Curve Gully

Today I had two clients, Eric and Barry, who wanted to do a day of scrambling on Carrauntoohil. Gale force winds were forecast from lunch onwards, so we had an early start.

The road to Lisleibane is now officially a river bed! Lots of white, raging streams rushing from the high corries as we walked into Hags Glen.

We grabbed an early lunch part way up O’ Shea’s Gully, then put on harnesses, helmets and a rope and scrambled up Curve Gully. Curve Gully is a narrow, steep gully, which curves up and around the north face of Carrauntoohil. It’s a mixture of loose scree, grassy slopes and several rock steps.

As we climbed up we could hear the wind whistling and wailing over the top of the steep walls. Reaching the top of the gully we climbed out into a buffeting wind and hail. The summit only thirty steps away.

Right on 1pm the wind really picked up. Fair play to Met Eireann, very accurate forecast! At this stage we were heading down the easiest way - Devil’s Ladder - and were back at the cars for 3pm.