Irish Adventurer of the
Year Awards 

Joan has now set her sights on another first and on the Everest of the sailing calendar the Vendee Globe 2020. Like a world Cup it only comes around once every four years and only the best will enter. Considering there were no women sailors the last time around 2016 and more people have gone into space it’s not hard to see why this race is class as the pinnacle of offshore racing.

McGurkin admitted “we were in the worst possible place at the worst possible time”. Fortune Favours the Brave and it was indeed in both sailors favour when the French fisheries patrol vessel Osiris was also close to their location and went to their aid. This meant the end of the race for both sailors.

For professional kayakers like Serrasolses and Dawson, kayaking in Pakistan is an experience like none other. “We felt so tiny in there, when you are surrounded by mountains higher than the highest peaks in our countries. It’s a unique experience, and one you can only come by in Pakistan. Things there are on a total different scale,” Heurteau said. Not only was the experience a pleasant one for the team, but just as many foreigners fall in love with Pakistan and its people, this team was no exception.

The peaks Eamonn reached for this challenge included not only the highest Ireland has to offer, they are also the some of the toughest. Apart from thick coarse heather he also had sharpe shale and slippery bog, all combined with lovely Irish weather. In his own words it was brutal”.

Apart from trying their best not to stumble across Farc Rebels the group were faced with surviving fist-sized spiders, jaguar encounters as well as the crippling hunger. While the four men were consuming about 1,000 calories a day, they were expending about ten times that with hours of kayaking and hiking. This resulted in them facing the harsh reality of severe hunger caused by minimal food rations. For most of the trip, breakfast consisted of a small bowl of porridge, followed by dried meat and fish for dinner, provided they could catch it. And if they did catch something the hope was it wouldn’t try to eat them first. Like the incident with an aggressive piranha which took a bite out of one of their kayaks or staring down a jaguar growling at them between an expanse of trees

In retrospect, filming, editing, and writing in a tent is at least as hard as doing it from a desk - but it's definitely more interesting!

By 11pm they were now in the dark and navigating by their deck compass, the brightness of the moon and a support crew of dolphins leading the way. As fatigue set in their were still 30km to from any known land and beginning to slow down, not near out of danger yet. With the sun rose high in sky again the they paddling past South Bishops Lighthouse 10km from their destination.

With an extensive CV and profile in the outdoors he truly a force to be reckoned with, summiting Everest no less than 8 times and completed the 7summits.

Gertie McDonnell, the mother of Ger McDonald’s (the first Irishman to summit K2) gave Jason an ascender device which would keep Ger in Jason’s thoughts as he move up the mountain.

K2 is renowned as the climber’s mountain. Many more people climb Everest but K2 is revered on a different level. K2 has a reputation, and even if you are physically prepared to climb it, you have to decide if you’re mentally prepared to commit yourself to climbing it. Many fine climbers have sadly died on K2 and that’s always a reminder of the risks. To Guide K2 was perhaps the biggest challenge he has had in the mountains, looking after a group with so many variable factors, in that unforgiving environment. According to Robert,” It’s not enough to be able to reach the next camp, you need to operate on a different level, looking after others, and planning ahead for the next move.

Relieved to catch up with each other on the other side, they both faced the steep climb up the very exposed Goutier Ridge. After passing his idol, Cónán reached the ridge before Séamus only to look back to witness his uncle marching up the French version of the ‘windy gap on steroids’. With emotions were high and Cónáns pride was comparitial to that of Johnny Sexton sticking one over the French bar in the dying seconds of a Six Nations, he bust in to tears with pride as Séamus continued to push himself to the summit. At 11am both men were sitting on top of the world, embracing each-others experiences while trying to soak in the views and emotions of their achievements.

Initiatives other than the 10,000m challenge that keep Dillon interested are, Ireland High Points Week and the many lists and sub lists on Kieron's websites. Dillon will be signing up again for 2019 and plans are been made already for another great year.

An inspiration to anyone and proof that there are no better people to share the wilds of the Ireland with than those you love most.

Inspired to take on the unknown and a simple desire to visit a wild place before it was gone, the crew essentially did it all for the love of adventuring for adventurers sake. Prior to the 3 month trip itself there were 9 months of methodical planning and preparation to ensure nothing was left to chance. Although there were low points like on-deck morale, spicy sailing weather in both directions and small confined ship spaces, the high over-shadowed them.

Her journey started off form the west coast of Cornwall, then over to Lundy Island, followed by Pembrokeshire before paddling across the Irish Sea to Rosslare and up the Irish east coast. Back over to Scotland from Glenarm, past Corryvreckan and through the Caledonian Canal to John O'Groats.

