The 2016 review

Happy New Year! As we embark upon our 2017 journey around the Sun, now seems like a good time to look back at 2016. It certainly was an eventful year for Highpointeering and the High Point Ireland community. The website and book were one year old on 5th December. We welcomed new Completers to our growing community (including some record-breakers). The website received more than 10,000 visitors. We introduced the first of our annual awards categories. And, the website itself even received an award. Not bad for our first year.
 
Certificates of Completion
 
The following people were awarded Certificates of Completion in 2016 and have been added to the Completers Register. The relevant Gribbon sub-lists and completion years are included here in italics under their names:
 
(G) = Gold; (S) = Silver; (B) = Bronze

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Polly Mollohan
Provinces 2012(G), 2013(G) & 2016(G)
Counties 2013(G), 2013(G) & 2016(G)

Mark O’Leary
Provinces 2016(S)
Counties 2016(S)
 
Dillon Lynch
Provinces 2016(S)
Counties 2016(S)

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Patrick O’Brien
Provinces 2016(B)
Counties 2016(B)
 
Martin McAlinden
Provinces 2016(B)
Counties 2016(B)
 
Kieron Gribbon
Provinces 2008(S)
Counties 2010(B)

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If you have completed the Gribbon list or any of its sub-lists, and have not yet received a Certificate of Completion, feel free to request one from us. Find out more about our Certificates of Completion.
 
Certificates of Excellence
 
On 6th November 2016, Polly Mollohan became the first person we know of to complete three rounds of the County Gribbons. Polly completed her third round at the summit of Benbaun in County Galway, the same place she completed her first round in 2013.
 
On 11th September 2016, Dillon Lynch became the youngest person we know of to complete a full round of the County Gribbons. Dillon was 9 years and 132 days old when he completed his round at the summit of Trostan in County Antrim.
 
A very special congratulations to Polly and Dillon on your achievements, and it was lovely to meet you both in 2016.

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Website performance
 
As part of the High Point Ireland mission statement, we are committed to reporting voluntarily, regularly, publicly and honestly about website performance. In our reports, we quote both the number of unique visitors AND the total number of page views to be sure there is no confusion or deception. We could easily cheat by quoting some exaggerated numbers we've just plucked out of thin air in an attempt to impress you, but we're not like that. Instead, our figures are accompanied by analytics graphs which clearly demonstrate variation throughout the relevant period of time. During 2016, the High Point Ireland website received 11,789 unique visitors and 55,145 page views.

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Annual awards
 
In December, we announced that we would be acknowledging the efforts of individual hillwalkers who visited Gribbon locations and completed sub-lists during 2016. This new points-based award category is called “Highpointeer of the Year” (the first of our annual award categories) and gives special recognition to the three highest-scoring Highpointeers. Despite the short notice, we received entry submissions from some truly inspiring individuals before last night's deadline. We will be announcing the Gold, Silver and Bronze Award winners in the next few days.

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Highly commended
 
The High Point Ireland website was Highly Commended in the Digital Production category of the 2016 Outdoor Writers & Photographers Guild Awards for Excellence. The Guild's membership includes professional writers, journalists, photographers, illustrators, broadcasters, film-makers, artists, web designers, publishers and editors - all with the common bond of a passionate interest in the outdoors. As a collective, the Guild's members are involved in a wide range of projects all over the world. To have been highly commended in these Awards truly is an honour and a major achievement. In fact, High Point Ireland is the first Irish website ever to receive an award from the Outdoor Writers & Photographers Guild. Kieron Gribbon, creator of the High Point Ireland website, has been a member of the Guild since 2010 - click here to view his profile.

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Going forward
 
2016 was a year for building the website, starting to introduce it to the world, and sowing the seeds of our new community.
 
In 2017, High Point Ireland will be taking several leaps forward. You will see a considerable increase in activity from us on social media. Our blog will establish itself as a leading news outlet for our growing community. New awards categories will also be introduced.

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Most importantly, we will be doubling our efforts to raise money for the Irish mountain rescue teams represented by Mountain Rescue Ireland: you can help us to help them to help you. There are many ways in which you can support our fundraising campaign, and we will be adding even more ways in the coming weeks. Find out more about our fundraising campaign.

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We wish you all a happy, healthy, peaceful and successful year in 2017.
 
Best wishes,

High Point Ireland.