10/12/2009 Off the Beaten Track

We're off on another hiking trail -

to Benaughlin Mountain.

The "Peak of the Speaking Horse" gets its name from the mythical white beast

who tells fortunes and haunts these slopes.

It's a cracking location for a walk,

just off the Enniskillen to Swanlinbar road.

It starts and finishes at the end of a forest track,

which gives easy access to the foot of the mountain.

It's a great introduction to hill walking,

with a minimum of effort.

It rises to only 370 metres -

but what it lacks in height,

it more than makes up for with huge panoramic views of the entire county.

And I'm travelling in elevated company -

heading for the top with three adventurers who trained here

to conquer Mount Everest.

-Great view over Upper Lough Erne there.

-It's fantastic.

Neil Elliott from Ballinamallard has climbed the highest mountains

on six of the seven continents.

He now has Antarctica in his sights.

Trillick publican Fergal Corrigan has come a long way

since his first ascent here in P5.

He's climbed all over Europe and loves ice routes in the Alps.

And their pal Raymond Hassard is serious about the mountains, too.

He's reached the top on five continents -

a far cry from the farm near Enniskillen.

And they love home ground.

Raymond and I started from school, as such,

and we met together through the Duke of Edinburgh Award at school.

Then we went on and met Fergal, you know,

at the age of probably 17.

And we, you know, had a like interest in mountaineering and climbing -

getting out there, doing things - and we've developed it

and we've been all round the world.

Whenever we decided to go off to Everest, it was brilliant

to go off with such a group of... You know, my two best friends.

And, you know, you knew you were always safe with them.

It's a passion we've had and it's been great. It's worked really well.

The first time I came up here was with an uncle and my old man,

and...it was an expedition in itself.

The heather and that was probably as tall as I was back then, but...

I remember finding money on the summit,

you know, that obviously someone had lost and they spun me

some story about fairies leaving money out or something like that,

so I kept searching the whole time I was up here.

The likes of this on your back doorstep's just brilliant.

It's a great stepping stone for anybody - any aspiring climber,

anybody who's just into hill walking,

who wants to do a wee bit of rock climbing or whatever.

You're in a fantastic area for that.

With myself, Raymond and Neil,

we sort of started off here.

It was a natural progression for us

to go other places,

but I suppose our friendship grew

alongside our climbing talents, as well, which was good.

The hikers' trail follows the contours around the mountain.

We're making steady progress,

but it was a very different story for Raymond

when he first tackled Benaughlin as a 12-year-old boy scout.

I remember coming up the steep section and just wondering,

would I ever get to the top? Was I able to get to the top?

And every, kind of, hill that you climbed,

you got round the corner and seen another hill.

Right the way up to the top, you weren't sure if you'd get there.

And when you got to the top, you were elated. You'd climbed a mountain! It was a big thing.

It's possible.

-That stuff's great whenever you're a kid.

-It definitely is.

Anybody who does any kind of walking,

whether it's just round the town,

you know, if they really want to get out into the hills, they can.

And it's not that big of an effort. You start off with forest tracks,

and then progress your way up to something like Benaughlin here,

or Cuilcagh Mountain.

And like you've seen there today, it was a fairly easy terrain.

There's a track almost the whole way to the summit.

And if you prepare yourself well, be sensible about it,

wear the correct footwear and bring a hot flask with you,

and bring rain-proof clothes and what have you,

it's a safe place to be.

And who knows where it all might end.

Benaughlin was the spark that took the men to Tibet in 2006.

For years, going up through the various mountains that we climbed,

we would talk about the Himalayas and Everest.

And it was a case of, I wouldn't go out there, just pay the money

and join an expedition that I didn't know anybody in.

If we were going, we were going together.

We would support each other because we trusted each other.

And the team spirit among us backed each other up,

so we felt safe.

We know our strengths and we know our weaknesses

and we can rely on each other, we have done in the past.

And certainly, it was one of the major, major things

of our success on Everest.

I mean, we were going to have a good time

whether we got to the top or not.

But Everest is a killer

and thin oxygen at altitude took its toll on the boys,

including Neil.

That was hard work.

Hard, hard work.

Well done.

I think I'm just going to...go and lie down and die here.

We're as close friends as ever,

um, the likes of any of our mountain experience's down the year,

we've always made more friends out of them, actually.

And it's a great place, it can be difficult at times,

but you actually see people's real values

and whenever you get people together and times are tough and hard,

everyone gels together.

And that's always been the case.

If anything, we're better friends, not worse.

We don't, probably, see as much of ourselves during the week now,

you get busier with life,

but there's always someone at the end of the phone if you want to call someone,

you're going to do something, there's someone there

to jump up and go and do something.

And with the gentle patchwork of rural Fermanagh laid out below us,

we're on the last leg of the hike.

You can take this mountain at whatever pace you want.

If you want to train hard for a mountain like Everest,

you just come here and you go faster

and you go longer distances.

We usually take in Cuilcagh from here as well

because we want big days and endurance,

so we put on heavy packs and carry big weights

so we can go to Everest as quick as possible.

But it's great that it's on our doorstep.

Here's us just coming up to the trig point now.

Yeah. And that's one for a Sunday afternoon

to work off the dinner, isn't it?

Anybody could manage that.

Absolutely, you know, an hour probably, something like that,

you could be up here from the road down there.

So it's brilliant, like. It really is.

It's just pretty as a picture -

360 degrees of beautiful Fermanagh.

And the big mountain, the big boy, Cuilcagh in the distance, there.

Yup.

Lovely.

Many's a time we tramped across those hills.

And many more to come.

If you fancy a breath of fresh mountain air,

why not give it a go?

Just log on to...

where you'll find route maps, advice about how to tackle the walk safely,

and useful links to rambling clubs in your area.

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