| I set off after work for the camp on the summit of Carn Mountain. As it was still early March and the clocks had not yet went forward I knew I would be hiking up in the dark by the time I drove to the Mournes. Thankfully there was a break in the rain at least for the time I would be hiking. I parked in Ott car park and set off up Ott track. At this stage there was just about enough light left for me to see without a headlamp. There had been a huge amount of rain earlier in the day and in the days previous so the track was very wet. I decided to wear my gaiters to prevent my walking trousers from getting covered in mud before entering the tent. I knew it would be very wet the whole way up. By the time I got to the top of Ott track and began ascending onto Carn Mountain itself it was completely dark and I was in thick cloud. It was quite eerie as even with my headlamp I couldn’t see anything except where I was putting my feet. I wasn’t concerned about this lack of visibility though as I knew I just needed to keep moving east and I would soon reach the Mourne Wall that I could then follow to the summit. It didn’t take very long to get there. |
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 I wore my gaiters due to the very wet conditions. |
 I pitched beside the wooden steps on the summit. |
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| Based on the wind direction forecast I knew I needed to pitch on the west side of the wall. There wasn’t a lot of space due to the large number of big rocks so beside the wooden steps was my only real option for pitching. I was a little concerned about this. I knew it was very unlikely that anyone else would be up there before I left the next morning but I decided not to peg down the front guy line on my tent in case it created a trip hazard in front of the steps. I knew that the temperature was set to plummet to well below freezing in the early hours of the morning but as always I knew that my Thermarest and Down sleeping bag would keep me snug. There was strong wind and hail before I fell asleep but despite this I did manage to fall asleep without difficulty. I think the more times I camp in strong wind the more I get used to it. |
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 The next morning was bitterly cold in The Mournes. |
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 My Thermarest and Down sleeping bag to keep me snug. |
 The ice on the bottom of my sleeping bag. |
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| It was around 5am I was rudely awakened when I stretched out in my sleeping bag and put my feet into a block of ice. I immediately got up to investigate and found a pool of water and ice at the bottom of the tent. My sleeping back was solid ice at the bottom. It took me a little while to work out what had happened then I remembered that I had not pegged down the front guy lines. These lines attach to a little flap covering the front air vent. By total bad luck and wind direction the flap must have blown backwards and allowed rain to blow in through the vent. I used my wooly hat to try and remove as much of the water as possible but at this stage the damage was done so all I could do was stay curled up at the top of the sleeping bag where it was dry until daylight when I could pack up. The morning was bitterly cold when I got up. From the very wet conditions the night before to the sub zero conditions that morning my tent poles had all frozen together. I had to use the warmth of my breath on each joint to prise them apart so I could pack up and start decending to warm up. |
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| Check out my long term plan to camp on all of the Mourne 500’s here | |||