Snowy Doan

On a cold Friday evening in February, my dad comes homes and tells me that the Mourne Mountains have some snow on them. That was enough to prompt me to go for my first hike of 2026 up Slieve Doan - the mountain I find the easiest and quickest to climb while also being the most familiar to me. My reasoning was simple - I just survived 4 days in New York at the end of January when temperatures were as low as -20C so surely the Mournes can't be that cold, obviously ignoring how treacherous it could possibly be!

As I passed Spelga Dam and got closer to where I would eventually park my car to start my hike; the roads became suddenly icy and the hills stopped having merely a coating of light snow and instead sported full-on snow caps. The start of the trail is typically gravel with the occasional stream flowing through or next to the path that might leave a puddle. What would typically just be an exercise of avoiding puddles getting my boots wet was now an event out of the Winter Olympics as I feared every step I took.

What is typically a mile trek up to the Mourne walls looking over Lough Shannagh that takes around 45 minutes now took well over an hour as I battled the ground I walked on. But at last we made it and so I could really admire the interior Mourne Mountains absolutely coated in white - a sight up until now I had never seen. As I went over the wall stile and pressed on with my hike, I naturally gravitated to the route I would typically take heading towards Doan going right and down towards the lough. However, as I quickly learnt, this trail had not been broken yet and so I would be the first to make my way through snow that went up to my knees at points and over small frosted over ponds.

Eventually I did make it back to the trail that leads directly to Doan through the peat bogs. Here I would meet my biggest challenge yet - the remnants of stream beds that once flowed through the peat beds but are typically damp in other seasons were now a massive ice rink instead. Thankfully someone before me had already broken the ice in parts so I could follow their (absolutely massive) footsteps and onwards to begin the climb up to Doan's summit. 

Even after everything I'd been through so far, I was optimistic that I could get to the summit of Doan. However, my hopes would soon be crushed as I ventured further up the mountain where the trail got smaller and icier, at times finding it easier to break through the snow and going straight up to the next part of the icy tracks instead of continuing. Before long, I was at the final push to reach the summit - a section of Doan which even in good weather requires grabbing onto the exposed rocks for leverage. However, with the combination of the icy rocks and the bitterly cold winds now that I was approaching the very top of Doan against my exposed hands, it just didn't feel safe to continue without being a feature on the six o'clock news.

So I turned back and slowly and steadily traipsed back the way I came towards the peat bogs and back up towards the Mourne walls. However, this time I mistakenly took a different, off-trail, route and ended up mistaking an icy bog pool for a safe bit of ground, sinking half a leg into the freezing cold water water and nearly getting my boot stuck in the process. Now I was freezing cold, , and a boot that was full of water as I continued the 1.5 mile hike back to my car with my head down avoiding the piteous looks of fellow hikers.