As usual, I’d been keeping a close check on the weather. Surprisingly we’d ended up with snow at home and I chickened out of making the drive to the mountains on that snowy Tuesday. I sent word to a friend to see if they fancied joining me on the Wednesday morning – weather dependent of course! As confident as I am at hiking, I’m not quite so confident, driving on snowy/icy roads! Of course, it didn’t help that my, once trusty Twingo, had been testing my nerves prior to that day with a flat battery and tyre puncture!

I woke on Wednesday morning to find just a little ‘skift’ of snow covering our avenue. A quick text went out, and the morning hike was confirmed with my friend. Confidence of snow in the Mournes was high, and as nervous as I was about the drive to actually get there, my excitement began to bubble! I just love the mountains in snow. We don’t often get snow here in Northern Ireland, so when it does come - some of us go a little bit nuts. However, it didn’t take long for my excitement to be replaced by nerves … I couldn’t get the Twingo out of my driveway!

Flat battery.

Thankfully though, I’d been keeping jump-leads in my boot in case of such an emergency! We managed to jump-start the car and, very tentatively, I drove us off and towards the hills.

My hands were shaking and my heart was racing. To my utter relief, there wasn’t much sign of snow on our journey. But, there is one turn on the road, just as you come to Spelga Dam, that I was totally and completely dreading! I knew there’d be snow on the ground by the time we got there; you are well into the heart of mountain country by that point! Sure enough, as we approached the Dam, the road turned white, along with the colour in my face!! The closer and closer I came to that tight, uphill turn, the louder I screamed. Just before the bend there was a mound of - what I now know, was grit – and in a mad panic, I swerved the Twingo around it! No sooner had I passed the grit that I realised it was exactly what my tyres needed to successfully take the turn! Cue yet more screaming (only from me, mind you) and some immense praying! I dropped into first gear and practically screamed my car up and round that awful bend!

Once successfully through that ‘hurdle’, I felt brave enough to tackle anything! Good job too, as the road was getting whiter and the surrounding hillside was covered in beautiful, beautiful snow. Having snow down on this level meant that the higher we would climb, the deeper it would get. We pulled into the wee car park at Spelga, stepping out for a breather and to soak in the scenery. The air was crisp and cold, and well … just blooming wonderful. Blue skies and passing clouds set off those snow-covered hills like an incredible masterpiece. It was fairly slippery underfoot and a brisk wind saw us returning swiftly to the warmth of the car!

From here, our planned car park (Ott) wasn’t too far away. I was pretty confident we’d make it there ok. Well I was confident until we turned off the main road.

Whiteout.

I put the Twingo back into first gear and pep-talked myself with every inch forward that we gained. Not only was I afraid of the car sliding in the snow, I also couldn’t stop thinking about the very real prospect of, what if she didn’t start when we returned from our hike?! We could see only one other vehicle in the distance, and jump-leads only do their job if there are two cars! What if it ended up that we were the only car in Ott car park?! I had a daughter to collect from school back home before 2pm!

As it turned out, I needn’t have been concerned about being in Ott car park at all. While we were slowly inching our way along the road, the guys in the oncoming jeep could be seen waving their arms, signalling for us to turn around! The road ahead was impassable.

Jeepers.

Ok.

What now?

Firstly, how the heck was I going to turn the Twingo?!

And secondly, what were we going to do now?!

We had just passed a tiny car park; though, one that was near enough to the main road that we could wave someone down if the Twingo wouldn’t start and would also mean that we wouldn’t need to travel that treacherous road any further! Don’t ask me how on earth I got the car turned around, but I did! No slips or slides, and I pulled her into the little lay by, while simultaneously breathing out a huge sigh of relief. We could see a stile and what looked like a path leading up into the Mournes and I rationed that we’d be ok to head up, knowing that Slieve Loughshannagh would be on our left … eventually. Absolutely no risks would be taken as I had a strict time limit to adhere to. No chance would I be caught stranded in the mountains when I needed to be home to collect my daughter from school!

After gearing up, I said a little prayer for my Twingo before giving her a little tap on the hood, and off we headed into the unknown – well, it felt a bit like it anyway! I’d purposely chosen the route from Ott car park as you can get to the Mourne Wall fairly quickly. That way, if a blizzard suddenly reduced our visibility, we’d have the wall to follow. Dad and I had had that exact experience just a few weeks prior! We took a note of the time and gave ourselves two hours to trek.

It didn’t take long for the snow to deepen and, with no set path for us to follow, we just headed in one general direction. It didn’t matter which way we looked … everywhere was white. We had to take extra caution on the untouched snow, you just never knew how far down your foot was going to go! There was something really magical about our boots being the only ones imprinting on the landscape. No other footprints did we find, except those of – what we guessed were – a hare.

Incredible.

As we climbed higher, we could see Ott car park in the distance. Once we knew our bearings were good, we checked the time, and made a plan of action – we were headed for the summit of Carn Mountain. I knew that once we made it up and over the wall at the top, we’d get a truly stunning view.

It didn’t take too long for us to clamber our way up to the top, and just wait until you see what greeted us …

View of Doan, with Bearnagh hiding beneath the clouds

I simply cannot put what we witnessed on that morning into words. I could try, but words fail me. In those moments, I was totally and completely speechless. Snow had been drifted and contoured by the wind onto the Mourne Wall in the most breathtaking way. We stood on the summit, breaths laboured and mouths hanging open in total awe. I’m not sure I’ll ever forget that.

And, that wind.

The wind was fierce! It was ravaging the summit and we could hardly stand straight! That same wind was causing the clouds to whirl right past us, through us even! What a surreal experience. The clouds seemed to race across the sky, enveloping even the highest of mountains into their cover. The blazing sun, burning them up - giving us, delight after delight: uncovering the snow-capped mountains above, below and all about us.

To God be all honour and all glory!
The heavens and earth sing of Your splendour!
Moments like this, stood high above the world,
I feel Your presence so powerfully.

Words just cannot do justice to that view, that day. I checked my watch and let out a groan as it was time to make our descent, and as much I had to take special care descending in such deep snow, I couldn’t stop lifting my eyes up and over the wall and to the mountains. Our entire descent was littered with audible signs of just how incredibly beautiful our hike was - “woah” and “this is so crazy!” – and I felt overwhelmingly blessed to have been able to be in the Mournes, on that particular morning.

As you can see from the photos below, the snow was as high as the wall in places and I seriously regretted not bringing my sleigh!

Just casually leaning against the TOP of the wall lol!

As we approached the Twingo, I was praying and praying and praying she would start! We were ok for time for me to get back for Phoebs, but I absolutely didn’t fancy having to wave down a passing car to help us jump-start her again!! Praise Jesus … she started! Off came the hiking boots and after a quick cuppa in the warmth of the car, we were off home.

We could see the snow was already beginning to thaw and I was reminded once again of just how lucky we had been to experience this day! I can’t imagine there will be much more snow (certainly none like this) for the foreseeable future here in NI. This is the first time though, that I’ve felt like I’ve made the extra effort to get up and out, and experiencing the Mournes likes this. I cannot wait to bring Phoebe next time!!