Ciarán was completely over the moon (and every mountain pass, boreen and bog road) after completing the run in only six days, three days ahead of his schedule time. With limited budget his support crew was his wife and rescue dog (Mary) who followed him in their van where he also slept at night. It was an amazing intro into both trail and ultra-running and he reckons he have definitely caught the bug for it now.

Alan does not see having had surgery as a way to make his trips any better than anyone else's, his passion is to inspire and show those who have had surgery like his what’s possible after if taking the right care of oneself. To see that a young person can keep having these amazing adventures and create these levels of fitness regardless for themselves. He is truly grateful for donors, surgery teams, family and most importantly loved ones. He has been on a tough journey one both personally and physically.

There are many fields, mountains, and woods on the Ireland Way but also roads... lots of hard underfoot roads which were tough on his feet. Every day was started a battle with his mental fatigue and at certain stages every step he took a lot of self-convincing. This forced him to both ask and accept help with was a massive thing for his personal mental development.

The event was not a race! It was non-competitive and the participants could take part in some or all of the activities. Starting the day at 8am cycling to Murrisk for breakfast in a hay shed behind Campbell's Pub. Participants join John to climbed The Reek for Mass on the summit. Then it was time to head out on to the sea at full tide, paddling around the inlet at Murrisk Abbey. Finally John leads the way by cycling back to Westport where everyone gets together again for a party at 9.30pm in The Clew Bay Hotel

Wake up calls consisted of sweet alarms going beep beep to being flung out of his slumber head first into the walls of the cabin, resulting in facial lacerations and bruising. A bitter sweet reminder of injuries from his rugby past one can only imagine. Rogue waves didn’t just strike when he inside the comforts of his luxurious (AKA tiny) cabin, that would be far too simple. Recalling the moment he feared would come to past, the white cap a massive wave breaking onto the boat caught Damian eye a he glanced over his shoulder. He knew this is it, his biggest fear had become a reality as the boat spun 360degrees. With only a split second to react he reached out and grab on to the Jack-stays line, and with one hand he held on for dear life (latterly as this giant of a man cannot swim and had not attached his safety line) and the only thoughts going through his mind were his affirmation to ‘squeeze your grip’. Once the boat had righted itself, the feeling of relief must have been surreal. Wake up calls consisted of sweet alarms going beep beep to being flung out of his slumber head first into the walls of the cabin, resulting in facial lacerations and bruising. A bitter sweet reminder of injuries from his rugby past one can only imagine. Rogue waves didn’t just strike when he inside the comforts of his luxurious (AKA tiny) cabin, that would be far too simple. Recalling the moment he feared would come to past, the white cap a massive wave breaking onto the boat caught Damian eye a he glanced over his shoulder. He knew this is it, his biggest fear had become a reality as the boat spun 360degrees. With only a split second to react he reached out and grab on to the Jack-stays line, and with one hand he held on for dear life (latterly as this giant of a man cannot swim and had not attached his safety line) and the only thoughts going through his mind were his affirmation to ‘squeeze your grip’. Once the boat had righted itself, the feeling of relief must have been surreal.

The night before setting off their tent was complacently blown over and Paul was sure they would have to abandon the mission. They started the paddle anyway and about 10 meters in our Hans Solo lived up to his name say Paul, capsizing and falling out of his kayak. Scared but not deterred the pair continued on once he got back in his boat.

The biggest challenge was the emotional side-trust, stress, anxiety, nutrition, breathing in the cold air and waves height, the lighthouse keeper gives the final go ahead on location because of the dangers of the waters-a few minutes before the swim he radioed and said that her zodiac could not come into the water with her and her rescue crew. If Nuala wanted to swim this far south of Cape Horn she would have to go alone with her command vessel following off her and as you can imagine this was not part of her plan!!!

In the outdoors there is a saying that ‘miserable is memorable’ and that was no different for this adventure as the lows of the adventure had to be the weather. Of 40 days of pushing, only 3 were dry and the wind was always the wrong direction. Early on in the trip he’d given up on wearing wet weather gear as it proved to be too restrictive and not being able to afford Gortex he ended up as soaked from sweat as he would from the rain. Not wearing rain gear wasn't too much of an issue at the beginning of the trip as the air temperature was fairly high and as long as he kept moving and maintained a good body temperature. This complacency nearly took it's toll and approaching Sligo Duane ended on the edge of hypothermia.

Her nominated charities for the swim were the North Connemara Social Services and All Saints Heritage Centre.

The Ulster County Top Challenge was 9 counties, 7 high points, 2675m of ascent, 47kms & took 23hrs33mins, while the Connaught County Top Challenge was 5 county high points, 2040m of ascent, 31kms & took 12hrs52mins.