It’s loose, which means it can be fine one minute and then if I have a little fall or a jerk it can move. I had a couple of slips on the way back down. “In terms of pain, that’s where I started to feel it. He ended up raising a couple of hundred euro from that one act.”Ĭroagh Patrick is not Nikki’s favourite mountain, and it was there that the first cracks started to show. He ended up donating quite a lot of money to our GoFundMe page and he messaged everyone in his phonebook and asked them to donate. They had heard about my story and they wanted to walk to the base of the mountain with us, which I thought was the most incredible gesture. The man, Paddy, had Ewings twice and, unfortunately, he lost his entire leg as a result. They came over and introduced themselves. Straight away, I knew the man was an amputee. “When we reached Croagh Patrick, I noticed a man and a woman walking towards me. Like when it happens you’re punching things and you want to scream the house down but then it’s gone.”īut Nikki got a boost when she reached Croagh Patrick. It’s like a really extreme version of stubbing your toe. “It’s the type of pain that when it hits you it’s all you can think about that moment. It’s like a really extreme version of stubbing your toe.” “It’s the type of pain that when it hits you, it’s all you can think about in that moment. So, psychologically, we weren’t firing on all cylinders, but we knew this was going to happen,” says Nikki. And to top it off, just as we were coming up to the summit, we witnessed a cloud inversion which was absolutely incredible,” she recounts.Īfter that, it was straight into the car for the three-hour drive to Croagh Patrick. “It was stunning it was the perfect first climb. Starting with the toughest, Nikki set off on a seven-hour trek up Ireland’s highest peak, Carrantuohill (1,038m). Nikki’s goal was to raise €50,000 for three charities, The Irish Cancer Society, Action Cancer and The Ross Nugent Foundation. The 32 hours that followed were filled with pain, elation, fatigue and freedom. Her latest challenge was to climb one of Ireland’s most iconic mountains back to back – Nikki’s Four Peaks Challenge.Īt 6 am on 21 July 2018, along with Irish army soldier Billy Fanneran, mountaineer Iain Miller and boyfriend Ian Parke, Nikki set off to climb Carrauntoohil, Croagh Patrick, Slieve Donard and Errigal. Meet the Revolutionary Women Who Became the First Female Porters on the Inca Trail In recent years, Nikki has completed the Fan Dance Race, a gruelling 24km trek through the Brecon Beacon in Wales, climbed a route of the Sólheimajökull glacier in Iceland, abseiled into a 45-foot ice cave and she also became the first woman to abseil off Fanad Head Lighthouse. Despite this, the adaptive adventurer is no stranger to a challenge.
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