tops of those two sections are easy enough, just bomb on really Can't speak for the rest of it as I've not walked it. Plenty of escape routes down to the Mam Ean road towards the N59 (ish - not looking at any map here) on both those sections. There's a nice bit of scree coming down to Mam Ochoige, by far the best fun I've had walking hills so far And a lot nice than the scree on the Bens as these are small stones, while there are some rocks on the Bens I wouldn't fancy chasing my ankles

Good weather, it'll be glorious, bad weather, it'll be a torment :pac: Know a fella who came 11th last two times.

Good luck to all going, enjoy and stay safe

(Bring sunscreen if the day is good, you will get burnt, speak from experience ).

Esroh

johngalway wrote: »

Done the first two thirds of it on different days Planned to have a go at this but I done in my knee last year so that's that. The pull up from the Maam Cross side is tough enough going for a moderately unfit fella like myself But, it's easy from there on to Mam Ean (spelling) with a steep descent down that side. From Mam Ean to Mam Ochoige isn't anything too bad, bit steep up again but the tops of those two sections are easy enough, just bomb on really Can't speak for the rest of it as I've not walked it. Plenty of escape routes down to the Mam Ean road towards the N59 (ish - not looking at any map here) on both those sections. There's a nice bit of scree coming down to Mam Ochoige, by far the best fun I've had walking hills so far And a lot nice than the scree on the Bens as these are small stones, while there are some rocks on the Bens I wouldn't fancy chasing my ankles

Good weather, it'll be glorious, bad weather, it'll be a torment :pac: Know a fella who came 11th last two times.

Good luck to all going, enjoy and stay safe

(Bring sunscreen if the day is good, you will get burnt, speak from experience ).

The escape routes are as tough as going on as they a long slog back to the Cars and I speak from experience

John dont you know its not a race its a Challenge;)