Climbing Carrauntoohil, Ireland's highest mountain

Jen walking the ridge near the top of Devil's Ladder.

The pace while we were in Ireland was relentless, especially for me with meetings at the University on top of the outings with Jen. After a busy day Thursday (student presentations, my own seminar talk, other meetings at U. Cork, and beers Thursday night with students), the last thing I wanted to was rush out on Friday (our last day) and do something challenging. But when Friday morning came, by 8.30am when I woke Jen, we both knew that we needed to do something. So after breakfast, we rented a car and drove back over to Killarney to climb Carrauntoohil, the highest peak in Ireland. Given our late start and surprisingly bad traffic, we didn't get to the trail head until 1pm, at which point the summit was in swirling clouds. Nonetheless, the weather never got worse than some wind, though the clouds persisted, and the well-worn path to the summit made the route a straightforward one. On the way down, we continued past the Devil's Ladder, which is the route up, and came down the zigzag trail on the other side of the Carrauntoohil cirque, which is recommended. After dinner in Killarney, we were back in Cork by 8.30pm, with enough time to shower, pack, and relax a little before heading to bed for a 4am wake-up and the marathon trip home.

Looking down the valley on the way up.

Looking down from Devil's Ladder

Devil's Ladder taken on our descent. This is the standard way up Carrauntoohil and is class 2 in the dry condition we had.

At the summit.

Jen walking down from the summit on a well-worn path.

That's me standing above the Devil's Ladder. We continued on up the next knoll, along the ridge a little further, and then traversed down into the cirque just below the mist.

This is the trail on the far wall of the cirque in the picture above.

Chilling while waiting for Jen on the walk down.

Carrauntoohil from below.

Carrauntoohil in clouds, which is about what it was like most of the day.