Scaling New Heights “Simon’s light had gone out having moved out on to an arête, 1,000 metres high on a knife edge. We were on the west face of Anoch Mor Mountain in Glencoe, Scotland. He was in complete darkness. I was waiting for him to get across, I was getting hypothermic and sick. I was certain I was going to die. I called Mountain Rescue when his light went out and but they said they were sorry, they couldn’t come up because the storm was too bad, they wished me good luck!”
Á
ine Hynes reflects on the moment in 2012 when she thought that she and her husband Simon had reached the end of the road on an ‘ice climb’ in the Scottish Mountains. As with all good Hollywood blockbusters, Áine and Simon lived to tell the tale and incredibly made it down to safety without any assistance, some 12 hours later. The DSBA’s current President remembers the moment very clearly and now finds comfort in the experience, every time a difficult issue crosses her desk. “When things are really serious at work, if I am ever really stressed; I sit back and know it is not a life or death situation. I know I have faced the biggest fears that anyone can face.”
When things are really serious at work, if I am ever really stressed; I sit back and know it is not a life or death situation. I know I have faced the biggest fears that anyone can face
Áine Hynes is the eighth female president of the DSBA in 80 odd years (she points to the fact that the Law Society has had only three female presidents in 170 years), but she is also one of a very rare breed of female mountain climbers in the country and was crowned Ireland’s Female Master Bouldering Champion in 2015. Áine began climbing at the tender age of 40 when she and her husband were due to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. At the time, there was a concern that Áine wouldn’t be able for the climb, as she was scared of heights! Of course, she immediately caught the climbing bug and has spent much of her spare time since then, when not running a successful legal practice, climbing cliffs and mountains that most of us can only imagine. Her
26 the Parchment
026-029_Parchment_Spring_2017.indd 26
28/03/2017 11:50 a.m.