It's HOT. 23 Celsius outside, which is enough to make most Irish people melt. I'm going to go for a walk to get some vitamin D - it's a shame how much of life is spent indoors. I'm developing a wicked farmer tan lately, though. Brown just above the elbows, milky white at the shoulders. Getting ready for this Ten Peaks thing in a couple of weeks. I think my feet are about ready, but I'm more worried about my legs than anything else. I was instructed to update the poster with a picture of my face and a little blurb, which I found a bit embarrassing. Have a gander:
I had to get Google to do the conversion, the result being As someone from the southern U.S., LOL But on a more serious note, I do feel the pain of pale skin. The day my wife and I started dating, we had a conversation for about 45 minutes in our school's parking lot, which is surrounded my trees. We both got sunburn anyway. A couple of years later during a power outage, as an experiment my wife shone a flashlight on her bear stomach. The room got brighter.It's HOT. 23 Celsius outside,
73.4 Fahrenheit
But then again The Khmer empire was a big deal... and it's oppressively hot and humid there. I don't think I've ever been that hot in my entire life. I'd wake up in the middle of the night to stand under the shower and then lie spread eagle under the fan so I can cool down for 5 minutes. I drank 3L of water in 3 hours, without even needing to go to the bathroom when visiting Angkor Temples. When it's 45 degrees in the shadow and you see construction workers digging a ditch, you realize you're just a pussy westerner and you have no right to complain about the heat ever again. How they build a massive empire there is beyond my understanding. And it's not like they were building the pyramids in a temperate climate either.
I’m in Toulouse right now, and it’s a different fucking planet
I assumed it was actually hot. I used Google to translate some of our temperatures for perspective to the northern Europeans. In Georgia 35 C is a pretty regular high temp where I live in the same region. 40 C would not be unheard of but it's rare What do you reckon an average humidity down here is? I don't pay that close attention and just use my own personal misery index
Average? In the worst of the summer up where I am (Richmond is right at sea level and on a river), 90%+ humidity is far from unusual. An almanac I found has the average morning humidity at 85% or so for June, July, and August. Our average high is 30 C in June, 32.2 C in July, and 30.6 C in August (and 27.2 C in September).
Yeah, the climate here is typically very mild, and we don't cope well with extremes. Two inches of snow is enough to grind the country to a halt, and anything above the high teens makes us melt into sticky puddles. Still, I'm not one to complain! It's not often we get it.
You're not far from the Atlanta reaction to snow then. A few years ago we had a snowstorm during a work day and people were trapped on the interstate for 24 hours in some cases. But being a laughing stock to the rest of the country is sort of our thing. The airport lost power and had to ground all flights. A semi truck full of cows flipped over on the interstate last month. Some survived and were wandering around the road. We suck.
Quote from memory by Conan Obrien about being pale I joke in good fun. If you have a tan he's way paler than youI'm Irish so I'm genetically programmed to be working in a peat bog. If I go to the beach I have to wear SPF 1000. You open the tube and a sweater literally comes out.
There are actually some rather swarthy people in the west of Ireland who tan surprisingly well - supposedly from Spanish genes inherited back in the day when the western ports conducted a thriving trade. I don't know where I got mine, but it's the constant envy of my sisters, who resemble ghosts most of the year and lobsters if they go out under the sun.
Thank you for doing this. Mental health and suicide prevention is a cause I feel very strongly about. I'll make a donation once I'm home.
Much appreciated, Eng! Yeah, people are starting to wake up to how prevalent and debilitating mental health problems are. It's not long since depression and suidice in Ireland were in the category of "things that don't happen, and if they do we don't talk about them". Someone dying by suicide was a dark stain on a family, and talking about problems like that would probably end in your ostracisation. I feel like things are starting to get better, though, and people are becoming more open about things like this.
Your updates are always fascinating to read, ten in ten days is intense. Is there one that you're particularly looking forward to hiking? Also, you've got a new Instagram follower!
It's not just you. I really like Instagram, but it can be a double-edged sword, especially with nature photos. "Oh, this looks sweet and easy!!!". And then you go and do because you get hurt from being under prepared. It doesn't always accurately represent the conditioning or other barriers to entry for harder hikes and climbs. There's a recent article on this specific to the 14ers in Colorado. But, as a whole, for what I use it for, it is a great social media platform and tool for finding places to go or possibly even meeting people.
FTFY. I dunno. I hate Facebook and ads enough to keep me off there. But maybe I'm missing out... I do like to take artsy pics from time to time.It doesn't always accurately represent the conditioning or other barriers to entry for harder hikes and climbs. ... it is a great social media platform and tool for finding places to go or possibly even meeting people.
Do you have a link to that article? The double edged sword in the Adirondacks is the easy, amazing hikes are crowded on nice weekends, and then new hikers get in over their heads on the harder hikes. Crowding was discussed on the main High Peaks forum, and I realized I was alone on the summits of some of the most popular peaks. It turns out if you do them midweek in the off season, you can have the whole wilderness to yourself.
I do! It's here: There's at least two other, related articles I'll be posting in the next week.
I'll have to be more active on Instagram! I've never been great with social media, but I've also tended to focus on FB at the expense of Instagram and Twitter. I'm looking forward to all of them in some way, though particularly Carrauntoohil because it's the tallest mountain in Ireland. Many would scoff at calling it a mountain at just over 1000m, but hey, that's what we have! And with almost all of our mountains being on our near the coast, most of them are climbed from near sea level, so the views can be very dramatic. I'm very much looking forward to climbing Sawel Mountain in the north, it's a quick climb but it's in the middle of nowhere. But the Irish name carries a certain significance that I find hilarious. My friend/base camp/driver is named Méidhbhín, a diminutive of Méabh, who was a central character in one of our legends - the Táin Bó Cuailgne, or The Cattle Raid of Cooley. You might've heard of the hero Cú Chulainn; this is one of the stories in which he features. Anyway, the name "Sawel" comes from Samhail Phite Méabha, meaning "the likeness of Méabh's vulva". There's apparently a gorge up there that was involved in the tale somehow, and it looks like a...