Roscommon resident who created new climbing record is nominated for award
Ellie Berrie has created a new record for climbing every mountain in Ireland over 600m. Pic. Courtesy Outsider.ie
A County Roscommon resident who created a new record for climbing every mountain in Ireland over 600m has been listed among the nominees in the Outsider Woman of the Year awards.
The annual Outsider Awards, established by Outsider, Ireland’s Adventure Magazine, celebrate the achievements, milestones and contributions that have taken place in the Irish outdoor community over the past year.
Nominees have been chosen and on Wednesday an overall winner, along with several category winners, will be announced at the Sugar Club in Dublin.
According to the magazine Ellie Berry (29) wowed the outdoors community this year when she set a new speed record for climbing every mountain in Ireland.
Ellie, who is from Tipperary and now lives in Roscommon, spent her summer solo-climbing all 275 mountains on the Vandeleur-Lynam’s list. That is mountains measuring 600m+, with a prominence of 15m. She chronicled her amazing adventures on Tough Soles, a YouTube channel and blog she runs with her partner Carl Lange.
It was Carl who had suggested the target to Ellie in the first place. "I have a really deep love for the outdoors and mountains,” she told Outsider.ie “When Carl learnt about this challenge, he thought it was perfect for me, though it took him a while to convince me to do it!”
Ellie completed the feat in 50 days, 5 hours 45 minutes, beating the previous record by almost six days. The part she loved the most? Spending all that time outside. “This project brought me to corners of the island I would otherwise never have explored and showed me just how incredibly beautiful Ireland’s wild places are,” she told Outsider.ie
Inevitably, there were some tough moments along the way, especially as the exhaustion took hold on the Dingle Peninsula, and the unrelenting weather wore her down, but she dug deep and kept going to the end.
What did she learn from the experience? “It feels so cliche, but to embrace the fear. Let yourself feel the big emotions or doubt, and then focus on the next step. It’s all about one foot in front of the next, until you get to that final peak,” she told the magazine.
* The Outsider Awards are sponsored by Sport Ireland Outdoors, Leave No Trace Ireland, Craghoppers, Salewa, The Sustainable Tourism Network, and Vagabond Tours.
